Åkerfeldt is pretty open about it in interviews. He jokes about it on stage but apparently some fan behavior really pisses him off.

Opeth was once my fav band , and its cool to read that people dont understand what someone else try to say ;D

Them being desperate is also an assumption, as is thinking that the growls are there solely for the sake of buzz and not because it fits the themes of the album

How do you know Opeth are frustrated? Admittedly they've made a big deal of tellign everyone the growls are back so maybe they are desperate to draw back their older fans. It's not working with me though.

Yeah Mikael (and any musician for that matter) can do whatever the fuck he wants with his own band.

I have no idea what cynic is trying to say 🤔

Band's can play whatever they want. They don't exist for your personal pleasure, k7. The issue with Opeth is that both the band and its fans are equally frustrated with the situation. We were just spitballing other approaches.