Ghost Reveries

Description

Limited 180gm audiophile vinyl LP. Includes poster and four page booklet. The eighth full-length album Ghost Reveries by Swedish heavy metal band Opeth is the epitome of what metal should be: a work of art. The album is filled with heavy, intricate, and precisely performed guitar riffs. You can't avoid the monstrous riffs in a song like 'The Grand Conjuration'. As the band's main composer, Mikael Åkerfeldt successfully managed to transfer his dark emotions into all those twisted solos, surrounded then by a wall of even thicker riffs. Opeth's technical capacity mark them out from both their followers and their peers and accordingly Ghost Reveries is definitely one of the greatest metal albums ever recorded. This album is a culmination of everything Opeth have worked toward throughout their career. It's fully realized, stunningly beautiful and emotionally fragmented. The highly successful Swedish metal band Opeth rose to fame in the early zero's, after releasing a couple of fan highlights. Review: Still going strong. - Opeth has been my favorite metal band pretty much since I discovered metal. After all this time, they still take the cake and do what they do best. They have evolved like any band does, but that original metal spice is still going strong. In this album, I've really noticed a more progressive rock background. I think it's some Porcupine Tree influences along with all the other prog-rock bands they're influenced by coming out a bit more, and their experimentation on Damnation still lingering around on this album. There is even a new band member doing nothing but Mellotrons, Organs, and Pianos. These instruments don't really have their own solos or prominent melodies that much, but are constantly in the background adding that essential, newfound layer to the music. On the other hand, Mikael still has the best death vocals I've ever heard. If you're gonna growl, GROWL. Don't grunt, don't half-sing... Mikael does it right. Comparing to Blackwater Park, Deliverance, and MAYH though, this album has less of a "percentage" of heaviness I guess. It's comparable to Still Life or even Orchid in that sense. But the heavy parts and growling retain the Opeth seal of Quality and are as heavy as ever. "Ghost of Perdition" starts off with about 5 seconds of calm, progressive strumming before exploding into chaos. The first minute of this album is probably the absolute heaviest; Opeth like to give you a false preview I guess. It then dishes out one of those super sudden ultra-heavy to ultra-soft moments as Mikael begins singing softly aside calm acoustic strumming. The rest of this song keeps switching between death metal and prog-rock so much it makes your eyes cross. In a good way, of course. "The Baying of the Hounds" is an instant Opeth classic and the best on the album. The beginning part is more upbeat than most Opeth songs, it has an incredible rhythm to it much like "Master's Apprentices" or "The Funeral Portrait" but with keyboards in the background that seem so necessary underlying the growling vocals. It leads up to some great clean vocals shortly after and then goes into a much softer section with clean vocals and keyboards, but that heaviness you're craving inevitably returns at just the right moment, with that sharp metal edge the band still unquestionably possesses. This song gives me chills all over again just like "Bleak" did when I was first discovering the band and I'm sure it will match the power of your previously favorite Opeth song as well. "Beneath the Mire" begins with mellotrons like you'd hear on Damnation but with heavy guitar riffs going at the same time. It then changes into an incredible display of acoustics and distortion. This song really goes all over the place and completely changes its flow very suddenly. I'm talking very heavy sections that just stop before you could see it coming and vice-versa. You get the vibe of a certain texture or atmosphere just in time for it to backflip on you. They did this on a few songs in Deliverance too. But I assure you this is excellent songwriting; Opeth know how to make it work extremely well. It's a riddle for the ears. "Atonement" is the soft song of the album. Instead of being folk-influenced like before though it is full-blown prog-rock. It's got playful little percussion with a tinge of a middle-eastern feeling and a very tranquil atmosphere. An awesome guitar riff flows throughout and some dainty piano playing at the end. "Reverie/Harlequin Forest" This song is so huge it's very difficult to explain. I guess it's kind of like your "typical" Opeth song, nothing very out-of-the-ordinary. Typical like a vast, novel 10+ minute progressive masterpiece shifting into different moods, switching between death growls and spine-chilling clean vocals on top of amazing riffs, breaking down into well-prepared folk-inspired acoustic instrumentals. You know, that kind of typical. I guess this is probably the only song here that might fit on Still Life or perhaps Blackwater Park. The keyboards and mellotrons are somehow missing here and the folk-influence is visiting again. It gives you a good reminder of past accomplishments. "Hours of Wealth" is another calm song. It starts with a calm, acoustic melody, continues on and turns into a trance-inducing atmospheric section with layers of keyboards, then shifts into almost an a cappella session with just a few keys being pressed, then turns back into a melody similar to the beginning. "The Grand Conjeration" shifts moods and portrays a much more menacing feeling. You'll love that sudden absolutely crazy guitar solo somewhere in the middle. "Isolation Years" is practically a lullaby; a short piece with the most high-pitched clean vocals I've heard Mikael do. It's decent. All in all... this "observation" is an incredible display of the three elements of Opeth (prog-rock, metal, folk) wrapped beautifully into one package unlike ever before. A lot less folk, actually, but still. I would say this might even be the most accessible Opeth album to date, (not including Damnation because it wouldn't necessarily lure the listener into the other albums) without being the least bit "poppy" or a "sellout." If you're an Opeth fan already, God only knows why you haven't picked this up yet. However if you are not, I still think Opeth are the gateway to death metal and this would be another perfect album to start with. Review: Watch me try to look smart! - Well, here goes. I purchased this item on September 17, 2005 which was just a very short while before my 18th birthday. Like other people, I had been skeptical after hearing "The Grand Conjuration" on an internet stream, and I thought Opeth had sold out. Like the last reviewer, I was too pleasantly surprised by the release of this work of art. If you look at it from a technical point of view, TGC is a pretty basic song considering the masterpeices Opeth have unleashed in the past, however considering the context of which the song fits into the album as a whole solidifies it's position as a solid song. I refer to it as "The Unleashment" song whenever it comes onto my cassette player in the car, because the calm song Atonement finishes, and this one busts in to give you one last glimps of Opeth's brutality before putting your diaper back on with the last track of mellowness, Isolation Years. Even the clean songs were masterfully done, Isolation Years could easily have become a radio single as well as Atonement. Atonement seems to be a very old-timey sounding song, with a very pleasant vibe. Nice soaring vocal lines as well in both mellow tracks. The heavy tracks are where Opeth truly stands out. The introductory gut-buster known as Ghost of Perdition introduces some strange new style that I don't think any true fans of Opeth were really expecting. Some happy-sounding clean vocals really took us by surprise, but looking back seems to make the track just the bit more exciting, and the rest of the epic unfolds from there. As most of you know, they recruited a new keyboardist named "Per Wiberg" who worked with Spiritual Beggars... He seems to be very talented and really added a whole new wall to what is the mansion known as Opeth. Yes, that analogy made me giggle also. Well, this is possibly one of the best albums of the new millenium so far, and is definately worth buying. Also check out Nevermore's "This Godless Endeavor". Opeth toured with Nevermore before, and they are both very fantastic bands.