OPETH — Ghost Reveries (review)

OPETH — Ghost Reveries album cover Album · 2005 · Progressive Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
Phonebook Eater
Opeth is one of the most highly regarded metal bands of all time. They have radically changed the genre since they’ve been around making albums. “Ghost Reveries” is one of their latest albums, released after the two big masterpieces, “Still Life” in 1999, which was the perfect definition of a death metal album widely veiled with progressive, and 2001’s “Blackwater Park”, their most accessible and solid album, keeping the heavy riffs and the prog influences. “Ghost Reveries” is the perfect follow up to BP; Saying this, I can add that this album is one of the best and most solid Opeth albums.

Akerfeldt and his band bring everything they had put up so far to a new, more advanced level, and in every way they try to bring everything up a notch under every point of view. All the heavy riffs are heavier than the ones from the past, all the softer songs have never been softer, the experimentation is used much more frequently, sometimes even utilizing some unusual instruments, bringing up the shadows of Pink Floyd, King Crimson and such. With all this put together, you can’t expect anything else but a brilliant album. Almost everything about this is great, the songwriting, the musicianship (I never noticed it before, but that Martin Lopez can really bang the drums), the at times quirky arrangements in the middle of the songs.

Stylistically, this is the most representative album by the band, the album that perfectly synthesizes their sound. The violent and strong riffs are enriched by Akerfeldt’s amazing growl vocals, the more melodic parts are beautifully dressed with clean vocals, the instrumental parts very open, like I mentioned earlier to experimentation and progressive influenced. Almost all the songs, except the two soft ballads, are long, from six to ten minutes, and all of these have, even though each one is extremely unique, a very similar song structure. “Ghost Of Perdition” is very possibly my favorite Opeth song, the ten minute track opener, which is always able to surprise and move, regardless of the completely different moods that form this song. “The Baying Of The Hounds” is another ambitious song, with the most experimental part in the middle of the track. “The Grand Conjuration” is a grandiose and spooky masterpiece that will soon become an Opeth classic, “Reverie” is the longest song, probably the most ambitious song, thanks to the many calmer parts. “Atonement” a tense but somewhat beautiful with always in the air a tragic sense of loss and resign. All these songs are compositions that, if you appreciate any type of metal, will sink in you subconscious, to never be forgotten.

“Ghost Reveries” is one of Opeth’s greatest and most original albums, a major piece in their highly praised discography.
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