Ghost Reveries

Product Information

Heh, The Grand Conjuration. This is the song that came out and everyone was like "OMG Opefth iz teh d00med!". There's about six minutes of good material here, dragged into ten. There's good drum work and keyboard work at 1:20. Then there's heavy, then light, then heavy, then light. It's a VERY typical Opeth song, sounds right off Still Life. It's got some killer heavy parts and good light parts, but it's about 2-4 minutes too long. As it should happen, all of these themes are well translated into creepy, brutal, melancholic melodies. The first notes in the album, from Ghost of Perdition, already tell you all that should be said about this work. They speak of no hope, of that eerie calmness after destruction, and when the first riff explodes, along with Mikael's growl, comes the brutality that you expect from such an album. The traditional acoustic parts serve several purposes, and yet they are mostly sad or downright creepy, and this is a pattern followed by the whole album. The acoustic and heavy parts are randomly played, but the progression is never forced. Then comes "Beneath The Mire", starting with quite possibly the funkiest segment Opeth could ever produce - it sounds more like Farmakon, to be honest, who are usually like a jazzier, if less melodious clone of Opeth anyway. Mellotrons and funk drums flow behind Peter's on-off guitar riffage for about two minutes, and we then get Mikael's best heavy vocal melody of the album. A recurring blast beat from Lopez gives the edge Mikael needs here, before going into the proggy guitar and emotive, clean vocals for a while - "you'd cling to your pleasant hope, in it's twisted fascination." After this, comes Per on piano while Mikael has a short, sweet solo reminiscent of the one he gives in Porcupine Tree's "Arriving Somewhere But Not Here". Mikael switches to acoustic for a moment before leading us into the maelstrom once more - a great death scream and some inventive drumming bring us to another catchy, melodious section with heavy guitars and clean vocals. Finally, the guitars rise and fall like a tide, leading into an ending rich with off-kilter time-signatures and Pink Floyd style guitar experimentation. Another excellent song that shows the band's mature exploration of progressive themes. I had intended to do a occult concept piece lyrically and got off to a great start with some downright evil lyrics like "The Baying of the Hounds" and "Ghost of Perdition", then I did "Isolation Years" which had nothing to do with the intended concept but I liked it so much I decided to ease up on the concept idea in favour of this one lyric. Why I decided on a occult theme? Well, I've always been intrigued by it, especially Satanism and stuff like that. I studied some books that oddly enough my wife had in her collection like "Servants of Satan" as well as "Witchcraft and Sorcery" + some more. I figured it'd be interesting to see what a mature 31 year old mind would make of this subject as opposed to the 16 year old kid who used to pose in front of his Bathory poster. I'm quite happy with them to be honest, and they're... evil!" [9]

Mikael remains respectfully reticent on the subject, but it’s clear Martin wasn’t in the best physical or mental state when Ghost Reveries was being assembled. Vocals are entirely pointless. They might as well be an instrumental band, because these vocals serve no purpose for anyone. The so-called harsh vocals are completely annoying. It's one of those moments where a decent song is ruined out of someone's need to be involved. The clean vocals are somewhat needed, however overused. The cleaner vocals only fit in well in certain areas. Opeth manages to miss almost every single area, and they fill that area in with bluesey guitar riffs.

Statistics

Isolation Years. Opeth sure can make ballads, and IY can prove that rough music, growls, and double-base can’t be the only thing a (metal) band’s capable of. Very good lyrics. Overall, this album has a load of awesome sections, a couple great sections, and a very few only mediocre sections. Mostly the problems are stretching songs out too much and clean vocals where deathy ones woulda worked better. This, my friends, is probably the biggest injustice ever committed within the metal circles, as unjust as all the critics Metallica got after releasing the (great) Load album.

Listy przebojów - Muzyka w INTERIA.PL - teledyski, koncerty, nowości płytowe, dobra muzyka, listy przebojów". Archived from the original on 8 October 2013 . Retrieved 8 August 2014. Oficjalna lista sprzedaży:: OLiS - Official Retail Sales Chart". OLiS. Polish Society of the Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 14 February 2014. The rhythm section, led by Martin Lopez on drums and Martin Mendez on bass, isn’t very exciting either. It seems that Lopez has become substantially more robotic in his drumming techniques, and the bass is often not clearly audible.Drowned In Sound's Top 46 Albums of 2005". Archived from the original on 16 June 2021 . Retrieved 1 March 2021. Nowadays, Opeth is one of the most criticized band within the metal circles. Mikael Akerfeldt probably is one of the best metal composers at the moment (perhaps I'm a fanboy, but oh well) and he is constantly criticized and accused of selling out - first because of the Damnation album and then because of the signing with Roadrunner; he is criticized because all Opeth songs are too complex and disjointed; he is criticized because Opeth is now loved by the same boys and girls that scream “Metal!” when listening to Avenged Sevenfold.