Ghost Reveries

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The guitar work is really excellent, especially the riffs, though there is some good soloing too (The Baying of the Hounds, The Grand Conjuration). Ghost of Perdition and The Baying of the hounds have both more than one memorable riff, but nothing here can surpass the main riff of The Grand Conjuration. Beneath the Mire has an odd intro, one that isn't always likable, but it is nevertheless undeniably interesting. Keyboards are mostly well used, in quantity and timing. There is, perhaps, a bit too much use of mellotron, but it is not that problematic. The drumming is very varied, and this is what stands out the most. There are some really good groove bass lines, like the ones in Ghost of Perdition and The Grand Conjuration. To the other guys, it was a big relief to record in a studio where everything worked and also having a very hands-on producer,” says Per. “It’s better for the band to be able to concentrate on performances and arrangements instead of the technical aspects of recording, I’d say. That instantly made things less stressful than previous recordings.” Another key factor that makes Ghost Reveries what it is, is the top notch production, one of the best I've ever heard. All the instruments are audible (the bass is a bit low, however) and the album has a powerful sound, with the guitars assuming, obviously, the biggest role. The keyboards aren't too loud, but they are still there, very audible, also assuming an important role on the record, giving, as I've already said, a fresher and warmer atmosphere to the album. The drums sound great too, we finally hear clearly Martin's bass drums, yay! Bipolar does not only define Opeth's characteristic sound. It is also applicable to the quality of their works. Reflection of that, Ghost Reveries is not a perfect release, and there are several problems with it, but the good songs have the capacity of compensating that.

The Grand Conjuration' Video Posted Online". Blabbermouth.net. 2 September 2005 . Retrieved 2 June 2014.I was hoping for a step closer to (and beyond) Deliverance as that was easily their most metallic offering. True, Ghost Reveries has its moments where it can be said to be more metallic than most of their other albums, but there’s just too much Damnation in here for my taste, and way too much filler. I’m still looking for some Opeth-music I can bang my head to. This just didn’t do it for me, sorry. Opeth's lyrics always deserve some attention, and in Ghost Reveries, this remains true. Mikael Åkerfeldt writes elegantly about the themes mentioned above and does not fall much in the trap of the silliness found in most satanic lyrics. The Baying of the Hounds is an example of well written Devil worship, with Satan seducing the main character ("Everything you believe is just lies/Everyone that you love is a dead burden"). The Grand Conjuration also has some well-thought verses ("Tell me why/Love subsides/In the light/Of your wish"). Harlequin Forest has some strong imagery to convey the feeling of being trapped off the main character. Not all is dark (or malignant dark), though, and Isolation Years brings out that sad, poetic side of Åkerfeldt that would be so prominent in Watershed.

I am sure that I wasn't the only one who was afraid when Opeth signed with Road Runner. So after hearing this, yes I am relieved, but even more amazed that they can pull it off once again. It is amazing how a band can release 8 albums and still be making great music. Lets face it, even some of the so called 'Great metal bands' of our time haven't been as consistent as this. Atonement: This is the first all mellow song on the album and also the most experimental. It sounds like it is straight out of Egypt with the use of mellotron, djembe's, and a very egyptian sounding riff. Michael sings clean throughout the song and uses that "telephone talk" voice throughout the verses.The chorus is simply Mikael hitting a beautiful, high sustained note and Per complimenting him on the mellotron. Lopez's drum work on this is very nice and well thought out with the use of foreign drums. Very nice, chilled out song and is a much needed rest after the last three onslaughts. 8/10The album only partly portrays a concept, not fully arranged in the poetic manner as previous releases such as Still Life and My Arms, Your Hearse. The already mentioned main riff of The Grand Conjuration is spectacular. It is a simple riff, but genius work. It is, simply put, evil. And during this song, there is no mellow part to relieve you from the oppressive mood. When the music is not exploding death metal in your face, it is making you beyond tense with sounds of a ritual going on, a creepy guitar, and Åkerfeldt singing in an eerie calm tone. The drums are superb, and much in the same line of the guitars. The intro and outro contain some really, really good bass. When the music is exploding, Mikael growls like the Devil himself. What makes this a great song is the fact that despite it being reasonably simple and even repetitive, everything works to immerse you in the conjuration. This is an example of a song that delivers what it promises. Grand Conjuration, indeed. Ghost Reveries is the eighth studio album by Swedish progressive metal band Opeth. It was released on 29 August 2005. It was their first album after signing with Roadrunner Records, and first album since Still Life (1999) to not be produced by Steven Wilson. [3]

Basically, it all boils down to one thing: their music is boring. Opeth are masters of crafting seemingly endless, plodding songs that are completely and utterly boring. Initially intended to be another concept album, Ghost Reveries has something to do with a man who kills his mother, and Satan is involved because gotta love those metal stereotypes. The idea wasn’t fully carried through with, resulting in the “concept” being no more than the repetition of a few words and phrases scattered throughout the songs (e.g. “the hounds” and “the mire” are repeated often during GR). Either way, the common words and lyrical themes create a unifying effect, helping to hold together an album that is already quite cohesive. Considering the current musical course of the band, I have strong doubts we’ll ever get anything near this or Watershed ever again. An unfortunate fact (in my opinion), which definitely raises the value of these records – maybe even more so for Ghost Reveries than Watershed. Ghost Reveries is a special landmark which I recommend to any and all music lovers. By incorporating so many elements into such a cohesive yet multi-faceted whole, Ghost Reveries justifies its length and achieves its ambitions. Although some of the album’s satanic themes have not aged particularly well over the thirteen years since its release, it is still a benchmark for modern progressive death metal that continues to show just how much potential the genre has for exploration and expansion. Hours of Wealth: This is a beautiful song. Purely Beautiful. Very guitar driven with the addition of Per playing a mellotron over it. Eventually the song is complemented by Mendez's bass work which is very simple yet beautifully executed. Less is more at times. Per really takes off on this one when the grand piano enters after around 2 minutes. At the 2:30 mark all stops except for a few chords on the piano and Mikael delivering what sounds to be one of his most heartfelt vocals yet. This song is then ended with Mikael delivering a very smooth and beautifully crafted "blues" guitar solo and a long one at that. It is one of my favorite songs on the album. 10/10 (sometimes less really is more)

Silly listener, because right from that, Opeth went all in with growls, double bass, and heavy guitar chugging! I knew that this drive through Florida was going to be one to remember about a minute in. From there came “The Baying of the Hounds” and “Beneath the Mire” which are both absolute perfection. A flawless blend of savagery and beauty that we have come to expect from Opeth. Newcomer Wiberg shines with many organs and mellotrons, adding a whole new layer over the guitars and rhythm section. Let me start by stating the obvious: Opeth isn't exactly the most accessible metal band around. Too boring for those who only need METAL!!!1 and too extreme for the fans of lighter genres, it takes either a fair amount of patience, or an unusual enough taste to appreciate. Ghost Reveries doesn't change this at all, with five large, complex compositions and three shorter, calmer songs working, as great as they are, as interludes more than anything else. Still, there's plenty of those, including the one writing this, who really enjoy thorough digging into the creations of Mr Akerfeldt and co., and the reason is simple enough – it's extremely rewarding in every way. The journey we're taking on Ghost Reveries isn't exactly an optimistic nor a simple one – we're dealing with ghosts (in the more spiritual meaning rather than the fantasy one), solitude, guilt, and even occultism at more than one point. It takes time and patience to fully get into the world presented here, but the way it is presented makes it worth the effort entirely. Mikael:“ Atonement has become a great live song over the years. We like to jam that one out, and it gives us a lot of freedom. The Grand Conjuration is one of my favourite Opeth songs to play. It’s so heavy and straightforward, and we don’t have many songs like that… and it’s really not a nu metal song, I promise you.” Next is Atonement, a purely soft song. However, it takes the Egyptian/Middle Eastern vibes of the last one and amplifies it greatly. The result is a great song with a good groove and awesome piano and guitar and bomgos, I think. Problem is, it's two minutes too long. It'd be great if it stopped at around 4:30 by quietly floating out, or even at around 5:20 with the soft noises fading out, but it keeps going. It's not that bad, but it could be shorter. Otherwise, freakin' awesome song. The best concept to define Opeth, at least up until the release of Ghost Reveries (or even Watershed, though that could be stretching a bit), is bipolar music. There's no difficulty in seeing why. Anything that contains death metal will, of course, be brutal, but Opeth goes beyond this and gives beauty to their songs. Aggression and beauty here walk in parallel ways, occasionally crossing paths, joining their apparent contradictory faces in a new one.

Lopez: He really mixed things up on this one. He made consistant use of many different styles of drums, beats and techniques and really helped create something unique. His drumming single handedly made this album a much stonger personal experience for me. He practically sets the grooves and does a damn good job at it. As for the production, I’ve heard better ones. It’s beautiful if the music creates a bit of “gap” between you and the music. But Ghost Reveries sounds so close and direct, it’s like they’re pushing you against the wall. Also, everything sounds so sorted out and under controle. Computer-generated silence, lead and rhythm guitar at exactly the same volume, the growls even seem to sound softer than the clean vocals. It would be more beautiful, and less boring, if it were a bit rough. This album just seems too decent, especially for an EXTREME prog band! 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. To begin with sound structure, Ghost Reveries is quite similar to previous Opeth works, with the same diversity between heavier, softer, and thoroughly mixed structures. Guitar work is definitely one of the better aspects of the performance, with some heavy riffs and surprisingly energetic solos (which are unusual in for Opeth’s work). Drumming is pretty good as well, and is what you would normally expect from the band. Unfortunately bass guitar is well-hidden and usually indiscernible in most of the songs. While this isn’t uncommon for metal nowadays, I would like to have heard it more. The one aspect of the music that is not to my satisfaction is the use of keyboards, but I will return to that in a moment.

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However, the once poetic, often-harmonizing duel guitars are nowhere found in Ghost Reveries. Even so, the electric guitar riffs are not very powerful, the acoustic/clean guitar passages really are not hypnotic as on albums past, the solos, although good, are nowhere near as epic as they once were, and the overall musical structure led by the guitars is not very coherent. Ghost Reveries displays some of the best song writing the band has put out to date, which is saying a lot. Opener, Ghost of Perdition, is a fine example of a song with almost permanent replay value, which in the end is what matters most. If you can still listen to an album months and years after buying it, the band has done something right. The Baying of the Hounds is another lengthy good listen but the album begins to slow down after that. Atonement is just sort of boring, not bad but doesn’t seem to fit properly with what’s around it and doesn’t offer any new aspects to the music. Hours of Wealth on the other hand is an acoustic song that does work really well. It sounds sort of like a Damnation highlight. Just as you thought it was safe to doze off and have a nap, your ass gets a hard beating by The Grand Conjuration. It’s the heaviest song on the album and offers up that death growl from Mikael Åkerfeldt that fans know and love. After this we get Isolation Years which is another all acoustic piece and a great conclusion to Ghost Reveries. What falls away slightly in this regard is the atmosphere that harried listeners of 'Still Life' and 'Deliverance', whereby the sense of discomfort, longing, danger, and regret evaporated and a wistful tone takes its place, which is less gripping and less suitable as a complement for the heavy passages. At times, the change is a success, such as the soaring opening of 'Harlequin Forest', which produces two majestic verses and refrains before gradually melting into dull acoustic wanderings, a rather uninspired doomy section and a final moody polyrhythmic outro riff. It all smells of lost focus, which might be a deliberate product of a song about a weird forest, but the drift of consciousness should still hold my attention and it doesn't do that, losing me (I almost wrote betraying me) more than once after the great start. This is symptomatic of the album as a whole, where the intial ideas aren't followed up in a suitable manner, or the quality starts to dip as the song progresses. From Opeth's point of view, this kind of inconsistency must be infuriating, since they clearly did have some golden ideas, just not someone with an objective vision to decide what was suitable. The signs were all there for the band's transition to a different sound, since the following album 'Watershed' proved to be even more fractured, while 'Heritage' dropped all of the extreme metal influence and went for broke with the progressive side of the band. Lee, Cosmo (13 September 2005). "Opeth – Ghost Reveries – Review". Stylus Magazine. Archived from the original on 4 August 2021 . Retrieved 1 March 2021.