GHOST REVERIES

Ghost Reveries was my first introduction to Opeth, and boy, what an introduction. Like every Opeth album, Ghost Reveries takes time and repeated listening to fully appreciate, this isn't music that immediately jumps out at you, it reveals its beauty and intricacies with every subsequent listening, and thus has great longevity. Opeth's music matures with time, like a fine vintage wine...anyway, this latest offering has all the hallmarks of a great Opeth album - Mikael Akerfelds extroadinary growling and clean singing vocals (in the field of progressive metal the only two other vocalists on the same level for me are Maynard James Keenan and Daniel Gildenlow), excellent musianship and virtuosity, a stark and beautiful contrast between savage death metal and gentle acoustic interludes, huge towering riffs, and typically epic songs that regularly stretch over ten minutes. Ghost of Perdition is the opening song, and it sets a precedent for the rest of the album - a melancholic single chords drifts ominously for only a few seconds before there's an explosion of ferocious death metal, accompanied by Mikael's bowel-churning growls that can peel paint off cars, which typically macabre lyrics. The song constantly evolves and mutates throughout its epic duration, and theres a distinct Tool influence around a minute or two in, i was left thinking `hey, this sounds an awful lot like The Grudge..', which is cool, since The Grudge is an awesome song anyway, so who cares? Ghost of Perdition really is one of the best opening songs i've ever listened to, and is right up there in terms of quality to other Opeth greats like The Drapery Falls. Marvellous darling! The Baying of the Hounds is up next, and commences with a rollicking, meaty riff thats rather catchy, it follows the standard Opeth pattern, but there's some lovely vocal melodies a few minutes in when Mikael switches to his ever-improving clean voice. The `quiet' parts of this song are longer than those in the previous one, but that only serves to strengthen the brutal climax when it arrives. Another Opeth classic. `Beneath The Mire' opens with a funky carnival esques tune, and alternates between sections of guitar driven metal. Vocals kick in around 3 minutes if i recall correctly. There's an awesome guitar solo somewhere near the end, i can't remember where exactly, but its damn good. Not quite as monumental as the two previos tracks, both in terms of quality and length, but still great. After the strength of the previous three songs, you really don't want a respite from all the death metal ferocity, you just want Opeth to bludgeon you into submission with another classic 10 minute belter, but they give you one anyway, and this is where the album comes apart slightly. `Atonement' pales in comparison to the epics that preceded it, and its rather quite boring. Although its only 5 minutes, which is pretty short for an Opeth song, it seems to drag on for too long. There's middle eatern-tinged riffs and processed vocals, but nothing that really stands out. Thankfully they redeem themselves quickly with the next movement, `Harlequin Forest'. The focus shifts from growling to clean singing, which is always welcome, since Akerfeltd's got one of the most beautiful natural voices in the whole of the prog genre. At 11 minutes the song never drops below utterly stunning...ness. Although the end is a slight dissapointment, it kinda fades out without much of an impact and desevred more of a sonic punch, it still owns your ass, and is probably the best song on the album, with ghost of perdition a close second. SUBLIME! `Hours of Wealth begins with a wonderfully wintery, delicate feel, complete with what sounds like snow bells...alright! Effortlessly segues into Mikael's always evocative clean singing. This is what Atonement should have been. Excellent! I never grew to like The Grand Conjoration, it just seemed a bit too hammer horror for my tastes, with the cheesy symphonic stuff and the death metal cliche satan lyrics. Not a fan. `Isolation years' ends the album, and what a splendid way to end!!!! A lovely sweet riff washes over Akerfeltd's typically thoughtful and poignant lyrics about lost love. beautiful. So to conclude, Opeth have outdone themselves once again with another sterling effort, producing an immediate classic, and one of my all time favourite albums. Highly recommended to all fans of Death Metal, prog metal, or just metal in general. A contender for title of best Opeth album, along with Blackwater Park, and a stunning addition to their formidable catalogue. How they keep producing such consistently brilliant albums on such a consistent basis is a testament to their greatness. get it now, you heathen.