GHOST REVERIES

"Ghost Reveries" is the eighth studio album of Opeth and was released in 2005. Musically, the album is similar, in style, to their sixth studio album "Deliverance". Still, it retains also the atmospheric elements of their seventh studio album "Damnation". So, it became to be a mix of both albums, with heavy parts with growls, and soft parts with clean vocals. The final result is an album that carries a more gothic sound than what was heard in their two previous musical efforts.

"Ghost Reveries" was initially intended to be a conceptual album, with tracks linking together a story of a man's turmoil after committing an unconscionable act, symbolised by killing his own mother. However, the album only partly portrays a concept. It wasn't arranged in the same way as their two previous releases "My Arms, Your Hearse" and "Still Life".

"Ghost Reveries" is the first album of Opeth to include a keyboardist, Per Wiberg as a permanent band's member. However, Wiberg had already contributed with some keyboard work to Opeth's live performances, which starting around the time of "Lamentations: Live At Shepherd's Bush", released in 2003. By the other hand, "Ghost Reveries" is also the last Opeth's album that includes their drummer Martin Lopez and their former guitarist Peter Lindgren.

So, the line up on the album is Mikael Akerfeldt (vocals, rhythm, lead and acoustic guitars and mellotron), Peter Lindgren (lead guitar), Per Wiberg (Hammond organ, mellotron, grand piano and moog), Martin Mendez (bass guitar) and Martin Lopez (drums and percussion).

"Ghost Reveries" has eight tracks. All songs were written and composed by Mikael Akerfeldt. The first track "Ghost Of Perdition" is absolutely amazing. It starts with a few quiet chords and then explodes into a progressive death metal track. As the song progresses you are introduced to Mikael's beautiful clean voice. This is a song full of great vocals, good chord progressions and excellent musicianship. The second track "The Baying Of The Hounds" starts with a catchy guitar riff accompanied by an organ. This is probably, with the previous track, the two heaviest songs on the album. They're more dead metal songs than the majority of the other tracks on the album. But, they also have some soft moments with clean vocals. The third track "Beneath The Mire" starts with a drum feeling leading into a riff accompanied by strings. After that, the track breaks into slightly slower paced dead metal. Again, the track breaks into some more heavy parts with Mikael using his clean voice. This is probably the strangest song on the album. The fourth track "Atonement" is the first mellow song on the album and it's also the most experimental too. It sounds very Oriental and Mikael sings clean through the song and uses a telephone talk voice. This is a very catchy track, cleverly written with a nice piano in the end. The fifth track "Reverie/Harlequin Forest" is a song with a chord progression of the verse. It's extremely catchy and has a great Lopez's drumming. The song proceeds with great guitar work and Mikael's clean vocals. The song continues with great harmony turning into in one of the most beautiful songs on the album. The sixth track "Hours Of Wealth" is a very beautiful song with a guitar driven, with the addition of Per playing a mellotron over it. The song is complemented by beautiful vocals and acoustic guitar, piano and bass works. Sometimes, the most simple is the best on a song. The seventh track "The Grand Conjuration" is another great track with good drum and keyboard works. It's a song that changes between the heavy to the light, all over it. It's a very typical Opeth's song that sounds right off "Still Life". It's really a song with some great heavy and good light parts. Despite be one of he the heaviest track on the album, it's one of the most accessible pieces of Opeth too. The eighth track "Isolation Years" has a very melancholic feel. The lyrics are some of the most poetic that I've ever heard from Mikael. This is a great way to ending this album. It really relaxes the listener with its wonderful melodies and arrangements, very similar to "Damnation".

Conclusion: "Ghost Reveries" is, in my humble opinion, an album with amazing song writing, with its song length and the diversity of the musical styles involved, absolutely stunning, with incredible vocals, excellent riffs and drumming, beautiful soft parts, with everything combined together by a unique and dark musical atmosphere. The great highlights of the album are, for me, "Ghost Of Perdition", "The Baying Of The Hounds", "Reverie/Harlequin Forest", "Hours Of Wealth" and "The Grand Conjuration". The album has a great commercial potential, yet it's at the same time a truly progressive album and it stays, in my humble opinion, true to their musical roots. This might be an evolution into their music and "Ghost Reveries" can be considered a fantastic album which can easily compete with their classic stuff like, "Still Life" and "Blackwater Park". By the other hand, the addition of a full time keyboardist adds an extra dimension to their sound. This wasn't certainly a good thing for some of their most hard fans. Probably, with this album Opeth will lose a lot of long time fans. However, they probably will gain more listeners than they may possibly be able to lose.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

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