DELIVERANCE

First things first. I dig the songwriting here, a lot, even though I'm not totally used to death metal songwriting. It's great here, as, for every (crushingly) heavy part, the band follows it with something so serene, so mild, like the calm before the storm.

My fave song? I dunno. Probably WREATH. One of the most well-written metal songs I've ever heard. A well-executed drum fill, headfirst into a blazingly heavy riff. Riff after riff ensues, with Akerfeldt is full growl mode. The difference betweem him, and, say, Glen Benton (Deicide) or Erik Rutan (Hate Eternal, ex-Morbid Angel) is that I don't really need the lyric booklet to understand what he's saying. But his growls pale in comparison to his clean vocals. When he DOES sing cleanly (this record is split 50-50, roughly), his singing is a thing of beauty. Warm, high-pitched, with an incredibly melodic tone.

Instruments are incredibly well-played, and I have to mention Lopez here while I'm at it. Lopez is rough and heavy when needed, but when the band shifts into a clean part, he's as delicate as can be. There's something about his cymbal work near the end of the title track that does obscene things to the hairs on the back of my neck. Can't figure it out, but I like it.

Now here comes the bad part. It's a big one. As I wrote in a previous review, I DON'T like the sound of digital productions. Sadly, this is what makes me knock this record down from 5 to 4 stars. It all seems too...well, planned-out, jaded, somewhat lifeless in spots. I know it sounds bad, but the production (courtesy of Steven Wilson AND Opeth) seems to drain some of the life and spontaniety from the songs. And these are some LONG songs. Hopefully, GHOST REVERIES sounds more organic.

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