GHOST REVERIES

Ghost Reveries is the eigth full-length studio album by Swedish progressive death metal act Opeth. Opeth had signed to Roadrunner Records before recording Ghost Reveries and thereby taken another step forward in their career. There´s been a change in the lineup as keyboard player Per Wiberg is now a member of the band. The use of mellotron and organ on the Damnation (2003) album was obviously something main composer Mikael Åkerfeldt wanted to explore even further.

The music on the album is unmistakably the sound of Opeth. Mid-paced crushingly heavy yet clever riffing, acoustic sections, growling and clean vocals and as usual some complex song structures. The addition of keyboards was something I feared when I heard about it the first time. I´ve always enjoyed that Opeth´s sound didn´t feature keyboards and I was afraid how the outcome would be. As it turns out Per Wiberg´s playing is very tasteful and his use of vintage keyboards actually gives Opeth´s sound yet another dimension ( who would have thought that, that was possible?). The album is 66:46 minutes long and features 8 songs ( the special edition also features the Deep Purple cover Soldier of Fortune). 4 of the songs exceed the 10 minute mark. There´s a couple of new features on Ghost Reveries that Opeth haven´t tried before in the psychadelic tinged Atonement. A song it´s taken me quite some time to appreciate. After some time I´ve begun to really enjoy the variation it brings to the album. An album that was already the most varied album by Opeth up until then. Hours of Wealth and the beautiful almost ballad type track Isolation Years also really stick out. The main attraction on the album is the 5 longer tracks though and they are of a very high quality. Ghost of Perdition which starts the album is a strong track. The Baying of the Hounds and Beneath the Mire are also crushingly heavy yet varied and complex in structure. The same can be said about Reverie / Harlequin Forest which features lots of progressive sections and quite a lot of clean vocal sections. The Grand Conjuration is the most heavy and brutal track on the album and it´s also the track that´s taken me the longest to appreciate. Not because it´s too brutal but it´s the only track that doesn´t feature extensive clean singing and for a long time I felt it wasn´t varied enough. It´s still my least favorite track on Ghost Reveries but I´ve come to appreciate it more with time.

The production on the album is clean and enjoyable. Heavy yet well defined.

Opeth´s albums are like long adventurous journeys for me and it´s taken a couple of years for me to be able to review Ghost Reveries. I´m glad I gave it time because the album has grown on me in those years to a point where it´s one of my favorites by the band. While still maintaining their unique signature sound Opeth have succeeded in expanding the bounderies of their style again. Ghost Reveries is a masterpiece in my book and fully deserves a 5 star rating.