Ghost Reveries
by Opeth
Sycamore Public Library call number:
CD HEAVY METAL OPETH GHOST
Tell us about it: Opeth has seen a steady evolution in their sound since their debut
Orchid in 1995. Said album being a relatively violent (albeit poorly-mixed) death metal album with black metal influence, each album after would begin to include more and more clean vocals, psychedelic influence, progressive influence, less death metal and more melody, eventually all coming together and reaching a recently done prog. rock sound that had been established on 2011's
Heritage. There were two albums that had flagged this coming new sound;
Ghost Reveries, released in 2005, and
Watershed, released in 2008--
Ghost Reveries being the more death metal-esque and popular among long-term fans of the two albums.
So, first off, the sound done on the previous album to be released before this,
Damnation (a sound similar to
Heritage, containing no death metal influence and going for a much more prog. rock style) is abandoned in place of a softer version of the style done on the album
Deliverence, an album considered to be one of the band's heaviest and most violent. This album embraces a lot of styles done by the prog. rock bands of the 70's. Many riffs, drums patterns, and vocal styles as well as the heavier use of organ and keyboards showcase this.
Starting off with what has always been my favorite aspect about Opeth's music: the vocals. Mikael Akerfeldt is an awesome vocalist and I have yet to get tired of either his fluidy death growls or his very gothic-esque clean singing. While his growls keep the same tone of aggression that has always worked for this band, his clean vocals have improved vastly. On the previous album,
Damnation, Mikael had put much more emotion into his voice, something very clear when you compare it to the somewhat pale clean vocals of some previous albums. Here, he builds upon that further and adds much more sorrow and depression to his singing, making for genuinely heartfelt-sounding singing. The vocals on the song "Hours of Wealth" have some very powerful depressed emotion behind them.
Next comes the guitars. Repetition is a staple of Opeth's style. Riffs are often repeated for minutes on end (remember that the typical song length is between seven and ten minutes) so naturally songs end up being longer and more drawn-out--not something that bothers me, since most songs tend to keep from getting boring. "The Baying of the Hounds" is the second longest track on the album, yet it is my favorite. And of course there is the style done in melodic yet violent death metal, broken into sections by various acoustic interludes and periods of clean singing, making the songs sound varied, which also helps them from getting boring. Two songs don't sit well with me. The first is "Reverie - Harlequin Forest". Although I overall do like this song, I feel like there just isn't enough beef in it to justify its length (it clocks in at 11:39). It goes on longer than seems appropriate. The other song, though, "Atonement," has nothing redeeming about it. The song feels like a complete filler track, and when it comes to Opeth, ''filler track'' is not a term that is not usually associated with this band. There is little to nothing about the song that is very interesting, just starts off and repeats for most of it, and just kind of ends. Nothing remotely interesting or engrossing about the whole song, by far the worst on the album.
Last, we have the drums. This is the final album to have long-time drummer Martin Lopez, who left the band a year later for mental health reasons. His style has changed a lot over the years. Don't go into this expecting the pummeling violence of
My Arms, Your Hearse or
Damnation. Like in everything else, the power is reduced, favoring instead a more melodic and slower sound, but it still holds a good deal of force behind them.
In closing, did I like this album? Yes. Yes, quite a bit. I would be lying if I said it's their best (that title goes to
My Arms, Your Hearse and
Blackwater Park), but it's definitely a great album. Great sense of emotion and force behind the whole thing.
Why did you pick it up? Random selection
Would you recommend this? Why or why not? Definitely. I would even say that this might be a good gateway album for someone who is new to this band, and it creates a good mix of their softer and heavier side.
Name: Tony
Age group: Adult
Rating: 9/10
Other Comments: Recommended songs: "The Baying of the Hounds", "Ghost of Perdition", "Hours of Wealth", "The Grand Conjuration"
