I was a bit uneasy when my friendly postman finally dumped Ghost Reveries on the floor of my hallway. This album is the album that's supposed to save 2005 with regards to long awaited heavy duty progressive band releases. I didn't feel that Pain of Salvation's BE could live up to anything else released by the great Swedes, and with the reigning kings of progressive metal, Dream Theater, who were close to committing musical suicide with the hugely disappointing Octavarium, I was a bit weary when hitting play and cranking the volume for my virgin listen to Ghost Reveries.
But I needn't worry, all my angst was wasted, and all it did was to leave me with a guilty feeling that I had let one of my favorite bands, vocals and songwriters down but not having faith in
Opeth. Because come to the think of it, when have I ever listened to a bad
Opeth album? Never! Because such do not exist, it's as simple as that.
Ghost Reveries has it all, if there ever were an album that could carry the
Opeth badge as the one that showcases the band at it's best, it is Ghost Reveries.
The first of three things that struck me the first time I listened to the album was how much better Mikeal Åkerfeldts voice had become. It seems that the risk he and
Opeth took when they decided to do Damnation and along with Åkerfeldt trying something new, when he did Arjen Anthony Lucassen's latest
Ayreon release The Human Equation has paid off. His clean and warm voice has become much more expressive and clear, and his evil growls have become even more evil and scary.
The second thing is the sound and production. Well as
Opeth is getting bigger the band is also getting a bigger budget, more experience and better at finding their voice in the studio, and they have never sounded this good.
The sound is bigger, more atmospheric and even more vicious than ever before. They are a super tight band, and they have always has a tight very good sound, but not this good.
The third thing is the drumming of Martin Lopez. This is some of the best drum work I have ever heard. Martin Lopez has the amazing gift of being tight and groovy at the same time. Not many drummers can do that when playing atmospheric and gloomy death metal, not many drummers can do that when they play period. But what makes his drumming even better is that he creates great music at the same time. He's just very very interesting to listen to, and the way he delivers his rhythm and beats just gives so much more to the music, than just keeping time.
But the rest of the band isn't far behind Lopez's tub pounding, Martin Mendez bass has a slightly edgier sound than before, which compliments the overall nightmare-like atmosphere of Ghost Reveries really well, and by bringing in Per Wiberg on keyboards, organs, grand and electric piano and mellotron they just keep on adding to over all uneasy feeling of the album.
And I feel tempted to say that as always Peter Lindgren and Mikael Åkerfeldt nail the guitar playing.
To put it shortly,
Opeth anno 2005 leaves nothing to be questioned.
Well the only question you can ask is: Do you like the music that this highly skilled band has put out?
My answer would have to be yes or well no, because I don't like it, I adore it, to me this is the best album of 2005, if not the best album of this millennium.
But I must also add that
Opeth do not let you in, they command you to enter their dark and ghostly dreams they call music, and you are spellbound and caught for the next hour and 6 minute and 49 seconds.
When
Ghost Of Perdition, the first track, grabs a hold of you, it does so very gentle, almost nursing you to sleep within the first six seconds, but then seven seconds into this pink dream, it rips you away into a nightmare that
Opeth has decided to give the overall title Ghost Reveries, shifting from hard hitting death like sections to progressive soundscapes, to almost lullaby like parts, to sweet tunes that really aren't all that sweet or at least not as sweet as they let you believe they are.
At times you feel like letting go and drift away with
Opeth, away to what seems like a better place, only to discover that it is all cover and that evil is lurking where ever and when ever, and foremost when not expected.
Ghost Reveries is a dream ride that will take you where you don't want to go, but you cannot help yourself and you go there anyway. Just let yourself drift away with
Reverie/Harlequin Forest or
The Grand Conjuration and you will find yourself smiling due to a strange enjoyment of fear running down the walls.
Written by
Morten Wednesday, September 7, 2005
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