GHOST REVERIES

I have a hard time placing my thumb on what I should rate this. The music is sooooo good, but the growling is sooooo obnoxious that it makes it hard to make it through a song. Right now, this is a review from someone who loves the heavy stuff, but not the growling death metal vocals. So first lets look at this musically shall we. Musically this is a great CD with awsome movements, awsome riffs, awsome riffs, and incredible power in the songs. The guitar work, and drum work are superb along with the other instruments. These guys know what they're doing! And if this whole CD was an instrumental it'd be tempting to almost give it a 5/5 star reward. It's deep, dark, acousticly deadly, and to top it off for any metal fan, hard! But now we have to talk about the vocals. I love the soft side of Mikael. absolutely incredible. When he sings on Ayreon's The Human Equation it's absolutely to die for! Just for one problem, his other side, which aslo makes Day Twelve: trauma one of my least favorites.... he has this low grunting growling that me being someone quite sensitive to that style don't like. I understand that what he does is talentfilled and unique, but when it comes down to style, I don't care if it's hard, I just can't get into it. These guys aren't the only ones, I find myself having troubles getting into Devin Townsend, Diabolical Masquerade, and Orhpaned Land. So right now I stand on a 3 star rating, or maybe even a 4 star rating. It's totally on prefrence. I'd recommend this album to anyone looking for a good listen and can stand the low grunting noises, and anyone who doesn't like the low growling noises will probably find it okay much like myself. Listening to the song enjoying the soft melodious tunes of Mikael and the band till he starts growling, then it's either fast foward or skip to the next song.... if I'm really not up for surviving the next few mintues of it. Now, Ghost of Perdition is a brilliant song, so isThe Grand Conjurgation. And the Atonement and Isolation Years are the greatest dark, melencholy slow songs ever! Isolation Years is one of my favorite slows ever! Briar is pretty nifty too. So I'm going to have to say that because the musicianship is brilliant I'm going to bump it up to a 4 star rating just for such awsome workmanship. If you love the growling stuff, then read all the 5 and 6 star ratings! This one is probably more for those who have troubles getting into the growling... no joke. Good job Opeth, and thank you for entertaining the death metal fans with something musically inspired on the genious levels!