GHOST REVERIES

The rating of a 5 is a heafty weight to carry; it should not be thrown around lightly. That ahving been said, I feel comfortable giving this album a 5. OPETH has almost universally been a progressive death metal band, with more emphasis on the death metal than the prog. They toyed with ideas like lengthening their songs, playing in odd times and having contrasting light and dark parts within each song (changing composition and eschewance of ABABCB structure is actually common in alot of metal). Hell, they even made a concept album. Come Blackwater Park, though, they wanted to more fully integrate a proggy sound, calling upon the help of Steve WILSON to do so (famous for his work as a member of PORCUPINE TREE). They did a great job getting more prog out, but they still had some issues to work out. Thus, when the time came for a new album, they opted for something different: A complete seperation of the ideas to develope each more fully. This resulted in the dual-relese of Deliverance (the heavy one) and Damnation (the light one), ironically titled the exact opposite of what one would hear. This gave them the tools they needed for the eventual merger of these two dieas once more, creating Ghost Reveries. This is what one should think of when they think of truly making prog metal. This isn't cheesy, overwrought guitars to sappy lyrics. This isn't a deliberate attempt to sound weird. This is the only true combination of metal and prog, conserving both parts. This is perfect.