GHOST REVERIES

Let me start off by saying that i own every sigle Opeth album and think all of them - bar Morningrise and Damnation - are excellent, some even better than excellent. Let me also say that my name has nothing to do with this album, just to save you any confusion :P Now on with the review...

After listening through Ghost Reveries numerous times i can safely say that this is an album that makes me question where Mikael was going with it. I'm not sure whether it was the alternate tunings or the permanent addition of Per's keys, or just a new stage in writing, but whatever it was, i didn't quite work. There are moments of glory scattered throughout this album, but unfortunately they are strewn across a field of concepts that do not support them. The fluid and coherent writing of albums like Blackwater Park and Deliverance have been replaced with an almost random and inappropriate series of song structures. The case with most of the songs seems to be that they contain decent ideas, but the music does not allow these ideas to develop or even travel much farther. I often find myself thinking 'yeah, this could go somewhere' and then the song changes completely and so very unnecessarily to something completely unrelated.

Another thing that i find is missing in the album is originality. Once again, there are moments when i think 'hey this is pretty interesting', but those moments are overshadowed by the familiarality of either influence (Porcupine Tree and Tool being obvious ones) or the past (Blackwater Park, Deliverance, Damnation). I'll also say that there is a huge lack of good guitar solos. This album - moreso than any of Opeth's other heavy albums - definitely contains the most prog rock influence, but it's just not very effectively incorporated. I'm also wondering what the point of Per's role in the band is. Sure, he's there alright, but for what reason? The keyboard parts in the album are mostly un-necessary and seem to be there because they can be there, not because they need to be there. Perhaps Mike (and others?) are going through a teething stage with Per, or perhaps they really didn't need him on the album, they just wanted him. Either way, maybe they should reconsider. The only really good keyboard song is Hours of Wealth, where they do work quite well with the acoustic guitar, and they are half-decent in The Grand Conjuration, but other than that they don't serve the music as well.

All in all this is an album most Opeth fans seem to enjoy, and as i have said it does have it's good moments, but i can't say there are any songs that i personally feel like listening to over and over. Hours of Wealth is a nice little prog tribute, The Grand Conjuration harks back to the sounds of Deliverance and Blackwater Park in a (mostly) good way, and Ghost of Perdition does a worthy job of opening and sums up the album quite well - almost there, but not quite. Other than that i'm pretty much left wanting. Here's my rundown of the album: Bayong of the Hounds starts off well, but after the first few minutes the seams start to split. Atonement is an interesting song with an effective melodic hook, but i'm left with a taste of Damnation in my mouth (which, by the way, i consider to be Opeth's most boring and uninspiring work to date). Beneath The Mire is possibly the worst, most inappropriate songs on the album and one of my least favourite Opeth tracks. Reverie/Harlequin Forest again has some nice moments, but just doesn't gel together because the good stuff is surrounded by mediocre music. Hours of Wealth is a nice little song; not too original, but still nice. The Grand Conjuration is maybe the best song on the album. It has a hypnotic type feel to it that can draw you in, but sometimes i feel it can get a tad monotonous. Isolation Years, the closer, is nice enough. Again, it's quite Damnationish, but quite listenable.

Given the fact that it has some good moments in almost every song, and this is the proggiest metal album Opeth have done, i've decided to give Ghost Reveries two stars. It's really not of the standard i've come to expect from Opeth. It gives me the impression of somebody who has received a lot of wrong pieces to a jigsaw puzzle and just mashed them all together to try and create a picture anyway. A lot of people seem to like this picture - i'm not too fond of it.