GHOST REVERIES

This is the first album by Opeth I've heard and I have to say I love it. It's just so listenable! I wasn't sure what to expect but it's like a warm bath - so comfortable and enjoyable, and an experience you want to repeat as often as possible.

I read one review that said Opeth's music is just a series of interconnected passages, alternating loud and soft, without a real symphonic overview that justifes the often ten- minute lengths of the songs. That might be so but it also might be the band's salvation. Like a train journey that offers continual scene changes without any seeming pattern, a sense emerges that the journey is nonetheless worthwhile: you pass through pleasant countryside, then grimy cityscapes - a collage of experiences that becomes in itself a unique single experience. That's my impression of this album.

I've played "Ghost Reveries" several times now, in whole and in part, and it still surprises, delights and energises me. I'm not sure exactly why, and I'm sure I could criticise it to death if I sought to analyse it closely, but I'm very glad I bought it and I know it will become a favourite. The final minute or so of "Baying of the Hounds" is worth the price of entry in itself.