GHOST REVERIES

Good stuff. Just bought this CD a couple days ago, and I cannot stop listening to it. I was never a huge fan of growling vocals (although I liked how Akerfeldt used them in Ayreon), but they work so well here. The atmosphere in these songs is amazing. It is at times delicate, furious, twisted, sickening, gruesome, beautiful, haunting, surprising and frightening. It's not as technical as, say, Death, but it's much more listenable. Taking cues from Tool, Dream Theater and Death, Ghost Reveries is definitely one of the best CDs Opeth has produced. There's much more diversity here than on your typical Death Metal album. Songs are long and winding, filled to the brim with texture and emotion. I can't believe I had so much trouble getting into this band.

A lil' breakdown:

-Ghost of Perdition: A great opening to the album. Cool intro, and some great moments that follow. About a minute in, there is a really catchy Tool-like part ("Devil cracked the earthly shell...") that helped to do away with some of my preconceptions of this band. The acoustic bits that follow are equally great in their haunting beauty.

-The Baying of the Hounds: I love this one. I was surprised to hear the use of a hammond in this, but it sounds great. Some very Ayreon/Dream Theater-type stuff in here. Later on, there are also some very Tool-ish sections, although to be honest, it loses some steam fairly early on in the track.

-Beneath the Mire: Very catchy. And surprisingly melodic later-on. Great little guitar solo unison in this one. Nice use of piano as well. Certainly not the best track on here, but decent enough.

-Atonement: More Tool influence abounds. Nice track.

-Reverie/Harlequin Forest: One of the best songs on here. Love the lyrics.

-Hours of Wealth: I dunno why, but this one reminds me of video game music. Not such a bad thing.

-The Grand Conjuration: Great track, but the music video is atrocious. Glad I don't have to watch it everytime I listen to this one. Heavy stuff, kinda chilling. I like it, although it's definitely not perfect.

-Isolation Years: Good ending track. Very Dream Theater-ish in my opinion.

At this point, it's easy to tell that Opeth is starting to taking their music in new directions. Songs have much less bite to them and more ambience/keyboard dependence takes the edge off of songs that otherwise had the potential to be real butt-kickers. It's still great music, but Ghost Reveries just doesn't have the energy that Opeth's previous efforts had.

4/5