Band:	Opeth
Album:	Ghost Reveries
Style:	Progressive metal
Release date:	August 30, 2005
Guest review by:	spirit_inblack

Disc I
01. Ghost Of Perdition
02. The Baying Of The Hounds
03. Beneath The Mire
04. Atonement
05. Reverie/Harlequin Forest
06. Hours Of Wealth
07. The Grand Conjuration
08. Isolation Years
09. Soldier Of Fortune [Deep Purple cover] [special edition bonus]

Disc II [Special Edition DVD]
+ Beyond Ghost Reveries: A Documentary
+ A 5.1 Mix Of The "Ghost Reveries" Album
+ The Director's Cut Of The Video: "The Grand Conjuration"

Last year, I was at a CD store and this album, for some odd reason, seemed to call out to me. Maybe it's because of the amazing cover art or maybe it was just me, I'll never know. I've only been a metalhead for a short time (2 years). The first real metal band that I listened to was Iron Maiden, then I heard about Slayer, and the Lamb Of God, Children Of Bodom, Tool, In Flames, Trivium, etc. Previous to being in the music store, I had heard about Opeth from a friend and I had actually heard two tracks from the new release, those being, GHOST OF PERDITION, and THE GRAND CONJURATION. I thought that these two tracks were absolutely mindblowing, and so as I was saying, the album called out to me, so I bought it. What a good choice I made.

GHOST REVERIES is definietely one of the best (if not the best) albums from the year 2005. Sure there are some that would give the nod to NEVERMORE'S THIS GODLESS ENDEAVOR, a fine album in its own right. Others yet may give the nod to some of the mainstream releases from the year (Chimaira-Chimaira, As I Lay Dying-Shadows Are Security, Trivium-Ascendancy, The Black Dahlia Murder-Miasma, The Red Chord-Clients, Between The Buried And Me-Alaska Children Of Bodom-Are You Dead Yet?). I do enjoy most of the mainstream bands of metal, but the fact remains that most mainstream metal is not all that great.

With GHOST REVERIES, Opeth does become a bit more mainstream, but they still sound like Opeth, of course. Purchasing this album would be the start of what would become my favorite band. After this album, I bought Still Life and Blackwater Park. Out of these, Still Life is definitely the best, by far.

The highligts of this are GHOST OF PERDITION, THE BAYING OF THE HOUNDS, REVERIE/HARLEQUIN FOREST, HOURS OF WEALTH, and THE GRAND CONJURATION, although all the songs are pretty good. The only track that I never really got into was BENEATH THE MIRE, because I didn't really like the guitar riffs and it just sounds different than most Opeth songs.

The first track GHOST OF PERDITION is absolutely AMAZING. All band members show off their abilities in this song. I especially love the intro. Its quiet with acoustics and then all of a sudden BAM! It gets heavy and there is Akerfeldt's amazing, demonic growl. He may be the best metal vocalist that I have ever heard. How he can growl like so and sing in such a soothing, heavenly clean voice is beyond me. He's up there with Dickinson, Halford, Barlow, Maynard James Keenan, Chris Barnes, George Fisher, Jonas Renkse, and all of the other great metal vocalists there are but I can't think of right now. Anyways, GHOST OF PERDITION is really good and has both of Akerfeldt's vocal styles. Opeth also write good lyrics, but i'm not going to go in depth with them. The acoustic parts are very good and Martin Lopez shows why he is one of my personal favorite drummers.

All other tracks are good, except for Beneath the mire. Atonement with it's weird, eerie, pshychadelic, sound really surprised me actually because Opeth doesn't do stuff like that, but it turned out really good, so I can't complain. REVERIE/HARLEQUIN FOREST is another great song. A great opening riff and it is almost all clean vocals. It is the longest off the album but hey, it's 12 minutes of pure greatness. I love the track after it too; HOURS OF WEALTH is an acoustic track. The best part is the opening two minutes, with the acoustic guitars and the keyboard of Per Wiberg. Acutally, the whole track is great. The single from the album, THE GRAND CONJRATION, is another good track. It starts out with a crushing riff for the first few secong and then starts into another great riff (very similiar to Slayer's ALTAR OF SACRIFICE if you ask me, it too starts out with a crushing riff and leads into a good riff). The almost whispered vocals are great. The main riff here actually reminds me of a riff found in BLACKWATER PARK, the song, found somewhere in the last 2-3 minutes. All in all, THE GRAND CONJURATION is great, but it fails to top GHOST OF PERDITION.

A great album from a great band. Every metalhead should own this album. Probably 2005's best album and it is worth all the money that you pay for it. Yet another Opeth masterpiece.