Review by Nathan on May 18, 2021.

Ghost Reveries, smack dab in the middle of Opeth’s discography, is the most Opeth-y Opeth release. Having just explored each end of the Opeth spectrum with the Deliverance/Damnation duo, this followup is arguably the last time the band had decidedly extreme metal leanings - even by Watershed Mikael was kinda scared of doing death growls. At the same time, though, the edges are rounded off to the point where the 70s prog influences seep through every pore, leaving riffs that mostly float like a butterfly but don’t sting like a bee. Combine that with a crisp, Roadrunner-funded guitar tone and some sorta-weird time signatures every now and then and it’s got a little bit of everything that makes Opeth so loved and loathed. Too soft to be death metal, too hard to be prog rock, but just about right for the type of dude who already has Tool’s new album pre-ordered.

At their best, Opeth has made some genuinely great albums, but at worst, they bore the shit out of me, and it’s not uncommon for them to jump back and forth between the two multiple times over the course of a release. Unique they are, but consistent they are not. The distinctive property of Ghost Reveries, ironically enough, is that it is the most consistent Opeth album. Not good nor bad, mind you - consistent. Despite theoretically having one of the most diverse palettes of influences to draw from any Opeth album, the songs on this album all blend together and move along a similar, wandering path. Whether it’s the oh-so-perfectly-tamed melancholy of 'Atonement' or the somewhat jarring (yet not TOO abrasive) opening of 'The Grand Conjuration', every moment on this album exists in this nebulous middle ground that is neither high nor low. The paradox of this album - and Opeth in general, really, if you want to be harsh - is that they can make a bunch of very different riffs and themes all feel the same.

It’s a really confusing position to be in as a reviewer, because as a result of somehow running any possible musical idea through an Opethian filter, everything about Ghost Reveries contradicts everything else. This album feels as though the atmosphere should be dripping from its edges, yet every time I search for something raw or unusual I come up empty. Martin Lopez is undoubtedly an amazingly talented musician, and sure enough, all of his beats are tight, efficient and perfectly placed. Yet, somehow, they never seem to stand out or commit a riff to my memory. Every time I feel on the cusp of something a little bit more resonant and soulful (like the beginning of 'Hours Of Wealth'), the motif changes before it has a chance to really solidify itself. Songs stay on the same plateau from beginning to end, yet the changes in the riffs still feel sudden. Rarely does it ever feel like individual sections build into one another. Each riff is a full musical sentence on its own, which is normally an amazing quality for music to have, but due to the lack of progression between them, the riffs somehow have the potential to simultaneously leave you wanting more and overstay their welcome. This is impressive almost solely because this occupies a space in the musical hemisphere I didn’t even think it was possible to exist in. Even that’s a contradiction because at the end of the day I find the resulting music to be nice-sounding but kinda boring!

Sometimes, I like this, and sometimes I turn it off for something else after less than a minute. I can’t recommend this, though, because my rating on this album will change literally every time I listen to it. Sometimes it works well when I just need some nice sounding metalloid stuff to throw on in the background, sometimes it just sounds absolutely terrible, but one thing that is absolutely certain is I don’t have to spend nearly this much time questioning whether or not Blackwater Park is good, so I usually just listen to that instead.

Rating: 5.2 out of 10

Review by Benjamin on May 18, 2021.

Opeth are one of the few bands who have not yet put a foot wrong in their muscial career, not so much as a little toe wrong in fact. Over seven albums of incredibly high quality metal, they've truly forged their own path, and seem to have become seriously popular almost in spite of themselves. Of course, the result of such consistent output means that expectations for 2005's Ghost Reveries were almost unreasonably high, and coupled with a high-profile move to Roadrunner, it might not have been surprising if Opeth finally fucked up.

First impressions were promising though. The artwork is as gorgeous as ever, and I think it's important never to underestimate the importance of artwork and image - I wouldn't judge a band on it, but to me, a band that puts care and effort into creating a consistency of approach across everything that bears their name creates a world of their own that the listener can lose themselves in, and in this way the band transcends the music industry and becomes something far greater, something to believe in. I'm thinking here of bands like Maiden, Emperor, and Mastodon, and the extra something that they bring to their bands is what turns me from fan into obsessive.

From the first track, 'Ghost Of Perdition', any fears that the relationship with Roadrunner would result in a compromised watered down Opeth (as if!) are immediately allayed. Over 10 minutes long, the song immediately recalls 'The Leper Affinity', the opening track from Blackwater Park, but with far more prominent keyboards, a feature of this album. The melodies are instantly memorable, the riffing is ferocious, and if anything, this is a more progressive and complex Opeth than ever before.

'The Baying Of The Hounds', another 10 minute track (Not that you'd know it. Opeth have a natural tendency towards the epic, but never, thankfully, towards the repititive and boring.) is so organ-heavy it's almost reminiscent of the Spiritual Beggars, had they ever enjoyed fruitful sex with the entire Swedish death metal scene. A noticeable trend on this album is that Akerfeldt increasingly employs his rich clean vocals over heavy guitar passages, where on previous records the vocals had been segregated much more into clean vox over clean guitars, and growling over distorted guitars. In fact, there's not much growling on the album at all. Perhaps in time this element will be lost from their music altogether, but I'm not sure it matters too much.

Ghost Reveries as a whole is the record (discounting Damnation, which was an experiment in folky prog) where Opeth's often professed prog rock influences really come to the fore, and pervade every aspect of the music. Long discordant guitar runs recall King Crimson's classic 70s concept albums, and some of the melodic keyboard work is not dissimilar to Rush at their finest. The proggy sound definitely suits Opeth, bringing a more opulent and expansive feel to their music. In keeping with this, Arabic-sounding scales are to be found all over the record, on 'Beneath The Mire' and 'Atonement' in particular. It's a wonderful thing when a band breaks out of a trademark sound, however great a sound that might have been, and Opeth manage to do it on Ghost Reveries, without losing too much of the aspects that made them so brilliant in the first place.

The album progresses through various moods (Christ that looks wanky when it's written down) until it reaches the grandest statement of all in 'The Grand Conjuration', possibly the best thing Opeth have ever done. A gradual build-up and release of tension, this song features some staggering guitar work, brutal staccato riffing, and - classic Opeth - a mournful guitar semi-solo towards the end. If this is psychedelic high of the record, then the late-night comedown is 'Isolation Years', the final track on the album, and a fitting ending. A beautifully sad song, sung and played entirely clean, it's the aural equivalent of the storm whipped up by the preceding tracks clearing, but laying a trail of destruction in its wake.

Ghost Reveries has much to recommend it. It's not their best album, Blackwater Park still hangs together as a coherent piece of work rather better. At times, the sheer sense of adventure lends a somewhat scattershot air to proceedings, but even so, there's something to admire in almost every song. Not an album that reveal it's charms all at once, like a cheap hooker, instead it's a classier beast altogether, and one you'll fall in love with over many listens.

One day, Opeth might release a shit album, but this isn't it. It's Opeth growing older and maturing, but magnificently so.

Rating: 8.1 out of 10

Review by Adam M on November 5, 2019.

Opeth has gone through a weird progression to being a progressive rock band and this album came out before some of their new inventions.  It is also a fine moment in their discography and one of the last times they used heaviness to their advantage.  Instead of the somewhat bland one-dimensional style they utilize now, one can sense a nice use of dynamics to make some heavy portions stick out. 

The song Ghost of Perdition is a great intro to this album because it is one of the very best ones on here and goes through a number of changes to showcase its brilliance.  The rest of the album is very good too and far superior to what they are currently involved with.  Compared to albums like Morningrise and My Arms, Your Hearse, there could still be a greater use of dynamics, even though there are a ton present.  The chilling atmosphere this band creates is once again in fine form and needs to be heard by all. Since this is one of the last recordings in which they use such a heavy style, it is absolutely a mandatory listen for fans of the band.  Opeth would go on to put out one more heavy album and then tone down their sound to remove the death vocals and much of the impact they once had. It’s not that recent albums are bad, they just don’t have the amount of dynamics and force used to make albums like Ghost Reveries so special. 

There is just so much of a great discography to hear before we get to the new progressive rock style of Heritage and onwards.  This is just one example of the excellent early material the band was able to create.  It’s also one of the last times the band has been truly worthwhile and a must listen to the progressive death metal audience.

Rating: 8.1 out of 10

Review by chrisc7249 on June 20, 2022.

The conductor of our wonderful tech death revival's departure continues to be greatly missed. Of course, that conductor would be Anata, who burst onto the scene with their debut in 1998, before the lot of Psycroptic, Necrophagist and Spawn of Possession were able to drop a debut. I don't remember much of Anata's early days (I honestly have not listened to their second album even once), but none of their previous performances have stood out as much to me as their grand finale, the aptly named "The Conductor's Departure," which saw the band at their absolute peak. Released in 2006, the band's "departure" album is just one of those unbeatable classics - up there for sure with works like Necrophagist's "Epitaph," Spawn of Possession's "Incurso'' and The Faceless' "Planetary Duality." This is truly a very special technical death metal album.

Anata is one of those bands that, while many bands have definitely taken a page from their book, nobody sounds exactly like them. They have a pretty hard style to copy. They're a weird mashup between Gothenburg melodic death metal, Gorguts-style dissonant death metal and some neoclassical influences that bring to mind names like Necrophagist, Quo Vadis and fellow countrymates Spawn of Possession. Their twisted, technical style is rooted more in its incredibly detailed and well planned melodies more than their riffs. The riffs are average, nothing too special in this department, but they definitely have some heavy as fuck ones that will surely make you headbang. The leads are the name of the game here - "The Conductor's Departure" is loaded with magnificent neoclassical melodies that make for some truly breathtaking songs.

The band's ability to infuse multiple melodies with one another at the same time is often overlooked. Anata, in their prime, were kings of counterpoint. Nobody was able to mesh together such gorgeous melodies like they were able to, and even to this day they stand tall as one of the kings of such musical composition. The dark, melancholic leads that litter multiple songs on this album are enough to transport the listener into a new world. I'd say that later atmospheric tech death bands such as Fallujah were listening to a lot of Anata during the writing of their own music. Anata's sound bleeds into other bands so much, yet again, no one has been able to replicate what they did so well back in 2006. It's a very eerie and mysterious journey that this album creates. I still to this day have not found a technical death metal album that evokes the same emotions as this one does.

The drumming is excellent on this album. Lots of good fills and just straight up good use of a drumkit. There's crazy blastbeats of course, but the drummer knows when to take it down a notch and follow the lead of the string section and create a more atmospheric feeling with his drumming. The bass plays a prominent role, as it thunders along under the guitars and occasionally has its moments to shine above the guitars. The guitars are, of course, the album's main focus - the guitar work is superb and the leads are unparalleled, which makes up for the fairly average riffing.

The vocals are standard. He has some good highs, but other than that, you could've put anyone in this position and they would have done just as good. The production is good. Don't care to say anything more about it.

And so, the departure has been seen. For all the hype a possible reunion of Spawn of Possession or Necrophagist gets, Anata seems to get none of that. But the reality of it is simple; we may never see Anata return. If this truly is their swansong, what a way to end their career. This album is one of the most important and greatest technical death metal albums ever. Everything about it is awesome and this is certainly a must listen for any fan of technical death metal. Perhaps not as talked about as an album like "Epitaph" or "Cosmogenesis," but just as important. Godspeed, soldiers. May your music live on forever.

FFO: Quo Vadis, Spawn of Possession, Gorguts

Favorite song: 'Better Grieved Than Fooled'

Rating: 9 out of 10