Originally Posted by in limbow
Personally I wouldnt place GR as one of my very favorite Opeth albums, but I still have great respect for Mikael and the band. I don't agree with the threadstarter about Isolation Years; I think it's one of Opeth's best songs, and is truly beautiful. The only flaw I can find with the album is that TGC doesn't stack up to other "epic" Opeth songs (e.g. 10 or more minutes). I think while Hours of Wealth may not be one of Opeth's best, it still has some very pleasant instrumentation an Mike's vocals are definitely well done. I used to dislike R/HF but now it's grown on me, it's a pretty decent song. And the reason why I have great respect for the band nowadays is the first three songs, especially Ghost of Perdtion. Whatever you have to say about the rest of the album, you can't deny the amazing beauty and power of that song. It has a kind of epic grandeur that Opeth have touched on their whole career from time to time but was never quite so fully realized. All in all, it's stupid to drag on GR because even if you like MAYH a lot better or whatever, there are so many horrible artists out there today... I'm glad a band like Opeth is still around to make such inspiring music.