For those who are not happy with Opeth's recent direction.....

[zortz]

Heh. I for one can't get GR out of my head. I pretty much like all of Opeth's releases. They all have their own character, and are all excelent.

My CPA got me like $4k back on my taxes this year. Yea for capitol loss carry forwards .

I've always found it kind of ironic that the tax law is so complex that we need CPAs. If we had something like the flat tax, I think only corporations would need 'em for book keeping, etc. Will never happen though.

Oh yeah. Opeth rules (and so does GR!)

 

[Good and Evil]

I personally really like GR, and I don't think it's a wrong direction at all. I do have to admit that the whole "let's summon Satan vibe" of "The Grand Conjuration" kind of got on my nerves a little bit at first. I wasn't offended by the occult subject matter itself (I love Dimmu Borgir after all), but I just didn't think it fit in with Opeth's style. I've never thought of Opeth as an evil group. A dark side at times? Yes. Evil? Not really. There's too much poetic beauty in their songs. I also felt that Opeth purposely tried to make an "evil" track to show they hadn't "sold out". I don't know...it just seemed kind of forced to me at the time. I do like the song though and got passed it all.

That being said, I don't think Opeth is capable of putting out a bad album. I don't personally have a favorite album because I like each one for its own place in time. Opeth is a truly special group, and I'm glad that they exist in the world.

 

[Towelie]

Ok... I went overboard in saying this is the Darkest Opeth ever... I was just excited because I was listening to one of the kick ass parts in The Baying of the Hounds. I guess I should say this is the darkest Opeth SINCE MAYH... which I guess I still have to say is my favorite and probably will always be my favorite... it was the album that popped my Opeth cherry and i still feel chills evertime I listen to Amen Corner, When, Demon, April...

Getting back to "Reveries"
I just feel this hint of impending doom and evil underneath the surface of this album. If you really read the lyrics and put it together with the music playing at the time.... you can really sense a sinister and dark plot thats about to unfold.
Of course, that's only me... I'm sure its completely different for everyone

 

[Towelie]

I personally really like GR, and I don't think it's a wrong direction at all. I do have to admit that the whole "let's summon Satan vibe" of "The Grand Conjuration" kind of got on my nerves a little bit at first. I wasn't offended by the occult subject matter itself (I love Dimmu Borgir after all), but I just didn't think it fit in with Opeth's style. I've never thought of Opeth as an evil group. A dark side at times? Yes. Evil? Not really. There's too much poetic beauty in their songs. I also felt that Opeth purposely tried to make an "evil" track to show they hadn't "sold out". I don't know...it just seemed kind of forced to me at the time. I do like the song though and got passed it all.

That being said, I don't think Opeth is capable of putting out a bad album. I don't personally have a favorite album because I like each one for its own place in time. Opeth is a truly special group, and I'm glad that they exist in the world.

I thought exactly the same thing when I first bought the album, but as I studied the lyrics as a whole on the album... I feel as if there is a loose concept or story in this album. I feel that the story is evil, not the band's actual views. If you think about it, the stories in Still Life and MAYH that are pretty evil at times.

I've never been so pleasantly suprised from something I was scared of because this will rank in my top 3 favorite Opeth CDs... which in my fanatic case, is really damn good... especially for an 8th album.

 

[Hypnos]

You skip Face of Melinda and Leper Affinity? What are you smoking?

i don't smoke, not even cigarettes. but i drink some beers from time to time...
Lepper Affinity is one of the reasons i don't like BWP so much. i tried so many times to appreciate this track but it simply didn't kick in. there are just two excellent stand-out tracks on BWP: Harvest and Dirge For November....
Face Of Melinda is even worse. it's one of the worst Opeth tracks (Weakness and Hours Of Wealth being even worse) along with some Damnation songs. i cannot stand these forced wannabe-poetry rhymes there and the music is just boring. of course this is my very humble opinion and you are entitled to yours...

 

[Ermz]

The music on FoM is anything but boring. It's by far the most intricate and technically challenging Opeth song I've learned on guitar (and believe me, I've learned a lot of their stuff over time). That's my own opinion anyway.

 

[Hypnos]

...the most intricate and technically challenging...

you might be right, from a players point o view. there's a lot of even more technically challenging music out there but it doesn't make it good just because its technically challenging (example: all that guitar wankery out there).
you see, i actually quite like the first 50 seconds of that song. but then Mike's vocals come in and in this case they bore me along the pointless music till 4:30. they sound somehow weak and whiny. then the vocals improve but still the music flows uniteresting and esp. the drums bore me to death...don't get me wong, i like mellow tracks (Credence, Benighted, TBYF, Harvest...rule), i usually like Mike's clean vox and i also like slow music being a huge doom fan, but in case of FoM all this doesn't fit together for me. the crappy rhymes i mentioned before...

 

[Ermz]

I only mentioned that because you used the word 'boring'. I think it's one of the most 'eventful' ballad tracks I've ever heard - a lot of that seems due to the complexity of the individual guitar parts. Not necessarily saying that makes it a better track (although in my case it does).

 

[Heavenscent]

I don't skip Opeth, i just don't play Damnation. It bores the life out of me.

Ghost Reveries, however, i think is a kickass album, although there are a bit more acoustic-clean parts than i had hoped for, but still this is a very Opeth album. And I don't really see a drastical change; Opeth's albums have always had a very individual character, none of them sounds the same although it's all Opeth.

 

[annt]

I think that GR is a very dark-sounding album. Yet, at the same time it's very light. Its extremes are stretching further away than in any previous record. But I'd say that in general, Deliverance is the darkest O-album.

 

[Ikil]

For me, I think GR has the best clean/acoustic parts since Still Life (excluding Damnation). For me, Mikael's clean vocals are hist best yet. Some of the songs on this album have more variations in them than any song on the last 5 Opeth albums. If you listen hard enough, you can find elements from all their previous albums on this one.

For me, I am enjoying this more than Deliverance and Damnation. I am even enjoying this more than BWP. Not the best Opeth album, but certainly up there with the best. Maybe top 3. But like all Opeth albums, my list changes all the time.

Ikil

 

[:Wreath:]

'The Moor-sound drop outs.'

Um... It's like... one song? Hello? And fact is, they are not THAT obvious... Still Life's production is overall very smooth

And yeah, GR is very dark... It doesn't need to be black metal or be overfilled with growlings only to be that... I feel sorry for the people who don't understand that... I would reccomend listening to some classical music for them

 

[Austin]

'The Moor-sound drop outs.'

Um... It's like... one song? Hello? And fact is, they are not THAT obvious... Still Life's production is overall very smooth

And clearly unintentional as Mikael hates them.

 

[AzureDraconis]

ranks of my opeth albums

1. Morningrise / GR
2 Orchid / BWP
3 MAYH - Still Life
4 D1 & D2