Ghost Reveries haters - state your case!

[Whisper and Weep]

Triggered samples, I'm pretty sure.

Oh, well that would explain it.

But apparently I'm a "tool" so what do I know.

 

[Detective Clarence Beauregard]

Great thread! Intellectual statements abound!

I like Ghost Reveries. Sure, it's no Still Life, BWP, or Watershed, but it's still a solid album. Ghost, Hounds, and Harlequin are excellent songs, and Mire and Hours aren't far behind. Isolation Years is okay, but it doesn't really fit on the album. My only complaints are Atonement and Conjuration. They both just bore me with their repetitiveness.

 

[wut wut]

Go to most any other forum: mikeportnoy.com, megadeth.com, amazon.com reviews...

Pretty much every place loves Ghost Reveries as one of Opeth's best albums, except this place. I was quite shocked when I came here and found all the hate for it, because I've been familiar with the Portnoy and Megadeth forums for years, and I just recently discovered this forum.

Coming here and seeing all the GR hate was like stepping into Bizzaro world.

 

[Cerberus III]

Nothing wrong with Ghost Reveries...
Unless you're not an Opeth fan.

 

[wut wut]

My only complaints are Atonement and Conjuration. They both just bore me with their repetitiveness.

The repetitiveness of Conjuration was one of the things I loved about the track. It puts me into a trance-like state, similar to the effect of the outro to Deliverance.

Atonement, though? Nothing really repetitive about it, unless you count all of Opeth's mellow tracks as being that way.

 

[liquidcow]

I don't entirely hate the album, but it was a bit of a disappointment. My main problem with it was really that the first two tracks are awesome, maybe some of the best stuff they've ever done - GoP is definately one of my favourite Opeth tracks - but the rest of the album can't match up. Everyone seems to hate TGC, but I don't particularly mind it. It's very repetitive and pretty dumbed-down for an Opeth song but I find it pretty satisfying to listen to. My main problem is the trilogy of BTM, Atonement, and Harlequin Forest, three tracks in a row that I find basically pretty dull and all of which seem to just die on their arse at the end. So I find the album massively uneven basically, and I'm usually tempted to just turn off after the first two tracks.

 

[chrisdoig24k]

I'm quite the same as liquidcow above me. I found it really disappointing. I wouldn't say that the first two tracks are some of the best, but I do really enjoy them. Harlequin Forest really had potential to be great, but the ending ruins it for me every time.

The interlude-ish tracks seemed really dull compared to the quiet tracks on other albums (Silhouette, Benighted, Harvest), and just didn't seem to grab me.

And The Grand Conjuration... well the first time I heard it, I thought some System of a Down had accidentally come on somehow. The intro shits me, it reminds me of... well, new System of a Down. Then the 'verse' bit, well that just makes me think it's totally done in order to be played live to get everyone clapping along like they would at a pop concert. The entire song just sounds very plain and boring to me. And this opinion was formed in the listening lounge before it was released, and before I'd heard any opinions. And although I have TRIED to like it, I just never did.

As for the actual musicality of the album, I just didn't quite think it hit the spot like it had previously done. Now as for the major chord, I have nothing against it. I could give you a list of fantastic metal songs that use the major chord really effectively. But I just don't quite think they had figured out good ways to use it, and were just experimenting with it for the sake of doing it, and that seemed to take away from the musicality, in my opinion. In Watershed, I think it's used much more effectively.

Anyway that's all I can think of. I'm not exactly a 'hater', but I found it very disappointing.

 

[Jazrodian]

I've been familiar with the Portnoy and Megadeth forums for years

ha

the megadeth forums are the worst on the internet

WORSHIP MUSTAINE OR BE BANNED

megadeth were over when friedman and menza were booted

 

[hibernal_dream]

megadeth were over when friedman and menza were booted

They were over long before that, my friend

 

[hibernal_dream]

GR relies too heavily on an easy-going production. While the merits of Orchid to Still Life are in composition, if the GR production was anything like the first two albums it would be scorned.

 

[dew]

Because the ending to Reverie/Harlequinn Forest sounds really stupid and really annoying and makes me hate the song altogether, and because The Grand Conjuration was the first I heard of the album and it sounded like typical Roadrunner nu-metal shit stretched out for 10 minutes (yes, it IS better than typical Roadrunner nu-metal shit, it simply reminded me of it, and it's unquestionably Opeth's worst song). Baying of the Hounds is the only song I really like on the album, Ghost is alright but I don't think it stood the test of time.

 

[furrows of gods]

ghost of perdition is my favorite off the album, @ 4:58 after "faithful servants freed", i love that section so much. it was an alright album but it was the first one with songs that i actually didn't like that much opposed to every album prior to it

 

[FRUGiHOYi]

Baying, Mire, Harlequin, Hours, and Conjuration are all top Opeth songs.

 

[Iki-ilkkuja]

I guess it has something to do with the text "Roadrunner". And Opeth got a bit more symphonic after Per joined, Mellotrons and everything, less death metal.

 

[Jester-Race]

you guys suck ass

ghost reveries is a phenomenal album, i seriously cant believe what i'm reading about harlequin forest and beneath the mire.

 

[hibernal_dream]

I guess it has something to do with the text "Roadrunner". And Opeth got a bit more symphonic after Per joined, Mellotrons and everything, less death metal.

Less death metal? it's barely even metal. I consider it a rock album. The only metal riff is the start of Baying and even that could easily be found on a rock album.

 

[shadyfigure]

In time the hissing of her sanity
Faded out her voice and soiled her name
And like marked pages in a diary
Everything seemed clean that is unstained
The incoherent talk of ordinary days
Why would we really need to live?
Decide what is clear and what's within a haze
What you should take and what to give

Ghost of perdition
A saint's premonition's unclear
Keeper of holy hoards
Keeper of holy whores

The lyrics for this part are kinda lame but it's definitely some of opeth's heaviest riffs.

 

[shadyfigure]

ghost of perdition is my favorite off the album, @ 4:58 after "faithful servants freed", i love that section so much. it was an alright album but it was the first one with songs that i actually didn't like that much opposed to every album prior to it

yes. I would agree with you about this one. The music on GR is still phenomenal though.

 

[Stimuli]

Absolutely nothing wrong with the songwriting if you ask me. The production is what left me wanting... the only way I can describe it is that it was less "organic" than all the other efforts. Watershed seems much more natural/organic to me and this release really highlights the different production on GR I think...

but yea it is still a phenomenal album...Im gonna go listen to it right now...

 

[AutumnElegy]

Wow, threads these days

pretty much.

I love ghost reveries, but its pale in comparison to say...My arms your hearse and orchid, or all the older records that got me into opeth. Since then it has certainly grown on me and in fact i now love it tremendously. Any one who "hates it" or says "it sucks" is purely an idiot.

3:46 into beneath the mire is one of my favorite moments, "lost love of the heart..."