Ghost Reveries IS a masterpiece

GR, i have found is an awesome record to crank in the car. however if u really want to absorb yourself in opeth, then i'd try something else. it's almost so technically perfect and has such a full wall of sound, i feel like its impossible to force myself into it alone.
 
Korlich said:
How is GR not a masterpiece?

It´s got the BEST solos since Orchid.

It has has some great piano work.

Mike´s clean singing has actually improved on this record. Best clean singing since Still Life.

This album incorparates more styles and genres than any preveious Opeth record, yet it works as a whole.

Lots of accustic guitars.

Prodution simply slays BWP-D2.

Yes it´s not as mellancholic as Orchid-Still life, but so fucking what?

How I would love to dismantle the above, but, I've done so so many times since GR's release that one only needs to search my posts in the Opeth forum of late to see why I don't like the album.

Nevertheless, everyone is entitled to their opinions of course. I however, will turn my attention back to the most brutal of beauties in metal: Burzum.
 
I'm a bit of an Opeth newbie and GR is the first album they've brought out while I've been into them. It definitely is a different animal to older ones for me. I think it does have a glossier, more commercial or accessible feel to it. This is partly because the production is very high quality. This also makes the feel of the music absolutely massive and overwhelming. Obviously the band also has a full time keyboard player to tour this album, but on GR they've been playing with guitar tunings and this has affected the sound of solos and the overall feel too. I can understand how people who like the bleaker, heavier stuff might like it a bit less.

As to whether it's a masterpiece, maybe it's too early to say. Opeth albums take time to sink in anyway, but is any album an instant classic? When did Reign in Blood become a classic thrash album?
 
Ecto said:
I am with you. I guess people give too much attetion to what bands wear, their looking and about the label thing.
amen.

i'm actually quite surprised by those negative reactions, considering the wide array of music Opeth fans are into. I thought you guys were more open-minded? If Opeth made Still Life II, Still Life III, Still Life IV, you'd all complain that they've got no creativity left, just making the same record over again. The best part about Opeth is you have NO IDEA what they're going to do next, within a song, an album, or a career.
 
i think its a masterpiece. I also think Opeth are not capable of anything less. When Mikael sits down to write an album he is always looking to move things forward, and this certainly shows: vocally and lyrically this is up there with anything they have done, if not better. Ghost of perdition is definitely one of their finest moments, not to mention the rest of the tracks. Like someone said before, this is a grower and I think people will reevaulate their thoughts after time. When I first heard MAYH I wasn't too keen, but after like a week I was obviously in awe.

I think first and foremost Opeth are fucking amazing in everything they do. They are one of them bands where you know what you are gonna get with them (in that overall sublime mixture of beauty, melancholy and brutality), but they still manage to surprise you. I don't know of any 'metal' bands who are capable of this apart from the mighty Opeth, not to mention they have done it for 8 albums.

Fuck all you whining little shits who think they have 'sold out' or let themselves slip. Mikael would piss on you if he heard you say this. When I met him last month we discussed the whole RR issue and he laughed at the idea that some fans thought GR was gonna be a sell out record. When have Opeth ever jumped on any trends to make money is what he said...and what a fucking point, since we all know too well that if they really wanted they could do the 'chili peppers' thing and get mega famous.
 
Frankly i dont see why people say they sold out (yet again). This new albums a fucking masterpiece... it is darker than their previous albums and is more Opeth than Deliverance was (an awesome album i might add, but people think it sucked because it "doesnt sound like opeth"). GR is a fucking work of art that is a true masterpiece!
 
GR seems like a summary of every album they had previously released since MAYH. I do think GR is more mechanical or technical than their other albums. But I also see Opeth as trying to gain exposure and acclaim.. if people want to equate trying harder as selling out, ...

Masterpiece? I dunno.. but it's fucking great for sure.

Besides, teh mighty Opeth has enough raw fucking talent to create the trend, not join it - IMO
 
Korlich said:
Ok so a lot of ppl have been talking shit about GR lately, saying Opeth sold out, or that joining RR made them release a shitty prog/pop record etc. All I have to say too you ppl is learn to apprieciate Opeth for what they are an extreme metal act that loves to experiment with their music. Ok so maybe you don´t like this experiment ( I didn´t much fancy the experiment they made with Deliverance and Damnation)

My point is, this may NOT have been what you expected or hoped for but at least respect Opeth for maiking yet another solid musical effort.

Personally I think this is Opeth´s second master piece, the first one being Still Life. So if u you don´t agree with that fine, just don´t say a record containing Double pedal drums, growls and crushing distorted riffs isn´t metal music, and don´t say this record would have sounded different had it been released on a diff record label, we all know that´s a lie.
Still Life is NO masterpiece.
 
Dude, Still Life is their BEST album followed by MAYH - so yeah, it's OPETH's masterpiece, hehe.

GR is the BEST Opeth album put out since SL/MAYH - easily. I started listening to Opeth at Morningrise (not when the album first came out, though, but it WAS my first Opeth album) and there's NO WAY in hell I think GR is anything less than pure, kick-ass opeth music we should all be used to by now.

They rule, plain and simple. GR= album of the year.
 
Everything Opeth does is magical. It has nothing to do with anything other than the music and the vision brought forth by Opeth as a whole. A song like Baying of the Hounds represents everything Opeth has and ever will stand for. They have always been ahead of their game. Orchid and Morningrise were always favored BM records, at a time where you had to be a shitty sounding garage band to fit into the genre. Given, this is not their fastest record, but at times can be their heaviest. I hear bits and pieces from every aspect of their back catalog, and not rehashed, but peeking into the minds of Opeth and how they write their music. I along with the rest of you hope the next album is a little faster, but have no complaints in this record in any way. I actually prefer this album right off the bat than I did Deliverance, and the double album is a full masterpiece.

As for the emotional standpoint. Opeth has that unique vibe to their music. You can hear it in all of their records, from a song like Forest of October, to Night & The Silent Water, to Demon of the Fall, to Moonlapse Vertigo. It doesn't matter how the music is brought forth, The music itself is what matters. The story of Ghost Reveries didn't need more speed than it has at times, but needed the fair balance of brutality and beauty to catch the vision of the record. Opeth can never sell out. We're at a day and age where image is the deciding factor, and no one wants to waste their cash on a swedish death metal band that writes an occasional pop song here and there. All hail Opeth.
 
Am I the only one who doesn't like the production? To be honest: I think that only one Opeth Album has a production, I would call great. Blackwater Park...
 
Alcapoth said:
Dude, Still Life is their BEST album followed by MAYH - so yeah, it's OPETH's masterpiece, hehe.

GR is the BEST Opeth album put out since SL/MAYH - easily. I started listening to Opeth at Morningrise (not when the album first came out, though, but it WAS my first Opeth album) and there's NO WAY in hell I think GR is anything less than pure, kick-ass opeth music we should all be used to by now.

They rule, plain and simple. GR= album of the year.
:Again your opine. As for SL being the best opeth album, that's subjective also. I feel their creative peak and best work was MAYH, so we agree there (you said MAYH was good). Also, "album of the year", album of the year in what? Metal, prog, pop, overall. That statement is clearly opine dude! ;)
 
masteropuppetz66 said:
Frankly i dont see why people say they sold out (yet again). This new albums a fucking masterpiece... it is darker than their previous albums and is more Opeth than Deliverance was (an awesome album i might add, but people think it sucked because it "doesnt sound like opeth"). GR is a fucking work of art that is a true masterpiece!

why do people keep calling GR dark? I swear, you're all crazy. I think it's the LEAST dark Opeth album. MAYH, THAT is a dark album. Not GR.
 
Header said:
Am I the only one who doesn't like the production? To be honest: I think that only one Opeth Album has a production, I would call great. Blackwater Park...
Got to agree there, everyone tauts SL as being great. Well, BP and SL are very similar. I always thought that BP was the perfected sound and what they were trying to accomplish in that era, with SL being more of a prototype to that sound. SL is like BP but it is just not as good. Again that's my personal opine!
 
Harlequin Forest might be Opeth's best song, but 'Ghost Reveries' is very flawed/incosistant as a whole album. Not as good as Deliverance,BWP,etc...

The order of songs is weird in my opinion. They should not have ended the album with a short,soft song. 'the grand conjuration' sounds like an opening track but it's put at the end of the cd between 2 shorter soft songs. After HF the album no longer climax's. Blackwater Park ends with BWP which is the biggest climax,best song on the album. Deliverance ends very strong also along with Still Life.

TGC would have been better if the intro riff did not come back into the song around 8 minutes. I noticed a lot of interesting abstract things in the song that add a lot if you forget about how repetitive certain sections are.