Ghost Reveries is Opeth's best album

[still day]

I'm in my vehicle a good 12 hrs a week so I get a lot of listening time there...I have a mp3 compilation with GR, BWP, Deliverence, and Damnation on it along with PT's Deadwing and In Absentia and I get the most excited when GR hits the queue closely followed by BWP and Damnation...
I think the production values on GR are by far the best and it like night and day when a/bed with an earlier album like Morningrise...esp on the heavier passages.
I'm not a hard-core connoisseur of all things metal, however since visiting this forum, I've discovered some that I like and a lot that I don't...but the thing I find re Opeth is that there's really no other band that comes up with the refreshing new take on guitar composition the way Mikael and Opeth does..take the intro to The Moor as a prime example...that riff is uber cool and thankfully their catalogue is strewn with these little gems...I don't know how Mikael comes up with these...but he really seems to have a knack for it.
I've been on an obsessive search trying to find any other bands that could surpass Opeth as far as composing similarly good shit...and while I've discovered some pretty cool stuff...none yet have had the mojo that opeth has....

 

[Braighs]

hmm...gonna go with BWP as best, whatever that means.
GR has some brilliant parts, but the sound gets stale in places.
of course Morningrise is my favorite. But that is just sentimental-value.

 

[Demilich]

I really should buy GR and MAYH some day, my collection's been incomplete for a long time!

 

[metalbuns]

"they're well put together, extremely emotionally affecting and beautiful, and lack the slight sloppiness older Opeth material had from time to time"

I don't know if I agree with you on the sloppiness part...but the part about the album being emotionally affecting and beautiful hits it right on the head. I can listen to that album over and over again finding that I never get tired of it, it hits these chords in me every time. I love it

 

[Igornopolis]

I'm a big Faith no More fan so I definetly love the more pronounced keyboards on Ghost Reveries. I though the album was ok at first but more I listened to it the more I was amazed. Now that I have gotten over the awe fase and my mind is not biased anymore, I can safely say that it is my favourite Opeth album.

 

[FreddieMercury]

My favs are BWP, Deliverance, GR, Still Life, MAYH, Morningrise, Damnation, Orchid. Although Ive only been listening to GR since it came out since I havent worn it out yet. Personally though I think I like Mikaels singing best on GR. GHOST OF PERDITIOOOOOOOOON!!! or THE EEEEEEYYYYYYYSSSS OF THE DEEEEEEVILLLLLLLL!!!

fucking metal, nuff said.

 

[S<issors]

One the best Opeth albums for sure imo, a huge improvement, i like it a bit more than Still Life, and for me it is tied with Blackwater Park as the best Opeth album. Damnation, Deliverance and MAYH are all great...not a fan of the 1st two albums though.

^ Pretty similar to my viewpoint.

I got into Opeth with GR, so none of the albums have any special nostalgia value for me; I bought them all at once and listened to them back to back.

Blackwater Park and Ghost Reveries are hands down my favorites; they're the most refined and listenable. Deliverance and Damnation are well put together as well, but they just don't have the staying power of BWP or GR. They each focus on an aspect of Opeth (brutality, mellowness) and so they lose some of their potential intricacy. My Arms and Still Life are both fucking fantastic (Serenity Painted Death is one of my favorite Opeth songs), but still a little unpolished and with lower production values. Still Life also happens to be obscenely intricate, which I can definately get into! As for the first two... I dunno, I guess Morningrise just doesn't really do it for me. I like prog, but the tracks feel unneccesarily lengthy for what they deliver. Orchid is the same way to some degree. There are certainly standout moments on both, though (I think I'm inclined to like Orchid a little better).

Basically, Opeth just keeps getting better.

 

[biggsy]

great album but the next one will kill it. this was a big step in the right direction. but it was just dipping a toe in the water. next album will be fully fledged genius.

 

[Dreadful]

orchid and morningrise will grow on you. I promise you that.

 

[bleeding hero]

i think ghost reveries is opeth's best album in terms of production and execution. but, IMO, nothing comes close to stirring the mind and soul as still life.

when i listen to that album i can't help seeing a myriad dark and sweeping images, like i'm being transported centuries into the past to witness firsthand the tragic story of our misshapen hero and his doomed love for melinda... the jagged silhouette of an obscure castle, the vast, muddy moor, a deep forest with a hidden lake, melinda, trudging through wet leaves and black branches... you may not see what i see, but there's just something so overhwelmingly sorrowful and emphatically dire about still life that makes it a wonder to listen to and get lost in.

with ghost reveries, i don't visualize much, if anything at all. that doesn't make it a crappy album - far from it. GR is a beauty, and opeth haven't sounded better. but the kick is different. on a musical level i enjoy it more that opeth's other albums - it's tighter, tastier, and the songs are more in harmony with each other somehow. there really isn't a dull moment. but for sheer imagery and emotion, still life is the album to beat.

 

[Scarlett Letterman]

easily their worst. no point listening past the first two tracks really

 

[Esplendor]

i think ghost reveries is opeth's best album in terms of production and execution. but, IMO, nothing comes close to stirring the mind and soul as still life.

when i listen to that album i can't help seeing a myriad dark and sweeping images, like i'm being transported centuries into the past to witness firsthand the tragic story of our misshapen hero and his doomed love for melinda... the jagged silhouette of an obscure castle, the vast, muddy moor, a deep forest with a hidden lake, melinda, trudging through wet leaves and black branches... you may not see what i see, but there's just something so overhwelmingly sorrowful and emphatically dire about still life that makes it a wonder to listen to and get lost in.

with ghost reveries, i don't visualize much, if anything at all. that doesn't make it a crappy album - far from it. GR is a beauty, and opeth haven't sounded better. but the kick is different. on a musical level i enjoy it more that opeth's other albums - it's tighter, tastier, and the songs are more in harmony with each other somehow. there really isn't a dull moment. but for sheer imagery and emotion, still life is the album to beat.

I couldn't agree more

still life rocks!