Since AsModEe isn't specific about who his last post was directed at I will reply to him as well. I dont really see where I gave any opinion at all about Opeth or about 'Ghost Reveries', and whether I am an Opeth 'fan' is beside the point. My post is to address the fact that saying that the production is too clean and sounds like it is pro-tooled as well as the comment that Ghost Reveries is "diluted and simplistic" with no other explaination is ridiculous. I think most people that call themselves metalheads care more about the image of the music than the music itself. Which brings me to one of the main points that most people seem to forget, and that is that 'metal' is music. Shit, sorry Opeth signed to Roadrunner. They must have wanted to make a living as musicians rather than having to work shit jobs for the rest of their lives so they could make the metal community happy. Let's face it though Roadrunner does sign a lot of bands that seem to take their image more seriously than their music. But did it really effect the kind of music Opeth made? I mean where are the 'hits' on 'Ghost Reveries'? Unless mainstream radio started playing ten minute songs back to back, I don't know. Having heard the record, I can't really say that there are many I IV V progressions there or 1, b2, b7 based riffs either. The fact of the matter is though that Opeth are quite popular now and as such have more resources to spend on recording and production as well as marketing. Which brings me to another point why would having more clear production be a bad thing? The more clean the production is the more exposed the musicianship is, and personally I would rather hear the playing if it is tight than have it all compressed and distorted. Bad production typically covers up a lot of shitty playing and good production tends to expose it. So why would you rather hear a tight band with shitty production? I ask this question every time someone bitches about how Emperor 'sold out' by having good production on 'Prometheus'. Those same people would be lothe to give any kind of synopsis of Emperor's compositional techniques too though, I would guess. In the end though the main point I am making is that comments like the hubster and others on this thread have made are more about their concerns that Opeth just aren't 'metal' enough anymore than what the record actually sounds like. I can't honestly see where Ghost Reveries is more or less complex musically than say Still Life or Morningrise. The style has changed and you might not like it, but I can't see how you can say it is more or less complex unless you are going to write a technical synopsis.
