Review Summary: Holding her down, channeling darkness...
Well, I suppose there was nowhere to go but down from here. Damnation saw Opeth at their peak, the best they would get in the eyes of myself and many fans. And understandably so. They went on a 5 album streak of pure perfection, even longer to some. And it makes sense that their 8th album is the one that dips a little. It's just a fairly typical Opeth record. But that's not to say at all that this is a letdown. Far from it.
Typically, Opeth have toyed with their extreme sound again, this time making it more theatric and gothic, like a good Edgar Allan Poe piece backed by extreme progressive metal as opposed to... well, Opeth. They always sounded gothic and dark, but I think it's a testament to how great those early records are that they can't truly be compared to anything else. This is a little more accessible, and thus opens itself up more to comparisons, particularly Poe lyrically, and Tool instrumentally, in my opinion. The songs on Ghost Reveries are all tuned down to Open D, which is similar to what Tool uses (Drop D), and most of which are all in the key of D, which is the key Tool plays in almost exclusively. This isn't to the record's detriment, it's quite the opposite, really. It leads to somewhat more chuggy and heavy riffs, like the "devil cracked the earthly shell" part of Ghost of Perdition. It sounds unlike anything Opeth have done before, taking more notes from that area of progressive metal, and adding it to their own. It certainly doesn't sound like a rip-off, this is still most certainly an Opeth record. But the sound just doesn't appeal to me in the same way that the likes of Still Life and Deliverance do.
Ghost of Perdition is among the best songs the band ever wrote. There are tons of contenders in that area, but this is killer from start to finish, utilizing the new key and tuning to the utmost of perfection. The Baying of the Hounds and Beneath the Mire follow it up fantastically, with Beneath the Mire maybe being my own personal favorite track off the album. The keyboard work on the song complements it so perfectly, and adds to the gothic, haunted house feel gorgeously. But Reverie/Harlequin Forest runs into the problem that a few cuts on here run into, that being that they feel a bit too long. I wouldn't say any of the songs on here truly suffer for it, all of them are good if not great, but some feel like they overstay their welcome a bit, making the album a little harder to sit through the entirety of for me. Oddly enough, the song that probably suffers from this the most, The Grand Conjuration, is still one of my highlights. This song really should not have been ten minutes long. If it was cut in half, it would be my favorite on the album and a serious contender for my favorite across the discography. But it relies on one or two parts far too much for its runtime, and that kneecaps it completely. Even though I still highly enjoy it, it's probably the biggest example of this length problem. Others are Atonement, Hours of Wealth, and the previously mentioned Reverie/Harlequin Forest, but all of those are still worth listening to in one way or another. They all have different parts worth hearing, even if I don't find said parts completely engrossing. But once you hit the five minute mark of the Grand Conjuration, you've heard everything interesting that song has to offer, and that's a problem if the song is ten minutes long.
Overall, Ghost Reveries is a solid record, and one I return to often, but far from my favorite. It really comes down to a matter of preference as to which is your favorite in this era of Opeth, and this one in particular just didn't do it for me as much as some of the others did.
Favorite Tracks: Beneath the Mire, The Baying of the Hounds, Ghost of Perdition, The Grand Conjuration (with a serious caveat)
Least Favorite Tracks: Atonement, Reverie/Harlequin Forest
