My first Opeth album was Damnation. I bought in in 2003 on a whim. Unbeknown to me at the time, Damnation was the new clean, mellow record recorded during the same sessions for 2002's metallic Deliverance. Damnation made an instant fan out of me. Finally, here was an album full of the 1970s progressive melancholy tones I loved in a modern form.
Over the next several months, I picked up Opeth's back catalog of metal recordings. Their 2004 live DVD was amazing and the accompanying documentary on Deliverance/Damnation was great.
Ghost Reveries came out in 2005 and I nabbed it on release day...the rabid fan I am. I cannot fathom this album is two years old in hindsight. I have carried it with me on most trips and the disc has more miles in my car than any other passenger these past few years.
The haunting sighs of the opening "Ghosts of Perdition" infest the mind. I frequently find it humming somewhere in my the back of my head.
"The Baying of the Hounds" is the best Opeth song. The sprawling epic begins with a charging Uriah Heep groove and gives away to a positive vibe and punishing instrumentality. The journey moves into a bass and drum driven meditation before the raging guitars return. The song continues to build to a pummeling crescendo until the cathartic climax opens the ears with beautiful acoustic melodies and atmosphere. The section truly sounds like being in some kind of angelic presence and it touches me EVERY single time I hear it.
"Beneath the Mire," "Atonement," and "Reverie/Harlequin Forest" continue the lush metallic symphony and bring the listener to the somber and introspective "Hours of Wealth."
"Hours of Wealth" instrumentally builds to sweeping mellotrons and drops to Mikael Akerfeldt's stripped down vocals and guitar. The song ends with a gorgeous David Gilmour-esque solo.
"Hours of Wealth" is the calm before the storm of "The Grand Conjuration" much in the way "Mood for a Day" clears the way for the onslaught of "Heart of the Sunrise" on Yes' classic Fragile album. "The Grand Conjuration" is one of those rare songs whose title really says it all. The sinister track is full of aggression. The final song, "Isolation Years," sounds like the end of the war and is a fitting, quiet closer for this masterpiece.
The 2006 re-release of Ghost Reveries includes their cover of Deep Purple's ballad "Soldiers of Fortune," which is top notch.
This spring, Opeth will release a new album and it makes me feel neato.
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