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Ghost Reveries

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Ghost Reveries is the eighth full-length studio album release of progressive death metal band Opeth. It is their first album with their new record label, Roadrunner Records. This album is similar in style to Deliverance. However, it retains the atmospheric elements of Damnation with clean vocals that carry a more gothic quality than what was heard in previous efforts.

It is also the first album by Opeth to include Per Wiberg as a "permanent" member, although Wiberg contributed keyboard work to Opeth's live performances starting around the time of Deliverance. As well, this is the last album by the band featuring long-time guitarist Peter Lindgren and drummer Martin Lopez.

Background

Ghost Reveries was recorded at Fascination Street Studios in Örebro, Sweden. The album's artwork is by Travis Smith, who has contributed artwork to Opeth's previous releases. Ghost Reveries was released in Europe on August 29, 2005 and in North America on August 30, 2005 and peaked on the Billboard 200 at number 64. The album was also ranked number 54 on the October 2006 issue of Guitar World magazine's list of the greatest 100 guitar albums of all time. [1] It was also ranked 17 on Metal Storm's list of top 100 progressive metal albums of all time and one of Classic Rock‘s 10 essential progressive rock albums of the decade.[1]

The album's lone single is "The Grand Conjuration". A music video of the song has been released, though about half the song was edited from the video due to the length of the song.

Special edition

A special edition of the album was released by Roadrunner Records on October 31, 2006. It is packaged in a large digipak and contains a CD and DVD, along with new cover art and an extended booklet featuring extra album artwork and a letter from Mikael Åkerfeldt. The CD contains the original tracks from the album as well as a bonus cover of "Soldier of Fortune" by Deep Purple, which was recorded as a live take with the band's new drummer, Martin Axenrot. The DVD contains a Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound mix (though does not include the bonus track), a 40-minute documentary, and the video for "The Grand Conjuration". This documentary details the making of Ghost Reveries, offering a behind-the-scenes look at the band's day-to-day life while recording and touring.

Concept

Ghost Reveries was initially intended to be a concept album, with numerous tracks linking together a story of a man's turmoil after killing his own mother. However, Mikael Åkerfeldt claims he wanted the track "Isolation Years" on the album despite its irrelevance to the plot. Thus, the album only partly portrays a concept, not fully arranged in the poetic manner as previous releases such as Still Life and My Arms, Your Hearse.

Track listing

All lyrics are written by Mikael Åkerfeldt; all music is composed by Opeth, except where noted

No.TitleNoteLength
1."Ghost of Perdition"Note 110:29
2."The Baying of the Hounds"Note 210:41
3."Beneath the Mire" 7:57
4."Atonement" 6:28
5."Reverie/Harlequin Forest"Note 311:41
6."Hours of Wealth" 5:20
7."The Grand Conjuration" 10:21
8."Isolation Years" 3:51
Special Edition bonus track
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
9."Soldier of Fortune"Ritchie Blackmore, David Coverdale3:15

Notes

  1. ^ "Ghost of Perdition" is included in the soundtrack for the video game Saint's Row 2 on the radio station Krunch 106.66. [2][2]
  2. ^ "The Baying of the Hounds" is partially inspired by lyrics from the song "Diana" from Comus's album First Utterance.[citation needed]
  3. ^ "Reverie" is a pregap to "Harlequin Forest." In all modern CD players, the pregap to any track (except the first track) will be displayed as the end of the previous track. In this case, "Reverie" could be mistakenly seen as a "hidden track" to track four, "Atonement." If the listener "rewinds" from the beginning of track five on a modern CD player, a negative time will appear in the display, which is the "Reverie" pregap. "Reverie" should start playing at about 5:23 into "Atonement" or -1:05 before "Harlequin Forest."

Personnel

Release history

Date Release
August 29, 2005 Europe
August 30, 2005 United States

References

  1. ^ Classic Rock, February 2010, Issue 141.
  2. ^ "Saints Row 2 Soundtrack
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