Ghost Reveries

Ghost Reveries is the eighth full-length album by Swedish progressive metal band Opeth. It was released on August 29, 2005. It was their first album after signing with Roadrunner Records, and first album since Still Life to not be produced by Steven Wilson.[3]

Ghost Reveries
Studio album by
Opeth
ReleasedAugust 29, 2005 (2005-08-29)
Recorded15 March – 1 June 2005
StudioFascination Street Studios (Örebro, Sweden)
Genre
Length66:46
LabelRoadrunner
Producer
Opeth chronology
Damnation
(2003)		 Ghost Reveries
(2005)		 Collecter's Edition Slipcase
(2006)
Singles from Ghost Reveries
  1. "The Grand Conjuration"
    Released: July 26, 2005

Ghost Reveries is the first album by Opeth to include keyboardist Per Wiberg as a "permanent" member (although Wiberg contributed keyboard work to Opeth's live performances starting around the time of Lamentations), and it is the last Opeth album to include drummer Martin Lopez and long-time guitarist Peter Lindgren.[4]

The album's only single is "The Grand Conjuration". A music video of the song was released, although about half of the song was edited from the video, due to the length of the song. Lopez does not appear in the video, as he was sick and was temporarily replaced by Gene Hoglan.[5]

Background

For the first time since Still Life, the songs for Ghost Reveries were written for the album before going into the studio. This gave Opeth three weeks to rehearse and perfect the recording in the studio. The band had to decide whether to record the album at Fascination Street Studios in Örebro, Sweden, or at Sonic Ranch. They eventually chose Fascination Street Studios, as it was closer to their homes.

Style

The album marks a temporary return to the progressive metal styles of the previous albums and features death growls, though still includes some of the progressive rock elements of Damnation.

Ghost Reveries was initially intended to be a concept album, with numerous tracks linking together a story of a man's turmoil after committing an unconscionable act, symbolised by killing his own mother. However, Mikael Åkerfeldt commented:

"I had intended to do a occult concept piece lyrically and got off to a great start with some downright evil lyrics like "The Baying of the Hounds" and "Ghost of Perdition", then I did "Isolation Years" which had nothing to do with the intended concept but I liked it so much I decided to ease up on the concept idea in favour of this one lyric. Why I decided on a occult theme? Well, I've always been intrigued by it, especially Satanism and stuff like that. I studied some books that oddly enough my wife had in her collection like "Servants of Satan" as well as "Witchcraft and Sorcery" + some more. I figured it'd be interesting to see what a mature 31 year old mind would make of this subject as opposed to the 16 year old kid who used to pose in front of his Bathory poster. I'm quite happy with them to be honest, and they're ... evil!"[6]

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.

"The Baying of the Hounds" is partially inspired by lyrics from the song "Diana" from Comus's album First Utterance.

Artwork

The artwork was created after the completion of the album. Åkerfeldt commented on the artwork, saying:

"I'd been looking for one of the old medieval looking woodcuts, me and Peter went to the Royal library here in Stockholm looking for a evil (yep!) picture, but that was like searching for a needle in a haystack. Couldn't find one. In the meantime, I'd received some pics from good ol' Travis Smith. And as per usual with Mr. Smith, he's a genius ... the candle pictures just blew me away ... that's the cover, fuck the woodcuts! I love it! It's probably the most gothic looking cover we've had, right?"

Reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[2]
Blabbermouth.net[7]
Chronicles of Chaos[8]
Kerrang![9]
Pitchfork Media8.4/10[10]
PopMatters[11]
Terrorizer[9]

Ghost Reveries received critical acclaim and peaked on the Billboard 200 at number 64.[12]

In 2014, TeamRock put Ghost Reveries at #46 on their "Top 100 Greatest Prog Albums Of All Time" list commenting that "this was a partial concept album, with Satanism as its theme. It’s now regarded as one of the defining albums of 21st-century progressive metal."[13] Loudwire placed the album at #3 on their "Top 100 Hard Rock and Heavy Metal Albums of the 21st Century" list, only being beaten out by System of a Down's Toxicity (#2) and Tool's Lateralus (#1).[14]

Release

Ghost Reveries was released in Europe on August 29, 2005, and in North America on August 30, 2005.

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 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 (not including 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.[15]

Some copies of Ghost Reveries were mastered using HDCD. Although it is unmarked, playing the album in a CD player able to decode HDCD will give superior sound quality.

"Ghost of Perdition" is included in the soundtrack for the video game Saints Row 2 on the radio station Krunch 106.66.[16] As of November 29, 2011, it is also available for download for the video game Rock Band 3. "The Grand Conjuration" is included in the soundtrack for the video game Sleeping Dogs, on the radio station "roadrunner records". It is also included in the soundtrack for the video game Final Fight: Streetwise, being the boss battle theme song of one of the game's bosses, Famine.[17]

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

Track listing

All tracks are written by Mikael Åkerfeldt[18].

No.TitleLength
1."Ghost of Perdition"10:29
2."The Baying of the Hounds"10:41
3."Beneath the Mire"7:57
4."Atonement"5:23
5."Reverie/Harlequin Forest[lower-alpha 1]"11:39
6."Hours of Wealth"5:20
7."The Grand Conjuration"10:21
8."Isolation Years"3:51
Total length:66:46
Notes
  1. "Reverie" appears after 5:23 in "Atonement". On the CD version, it appears in the pregap between "Atonement" and "Harlequin Forest". On the digital version, the pregap has just been added to the end of "Atonement".

Personnel

Band

Production
  • Jens Bogren – production, engineering, mixing, mastering (at Cutting Room Studios), 5.1 remix
  • Opeth – production, engineering, mixing, mastering, art direction, recording ("Soldier of Fortune")
  • Pontus Olsson – engineering ("Soldier of Fortune"), mixing ("Soldier of Fortune")
  • Rickard Bengtsson – recording
  • Anders Alexandersson – recording
  • Niklas Källgren – recording
  • Thomas Eberger – mastering

Additional personnel

Charts

Weekly
Chart (2005) Peak
position
Polish Albums (ZPAV)[19] 39
Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)[20] 10

Monthly
Chart (2005) Peak
position
Poland (ZPAV Top 100) 38[21]

References
  1. Cai, Freddy (June 23, 2009). "#10: OPETH – GHOST REVERIES". Metal Sucks. Forefathers Group. Retrieved December 12, 2015. Ghost Reveries is the most solid and progressive metal album I’ve heard this decade
  2. Jurek, Thom (2005). "Ghost Reveries - Opeth". AllMusic. Archived from the original on October 20, 2017. Retrieved November 15, 2017.
  3. "Opeth sign with Roadrunner Records". Blabbermouth.net. May 20, 2005. Retrieved June 2, 2014.
  4. "Peter Lindgren and Martin Lopez quit Opeth". Retrieved August 7, 2010.
  5. "'The Grand Conjuration' Video Posted Online". Blabbermouth.net. September 2, 2005. Retrieved June 2, 2014.
  6. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-01-30. Retrieved 2013-02-11.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  7. "Blabbermouth.Net". Roadrunnerrecords.com. Archived from the original on 2005-12-03. Retrieved 2012-01-14.
  8. "CoC : Opeth - Ghost Reveries : Review". Chroniclesofchaos.com. Archived from the original on 2011-06-16. Retrieved 2012-01-14.
  9. Archived September 2, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  10. Stosuy, Brandon. Ghost Reveries review 2007-01-02. Retrieved on 2010-11-26.
  11. Begrand, Adrien. "Opeth: Ghost Reveries". PopMatters. Retrieved 2012-01-14.
  12. "Ghost Reveries Number 64 on the Billboard". Retrieved August 7, 2010.
  13. Edwards, Mike. "The 100 Greatest Prog Albums Of All Time: 60-41". TeamRock. Retrieved 2018-02-11.
  14. "Top 100 Hard Rock + Heavy Metal Albums of the 21st Century". Loudwire. Retrieved 2018-02-11.
  15. "Ghost Reveries Special Edition". Archived from the original on July 17, 2010. Retrieved August 7, 2010.
  16. "Saints Row 2 Soundtrack". Retrieved August 7, 2010.
  17. "Final Fight: Streetwise Soundtrack". Retrieved March 3, 2020.
  18. "Opeth official website discography". Opeth.com. Archived from the original on November 28, 2011. Retrieved December 26, 2011.
  19. "Oficjalna lista sprzedaży :: OLiS - Official Retail Sales Chart". OLiS. Polish Society of the Phonographic Industry. Retrieved February 14, 2014.
  20. "Opeth: Ghost Reveries" (in Finnish). Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland. Retrieved October 10, 2016.
  21. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-10-08. Retrieved 2014-08-08.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
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