Title: Ghost Reveries
Style: Combo of Death Metal and Classic Rock (Yep its true)
Grade: A-
Curve: Very Hard
All Music Link: Click here
Comments: Opeth is one of those bands that attracts a small (compared to mainstream bands) but fanatical following. The fanatics were somewhat disappointed with this offering as they felt it wasn't as heavy as they thought it would be based on the comments of the lead singer (silly fanatics). This one is plenty heavy but also has many soft moments and passages as well (see style). The singer switches between melodious singing and death growling. The clean singing is more than a change of pace though as the singer really puts his all into these parts. All but one song is over 5 minutes and five of the eight tracks are over seven minutes long. Combine the song length, the death growls, the tempo changes and the abrasive metal parts and you have one tough listen for the uninitiated. If you like heavy music and can stand the growling the payoff is great music where you'll discover something new with each repeat listen. The minus in the grade is due to a bit of meandering at times but this is highly recommended.
Reviews Explained:
Artist, title and grade are self explainitory.
Style is like genre except its a statement instead of a label.
Curve is how "familiar" or "foreign" the music is likely to sound to someone familiar with the general category (e.g. rock, metal) but not the particular style (e.g. symphonic black metal, 70s art rock). Easy means the listener would "get it" right away whereas hard means that the listener may be "put off". This could be due to longer soug length, unfamiliar or ever changing rhythms, melodies, tempos and / or hooks or the dreaded screaming, shrieking, growling vocals.
All Music link is the link to the reviewed album's page on All Music Guide's site. They (along with Amazon reviews) are the best place to look for info on music releases.
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