Some artists have proved intimidating to write about. It feels completely futile attempting to communicate how important a song or band has been to you. Such is the case with Sweden’s Opeth. You will find many professing Opeth is the one of the most important bands in modern metal — something which is an absolute fact for anyone following the genre. Nor will you find a shortage of music reviews demanding you understand how a particular Opeth album or song is superior to another. But those kinds of statements don’t mean much to me. I was blown away by Opeth in 1995 when I obtained their debut “Orchid” from a friend running a European metal distribution service, as I mentioned in my Unanimated post. I have subsequently been astonished over and over again – for 10 years now — how Opeth can consistently release album after album of the most elite quality emotionally laden melodic metal available.

So you can imagine how difficult it would be for me to choose an album, much less a song to talk about. Of course no song can cover the immense spectrum of musical territory Opeth has covered either. Would I choose from “Orchid” or “Morningrise“? Without a doubt the most nostalgic albums to me from the group. Or would I choose a song from the masterpiece “My Arms, Your Hearse“, or the unbelievable “Still Life“? Or would I choose a song from “Damnation“, an album so important I can’t easily express it with words.

My solution to this dilemma was to just pick a song from the latest Opeth album, entitled “Ghost Reveries” (just released on August 30th). Thankfully Dark Dose is not a review site, so I don’t have to go into ridiculous song by song detail, or even go into the intricacies of how it differs or compares to past works. Since the album is still new to me, I will just say the progressive metal/rock influences are the strongest they have ever been. One interesting observation I’ve recently read and found some validity in was “[on Ghost Reveries] … Opeth have gone from a death metal band with progressive tendencies, to a progressive band with death metal tendencies”. The album seems to be growing on me more with each listen. I try and not compare it with previous albums, because Opeth have the (fortunate) quandary of trying to top a back catalog which is literally packed full nearly flawless albums. So maybe it’s best to try and evaluate the album as an individual, or else face a high probability of being disappointed — it’s pretty hard to top a previous album or two you consider “a masterpiece”. Right? Opeth has impacted me as a musician and an individual — and I sincerely thank them for giving me ten years (and counting) of music I’ll never forget.

So with that, we will dig into an 11+ musical endeavor entitled “Reverie/Harlequin Forest” off Opeth’s latest “Ghost Reveries”. A big download, a long song, but definitely worth it. My favorite segment being from 5:10 (”they are, the trees”) on-wards — especially the spine-tingling, hair-raising, goose bump factory that occurs when Ã…kerfeldt’s guitar once again has listeners such as myself in pure bliss at 5:58. Enjoy.

Reverie/Harlequin Forest (Download)
Opeth (Artist)
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