Opeth's "Ghost Reveries" Killed Them, Still Haunts Them

Rarely do we encounter a single song that ruins an entire band's trajectory. Those kinds of moments are difficult to find, because most bands either go through a slow decline into mediocrity, or they make an abrupt shift that encompasses an entire album. The 'sell-out' accusations come from the latter, and the former is as cliche as they come. No, there's something special about being able to recognize at a specific instant when a band is never going to be the same, and knowing there's nothing that can be done to stop it. Once the momentum of success gets going, no one wants to slow down until they've milked it for everything it's worth.

Released twenty years ago, Opeth's "Ghost Reveries" is the album that marked the end of their 'glory days'. Now, depending on who you ask, that stretch is much shorter or longer than you might assume. Personally, I find the black metal tinged early days rather sloppy and unfocused. Opeth was still finding their way, and hadn't yet developed their songwriting chops. People will praise the twenty minute long "Black Rose Immortal" for being long, without noting that none of the parts have any transitions written between them. Opeth was a 'cut and paste' style of collage band, which might have some interesting pieces, but isn't a great illustration of talent for actually writing songs.

Their height started with "Still Life", and stretched through "Blackwater Park", "Damnation" (not necessarily "Deliverance"), and "Ghost Reveries". During this period, Opeth was an utterly unique band that was able to do things with metal no one else could. Imitators would spring up, but none of them got the pieces right, or had the ability to write any of those pieces quite as well.

Maybe the cracks started to show with the duology, but "Ghost Reveries" is where the band's fractured psyche would finally crumble to pieces. They squeezed out one more inferior album before making their dramatic shift to dad-prog, but "Ghost Reveries" ended the era. It all happened in one ten minute song.

"The Grand Conjuration" is the song that killed Opeth. It's also their biggest 'hit', which says a lot about the taste of the listening public. While the album starts off with the titanic "Ghost Of Perdition" that weaves through a flurry of beautiful musical moments, we can feel the inspiration slowing to a trickle as the album plays out. The opening trio are Opeth at their best, possibly exceeding even their best work. "Reverie/Harlequin Forest" is one of their most gripping numbers, blending crunching guitars with some of the best melodic singing Mikael Akerfeldt has ever put to tape. There's a forty minute core of the album that could be their masterpiece.

The new elements introduced pull from djent and drone, both of which combine to suck energy and life from the record. The slower songs "Atonement" and "Hours Of Wealth" stretch the simplest of ideas to the extreme, repeating dull parts until we reach our breaking point. With the album stretching more than an hour, those extra minutes are wasted, building frustration rather than anticipation. They don't provide a payoff that makes the wait worthwhile.

Then there's "The Grand Conjuration", which brings those attitudes to the band's heavier sound. For ten straight minutes, Akerfeldt basically plays the same three note riff, growling one of the most boring vocals imaginable. It's the exact same thing again, and again, and again, and... you get the point. The riff is barely interesting at all, and it is driven into our heads as if we're trying to remember a dry history textbook. Songs need to justify their length, and "The Grand Conjuration" is barely two minutes of unique content given ten minutes to stretch itself to the point of becoming distorted in our perception as we hang in the balance between consciousness and whatever happens when we space out.

That song became the band's 'hit', garnering them more attention than ever before. They in turn saw this and doubled down on the lesson they were learning. After one last gasp to prove they were complex artists, they made the dramatic swing towards simplicity. "Heritage" saw them streamline their music, but "Sorceress" saw them completely commit to the 'one riff per song' method of songwriting. They moved on to heavy groove rather than intricate melody, stomping rhythm rather than tides of emotion.

That modern version of Opeth has gone through several chapters of its own, each growing even more dull as Akerfeldt seemingly couldn't remember what the heart of Opeth's music was anymore. As the music got simpler, and quieter, his writing lost its sharpness. He sang more, but also more boring lines than when he wasn't relying on his voice to carry so much of the songs. It was sad to hear a band that was once so interesting become happy to noodle around on a couple of clean chords while letting the lighting show carry the hard work of being entertaining.

Even when Opeth recently tried to resurrect their history, they failed. Akerfeldt had so atrophied his writing chops that the return of growling and the cranking of guitars was buried in his obsession with lifeless concepts and refusal to write songs with any clear idea what the point of it all is. People loved it because it reminded them of the past, but it was a pale imitation of Opeth's identity, and a cheap attempt to rip off prestige tv. It didn't translate from visual to auditory media, and much like how watching rich assholes acting like rich assholes turns you into an asshole for wasting your time on such bullshit, Opeth is now a band you listen to with the knowledge you're listening to something you wouldn't actually want to spend time with.

And all of this was clear listening to "The Grand Conjuration". If that song had been the failure of lazy songwriting it should have been, Opeth's career might have been far different. It's success showed Opeth you could aim as low as you wanted and still please the unwashed masses. That's sort of what they did, and it's why Opeth is a tragic 'what if' story.

"Ghost Reveries" is aptly named, because it was the death of Opeth, and hearing how good they used to be haunts me every time I have to hear what they've become.