As (nearly, there's Damnation after all) always in case of Opeth, the music is a combination of straightforward death metal with a progressive edge, more melodic and melancholic sections, and the calmest, mostly acoustic parts. On Ghost Reveries, all three are executed and combined with perfection and finesse, as the music can pass from crushing riffs and deep growling to acoustic guitars and clean vocals within 30 seconds, and it feels entirely natural. However, this time the focus is definitely on darker parts, even though there are four songs feeling – more or less – lighter than the others. The longest one of them, and actually also the longest composition of the album, called Reverie/Harlequin Forest, is an impressive work with a more melodic approach, some beautiful guitar leads and solos, and also an amazing combination of clean vocals and heavier riffs in the first part. It's still not void of heavier parts with growls, which are very nicely combined with the rest, but this time it's not the main part. This song also perfectly displays another strength of the album – the incredible use of keyboards and mellotrons. This is the first Opeth album recorded with Per Wiberg, and also the first “normal” album using the keyboards so extensively - they're present pretty much from start to finish of Ghost Reveries, they hardly ever take the lead, and greatly add to the whole sound. They're used to great effect in the heavier sections, just as the first half of The Baying of The Hounds and intro/outro of The Grand Conjuration, but obviously, it's the lighter parts in which they have more space and importance. The Grand Conjuration, entire song, because it’s the only song on Ghost Reveries that comes close to the original Opeth songs. Opeth has always had the right edge for creating some fairly talented songs. However, this album had me falling asleep after the first two songs. I feel myself drifting off to sleep everytime I listen to this piece of shit. In their last albums, they at least had the common decency to make their songs shorter and more interesting. As for the production, I’ve heard better ones. It’s beautiful if the music creates a bit of “gap” between you and the music. But Ghost Reveries sounds so close and direct, it’s like they’re pushing you against the wall. Also, everything sounds so sorted out and under controle. Computer-generated silence, lead and rhythm guitar at exactly the same volume, the growls even seem to sound softer than the clean vocals. It would be more beautiful, and less boring, if it were a bit rough. This album just seems too decent, especially for an EXTREME prog band!

The major flaws of this album are the mellow songs, and more specifically Hours of Wealth and Atonement. It is not that they are outright bad, but totally unremarkable. Isolation Years is the one song that does not deal with the Occultism concept and is also mellow, and while it should perhaps not be in this album, it is a good song. The other problem is Reverie: Harlequin Forest, a song that starts great but doesn't keep the same quality over the minutes and is too repetitive. Not a bad song either, but would be immensely better if trimmed some. Heh, The Grand Conjuration. This is the song that came out and everyone was like "OMG Opefth iz teh d00med!". There's about six minutes of good material here, dragged into ten. There's good drum work and keyboard work at 1:20. Then there's heavy, then light, then heavy, then light. It's a VERY typical Opeth song, sounds right off Still Life. It's got some killer heavy parts and good light parts, but it's about 2-4 minutes too long.Ghost Reveries peaked on the Billboard 200 at number 64 [23] and number 62 in the UK. [24] The album reached number nine in Sweden, higher than any previous Opeth release. [25] Jurek, Thom (2005). "Ghost Reveries – Opeth". AllMusic. Archived from the original on 20 October 2017 . Retrieved 15 November 2017. The screams we're a blast. I can't wait to see the footage (Yes, documentary again courtesy of Fredrik Odefjärd) of me screaming my balls off. Offiziellecharts.de – Opeth – Ghost Reveries" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved 3 November 2021. The album closer, and shortest song on display, is a nice little quiet piece called "Isolation Years". Basically, if you like "Hours Of Wealth", you will like this one. Quiet, acoustic, with a bit more bass guitar, and more mellotrons and more emotional singing. The final synth and acoustic guitar fadeout closes the album beautifully.

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Ghost Reveries displays some of the best song writing the band has put out to date, which is saying a lot. Opener, Ghost of Perdition, is a fine example of a song with almost permanent replay value, which in the end is what matters most. If you can still listen to an album months and years after buying it, the band has done something right. The Baying of the Hounds is another lengthy good listen but the album begins to slow down after that. Atonement is just sort of boring, not bad but doesn’t seem to fit properly with what’s around it and doesn’t offer any new aspects to the music. Hours of Wealth on the other hand is an acoustic song that does work really well. It sounds sort of like a Damnation highlight. Just as you thought it was safe to doze off and have a nap, your ass gets a hard beating by The Grand Conjuration. It’s the heaviest song on the album and offers up that death growl from Mikael Åkerfeldt that fans know and love. After this we get Isolation Years which is another all acoustic piece and a great conclusion to Ghost Reveries.

Nowadays, Opeth is one of the most criticized band within the metal circles. Mikael Akerfeldt probably is one of the best metal composers at the moment (perhaps I'm a fanboy, but oh well) and he is constantly criticized and accused of selling out - first because of the Damnation album and then because of the signing with Roadrunner; he is criticized because all Opeth songs are too complex and disjointed; he is criticized because Opeth is now loved by the same boys and girls that scream “Metal!” when listening to Avenged Sevenfold. Anyways from a production standpoint this album is among the best I have heard... ever (from any genre). You really hear and predicted the emense amount of care, time and dedication it took to create this album. The one thing that really caught my ear was that the guitar sound is huge. Also this is the first album with their new keyboardist Per Wilberg and his additions to the band are spectacular. Now for the songs: Oficjalna lista sprzedaży:: OLiS - Official Retail Sales Chart". OLiS. Polish Society of the Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 14 February 2014. Musically, “Ghost of Perdition” and “Isolation Years” are the keepers here, creating a sense of awe that bring to Opeth the respect they deserve. Those two songs also feature some of the best Mikael's vocal performances ever. He has improved a lot, from the almost monotonous (but still beautiful) performance on Morningrise to the terrific (in a good way, obviously) one on Damnation. On Ghost Reveries he reaches his peak, clean voice-wise. His growls sound a bit more forced here than on, say, My Arms, Your Hearse (after all he is older now) but this album is, vocally, EXCELLENT, in every sense of the word.

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There are surely few bands that can rival Opeth, in terms of dissent amongst fans. Heritage is something of a battle line, over which self-appointed ‘true fans’ lob ire at their favorite band’s softer, ‘sell-out’ phase, while some (myself included) are fond of just about everything the band made after Steven Wilson got involved. There are, however, a few seemingly universal points of agreement. Ghost Reveries is just such a point, a near-universally (and rightly) lauded work that is, in my mind, the quintessential Opeth album. Listy przebojów - Muzyka w INTERIA.PL - teledyski, koncerty, nowości płytowe, dobra muzyka, listy przebojów". Archived from the original on 8 October 2013 . Retrieved 8 August 2014.