I have only played the new album once but I was instantly struck by the very clean sound which I don't actually like and a few tracks had the same loud/quiet structure that did'nt give the tracks a huge amount of seperation. I still like it but it needs a few more listens until I can post a more acurate review.

Well first and foremost, the best and most creative album Opeth ever did, by a cakewalk, was Morningrise.

As far as goes what's come out since then, if you're talking the best set of melodies, riffs and complete songs, I agree that it's Ghost Reveries, though it's by no means at all innovative or anything.

Yeah, Morningrise is my favourite... I still haven't had a chance to give this a full listen, but my flatmate has been listening to it non-stop. From the songs I've heard, Burden seems to be my favourite, even if it is entirely clean. Holy ****, the shared leads in the centre (after the vocal part) are brilliant... they're just so fluid and bluesy.

And I guess I was right when I predicted Per Wiberg might have a bigger role in this - what about that 70s synth solo? :D

I don't think that Opeth have released a uniformly consistent album since SL, except perhaps Damnation which can't really be considered a typical Opeth album.

This album is very good on its own but is still disappointing.
I'd rate the individual tracks as;

Coil - awful, one of their worst songs ever.
Heir Apparent - excellent, great growls and will be a crowd favourite at their shows.
The Lotus Eater - arguably the best track on the album and with Opeth at possibly their most technical.
Burden - another great track, the ballad track of the album and worthy enough to be considered among songs like To Bid You Farewell and Face of Melinda as their best work. Reminds me a lot of older Porcupine Tree.
Porcelain Heart - good one, compared to The Grand Conjuration but far better than that disaster.
Hessian Peel - this is like Harlequin Forest from GR, decent track with no bad parts but nothing stands out much either.
Hex Omega - this is a bit repetitive like Porcelain Heart but is not unbearably so. Nice keyboards too.

I guess this has to be the most divisive Opeth album yet; while GR wasn't as brilliant technically it didn't get nearly as many negative reviews either. Also somehow despite trying many new things in terms of instrumentation the sound remains too much typical to the band.

People seem to expect Opeth to blow them away with every new album they release but it seems to me that they finally have reached their limits of musical expression and style. They still remain my favourite band overall but I'm sure that Watershed won't be album of the year for me.

I'd say it was Orchid even though it didn't have the varitey provided by the acoustics in BRI and To Bid You Farewell. It is probably the only Opeth album I still listen to regularly. As a whole I think the songs on Orchid is better than the ones on Morningrise.

Also the break part in Under the Weeping Moon about 6 minutes in is imo the best thing Opeth have ever done.

Edit: the poll seems to be broken btw.

The problem I have with Orchid is that it is so unpolished. I mean, it is a great album, but it was a bunch of ideas piled together at the last second. It was almost like the band just wanted to create the sound. I think the band was smart in doing this though. They established their sound early on and then polished that sound with Still Life and then polished it with a different tone on Blackwater Park. Morningrise, my favorite, is probably the most diverse record of theirs. The folk interludes were also done best on that album.

I think the best thing about Orchid is that I felt it had a sort-of black metal feel to it, which is way different then any of their albums. The guitars were lose and the band sounded like a folk black metal band. When they did My Arms, Your Hearse they moved much more into the death metal genre. That album, IMO, is the most death metal album they have made. Deliverance was heavy, but I thought that album had more of a progressive sound then death. It reminded me of Meshuggah with a more deathy sound.

More deathly sound than Meshuggah, eh? If Deliverance sounds more Death Metal than Meshuggah to you, I suggest getting your nerve endings checked out.

What I mean is Meshuggah is more chuggah-chuggah whereas Deliverence had a bit of that, but still had a really dark vibe to it. Meshuggah isn't really dark. I never found their albums dark, just heavy and dissonant.

Can i change my opinion to excellent?:D
This is turning out to be one of my favorites.
Might seem a bit fanboyish, but i came to this conclusion after listening to it more than 10 times!
Definitely gets better with more listens.

Agreed - it gets better with every listen... I still find Porcelain Heart to be a bit bland and boring, but the rest is top notch. I'll be damned if Burden isn't one of the best songs they've ever written and Heir Apparent isn't one of the most brutal.

They're definitely progressing too - there's a lot synth work throughout and they seem less restrained in that regard... for example, the chicken funk (in the words of a negative review I read) section in the Lotus Eater.

I'm changing my vote too.

Does anyone else think that the keyboard work in Hessian Peel sound like it is from Zelda OTC's Forest Temple? I don't know why, but it reminds me of the music from the Forest Temple.

I thought the same until I listened to it a bit more. I personally think the acoustic parts are better though. Opeth needs to make a folk album because I really want to hear more songs like Coil.

That is a great song. I love the ending where the acoustic guitar is slowly being detuned.