Opeth – Reverie/Harlequin Forest

This song has a special recording trick. It starts with negative time values which makes it difficult to play this song correctly. The CD-Players which I used never played this part, although one played it when I hit the „pause“ button right at the end of the previous song „Atonement“. The MP3-Encoders I used all put the first part with the negative time indexes at the end of „Atonement“. Nevertheless, I think that this part actually is the „Reverie“ part which serves as a kind of prelude to the actual „Harlequin Forest“.

Section Analysis

Section

Time

Instrument

Function

Rpt

Text Hint

1

-01:07

Guitar

Prelude

6x


2a

00:00

Voice


2x

„Into the trees“

2b

00:38

Guitar

Solo

2x


3

01:17

Voice


2x

„A trail of sickness“

2a

01:36

Voice


2x

„Searching the darkness“

3

02:14

Voice


2x

„A trail of sickness“

4a

02:33

Guitar


2x


4b

02:42

Guitar



„There falls another“

5a

02:52

Guitar


3x


5b

03:07

Growl


2x

„Lose all to save a little“

6

03:28

Guitar


4x


7a

04:08

Guitar


2x


7b

04:17

Voice


2x

„Nocturnally helpless“

8

04:38

Guitar/Keys


4x


9a

05:04

Voice



„They are the trees“

9b

05:31

Voice

Keyboard Variation


„Roots are sucking“

10

05:57

Guitar

Duett

4x


11a

07:16

Voice


4x

„It is all false pretension“

11b

07:43

Guitar

Solo

4x


12a

08:10

Guitar


4x


12b

08:37

Growl


4x

„Stark determination“

12c

09:03

Guitar

Soft variation

4x


12d

09:24

Guitar

Outro



13

09:26

Growl


2x

„Now the woods are burning“

14

09:56

Guitar

Outro

8x


END

11:39





Statistics


Number

Repetitions

Average Length

Sections

14

1

0:51

Subsections

23

2

0:31

Observations

While other songs on Ghost Reveries often just hint at a beginning „verse-chorus“ structure before they wander and meander through uncharted Opeth territory this song actually presents a full „verse-chorus-verse-chorus“ setup with sections 2 and 3.

Inside the sections there is not much variation in this song. We don't find any of the „Riff-Voice-Solo“ substructures that other songs use.

There is, however, a structure that can be observed in the big picture. While „GoP“ and „BotH“ launch straight into full-blown heavy assault, this song starts of calm and very repetitiv with the „Reverie“ prelude (1), then kicks up gears into medium heavy territory in the verse-chorus sections (2-3-2-3) and finally reaches its first peak in the heavy sections (4-5). Sections 6-7-8 release the tension again in a kind of „chillout“ interlude. From section 9 onwards tension builds up again until section 12 and is carried over to section 13 and held through the whole of 14 right to end of the song. So, we have a very big picture structure „prelude – build up 1 – interlude – build up 2“.

Simplified Overview

1-(2-3-2-3)-(4-5)-(6-7-8)-(9-10-11-12)-(13-14)

Opinion

Another great song on Ghost Reveries with the one little flaw that it is difficult to listen to as a whole because of the negative time index issue. But apart from that: great! (Well okay, maybe the Guitar solo/melody in section 10 could do with two repetitions instead of four, but what the heck. Can aswell lean back and dream a bit before the Akerfeldt monster strikes again ;).

I love the slow, menacing riffs in sections 4 and 5. Section 9 which starts the second build-up has a quality about it that always reminds of the song „No quarter“ by Led Zeppelin, especially the keyboards in 9b. And I especially love the long outro, the tricky rhythm pattern. They repeat it eight times but I always can't get enough of it. I like it even more than the ending of „Deliverance“, which is also great. In my ears this rhythm pattern is a musical expression for the „pyre smoldering“ (which are the two last words of the lyrics in case you don't know).