Band: Ghost
Song: Miasma
Album: Prequelle (2018)
Genre: Hard Rock
A good instrumental song can be a little hard to come by, but I think Ghost released a really good one without sacrificing their sound in any major way.
Sure, you could argue that missing out on the harmonized vocals is a major part of the whole show, but instead we get this fantastic saxophone solo, that would appear to be from everybody's favorite Ghost lore side character, Papa Emeritus Zero. At least that's what they set it up like live, so that's fun, right?
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Artist: Ghost
Album: Prequelle
Release Date: June 1, 2018
Genre: Hard Rock
Rating: 8/10
As much as I like Kanye, I will say that this album is the much stronger release of June 1st.
Ghost has had a bit of a wild last year, what with Papa Emeritus getting exposed as his real life self, old band members suing over a selection of reasons, along with some other stuff.
What is comforting to hear though, is that none of these issues harmed the album. It's honestly a quite nice album to showcase Ghost, the continuation of their new sound, and a hint at the more theatrical direction the band may be taking.
We have 2 instrumental tracks in here by the way, which is probably the biggest switch up from Meliora. Both Miasma and Helvetesfönster are some highlights of the album too, with Miasma rocking a bomb freaking saxophone solo. I honestly never expected to hear saxophone on a Ghost track, so kudos guys.
If you're looking for a song that rocks a darker tone, you wanna listen to Faith. Faith keeps it much more in line with classic Ghost themes as well, so don't miss out on that. There's some chugging elements, and the vocal work is just haunting enough.
Last track I'll highlight is Dance Macabre. I actually hated this one when I first heard it as a single. It seemed really different from Rats, and I wasn't down with that. Since listening more though I've noticed that it's basically the perfect reinvention of the Classic Rock sound. If somebody wants to bring back the genre sounding like Dance Macabre I'd be ok with that.
I'm gonna rate this an 8/10, because while it's a great album I know a lot of people (myself included) who were hoping for a slightly darker album. It's still great, but the general tone is much more Rock & Roll than I had anticipated.
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Band: Ghost (formerly Ghost B.C.)
Song: Rats
Album: Prequelle (2018)
Genre: Hard Rock
This song came out on April 12th, but we were deep in the middle of the A to Z so I couldn't exactly slide it into the flow. All good though, cause now I've had more time to listen to it and I won't just give you my knee jerk reaction to it. So that's cool, right?
Let's cut to the chase, I love this song. It gives me great hope for the album and the quality of songs we can hope to find. It was actually enough to get me to preorder the music, which I don't usually do.
This was also the fun unveiling of the "new" singer of Ghost, Cardinal Copia. This is a big deal, because he's not the next in the Emeritus line. Everybody was kinda assuming We'd be getting Papa IV, but instead it's this other dude. If you watch Ghost's mini series on YouTube you can catch up with the reasoning in the official Ghost lore.
Now back to the song.
Square Hammer is my favorite Ghost song of all time, and it's in my favorite songs of all time period as well. This song reminds me of it a lot, which is something that excites me greatly. Theme wise we're kicking into the middle ages with the black death. New themes are always good, and having this be what they're coming after is a good thing in my opinion.
The video is a blast too, so take a second to watch it.
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Meliora was hands down Ghost's best album. Musically I liked some of the tracks on their older stuff a lot, but they finally switched away their lyrics from being all "satan and the satanic satans are totes evil satans". Like, that's still there and stuff, but it's less in your face like the first two albums.
The music is a lot better too actually. I really loved a lot of what they had going on with the guitars in this one. That's probably because the backing band for Ghost has changed several members out since the first album was written, so there's some new creative talent in there.
Either way here's a rather dope track off of Ghost's best album.
Band: Ghost
Song: Monstrance Clock
Album: Infestissumam (2013)
Genre: Rock, Metal
Ghost is probably my favorite satan themed band. They've got that heavy aesthetic going on but they manage to keep it from being abrasive like a lot of Black Metal bands do. Well as someone who follows the band I was rather shocked to find that there was a massive upset in the power distribution of the band recently. By recently, I mean Friday evening, September 29th. I'm sitting at a wedding reception when I get a little alert from Google that there's a little news thing on Ghost. Assuming it's something like tour dates or maybe a new album announcement I was kinda excited so I opened it.
Imagine my surprise that the headline was talking about how the singer was dragged off stage in the middle of the last song by security.
Watch the video to see what all happened. Looks like it was something shot by a fan, so audio quality is a little iffy, but take the time. It's only like, 2 and a half minutes long.
So here we are at the clear biggest part of the night, and right in the middle of some heavy crown response Papa Emeritus III get's dragged right away. The band clears soon after and a new figure, revealed as Papa Emeritus Zero. I'm assuming this will open up some new "back story" with Ghost and the whole mythos they've been building up.
Papa Zero addresses the crown however, and speaks a phrase in Italian.
"The party is over, the middle age is now beginning"
That's the mostly translation of what Papa Zero said the other night. Every time they've replaced the singer in the past it's been because a new album is coming, so I'm rather pumped about this. To be fair, the old singer has never been dragged off the stage in such a public manner as this. I'm seeing this as the "punishment" from Papa Zero for the reveal of the actual identity of Papa III and the court issues that arose. Realistically the band will keep the same singer they've had the whole time, but now we get to have a new set of face paint, a new outfit, and a new number I've loved each reincarnation we've had so far, so here's hoping things go well this next cycle, yeah?
So yeah, sorry not sorry for the repeat song, have fun!
To round out this wonderful week of covers I give you Ghost's cover of Missionary Man.
At first I didn't realize that it was a cover, but basically as soon as I kinda listened to it a second time I realized that it really doesn't sound like one of their songs. They managed to really take it and give it their flavour, but it's still noticeably not theirs. I like it.
This is the lovely end of Cover Week, and I hope you liked the songs I showed you. Coolio, it was fun.
Hold the freaking phone, Ghost just released an EP to accompany the "Popestar" tour and this song is straight up amazing.
Like, I'm not the biggest fan Ghost has ever had, but you really can't knock the style they do everything with, ya know? The fact that they took this band from "just another satan band" and turned it into such a huge Horror Rock piece is terrific. The music is solid too, it's like old 80s Sabbath era Metal with better sound quality.
And let's not even get started on this music video. It's like, a horror movie from the 30s or something and you need it in your life, please please please watch it. For me.
Also even cooler news, THIS IS THE BEGINNING OF YEAR 3 OF THIS BLOG! hypehypehypehypehypehypehypehypehypehype
I really love Ghost, they're a really great band that in my mind have earned pretty much everything they've gotten so far. Except for the tag of Metal, I don't know how they scored that since they only kind arate as hard rock in a couple songs.
I really should probably just tag them as rock, so I'm gonna change that now.
Hey hey, good tunes though that I hope you enjoy as much as I do. This is of their 2015 album that I loved so very much, check it out if you haven't yet, I'm sure you'll at least appreciate it.
Did you ever watch Lawrence Welk on tv? The Polka King of the Midwest?
I don't suppose you ever wondered what it would look like if they had taken a Metal band a put them up there, did you?
Well you're in luck, because this is exactly what it would have looked like.
Ghost is an absolutely wonderful band, really. They've got the whole costumed thing down even better that guys like Slipknot and the like because they live this too. They have elaborate personas that they take up when they are in costume that it's honestly impressive to think their families don't know who they are for the most part.
For real, they keep the fact that they do this secret from friends and extended family. That's what I call devotion.
Band: Ghost / Ghost B.C.
Album: Meliora
Total Tracks: 10
Release Date: August 21st, 2015
Genre: Rock, Metal
Language: Some tracks
Themes: Satan
First, let's all be happy for Ghost that they finally get to drop the "BC" tag. They've apparently hated it for ages and they got to dump it, so good for them.
Now I know I literally just said that I was gonna be focusing on other music for a while, but I was actually planning on doing this review. Issue was it was released while I really distracted so I missed it. Now lets get onto the review.
My main impression is their music is like Deep Purple, but haunted. I don't really know what I mean by that, but if you're familiar with Deep Purples sound you'll kinda get what I mean.
That bass solo and riff in From The Pinnacle To The Pit is really good. Like, the line itself, the tone, it's all really good. Then the guitar solo kicks in and it ties together as one of my favorite intros on the entire album.
The whole thing is a well put together act with their traditional prominent bass parts and general horror/religious theme. They've got a "new" singer who is "younger and more powerful" than Papa Emeritus II, but in reality is the same singer. It's an amusing trend they have actually. With each album they get a "new" singer who is just the same guy with a new makeup job.
I was actually really surprised the first time I heard them. I was expecting super heavy dark music and it was like, pop metal. Not quite Linkn Park level, but still different then I thought it would be. This album sounds a lot more like what I had original assumed they would sound like.
All of the tracks are really good, so pick a spot and listen. I'd advise From The Pinnacle To The Pit, Cirice, Mummy Dust, Majesty, Absolution or Deus In Absentia.
Heck, the whole album is only 41 minutes. Listening to the whole thing won't even take that much of your day. Definitely listen to From The Pinnacle To The Pit or Cirice though, they're really good.
Band: Ghost B.C. (Ghost)
Genre: Rock
Themes: Satan
Oh the irony that I post this band on a Sunday...
Ghost is a bit of an interesting band. They're all "Satan-y", but you can be pretty safe assuming it's all just part of their stage act. I mean look at the singer, Papa Emeritus. There's no way you can take yourself seriously like this, ya know?
I feel like it'd be a lot of fun to dress up like this and play though, costumes make a lot of things better and playing stuff like this is no exception.
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