It’s a powerful track driven by keys and Forge’s silky-smooth delivery wrapping this one up with a bow, all this before Prequelle removed any doubt about the band’s true intentions. Transitioning to “He Is” fans of the band were witnessing the band’s somewhat conservative level of experimentation in real time. “Cirice” is a slow burn with upwards of a minute before the songs really gets cooking, allowing the listener to bounce along with the band before a piano breaks through off in the distance, creating an ample amount of disparity between the lyrical grandeur of “I can feel the thunder that’s breaking in your heart, I can see through the scars inside you”. Vibrant bass work announces the arrival of “From the Pinnacle to the Pit” to unsuspecting audiences, maintaining a healthy balance of beauty and darkness within the choral structure, continuing their infernal quest to keep both sides in a constant power struggle. Drums blare before giving way to a church organ that carries the first track while giving way to Forge’s vocals and riff structures. Opening their third album Meliora with “Spirit” is a powerful move. Recommended Track: “Dance Macabre” Loma Vista Recordings 3. Prequelle’s release saw the band trying to tackle some of their first arena-based shows, effectively giving credence to the idea that Ghost were shifting into world domination mode. Songs like this show the immense flair for grandiosity that becomes more and more prominent with each subsequent Ghost release. They can change the album’s entire feel on “See The Light” giving ample room for Forge’s wonderful vocals to take root. “Faith” has tremendous riffs that create an aura of floating specters allowing them to take part of this mass as Ghost’s de facto parishioners. Songs like “Rats” and “Dance Macabre” feel large and anthemic, with plenty of power chords changing the way the songs feels as it tends to turn on a dime. Lyrically this is very Coven-esque with a shiny and sweet exterior. They eschew some of the early love for bands like Black Sabbath while still remaining firmly entrenched in an unabashedly occult observance. With Prequelle Ghost became a fully fledged satanic AOR band with plenty of melody, not trying to hide the love of the likes of Cheap Trick. Recommended Track: “Year Zero” Loma Vista Records 4. However, we would all be very wrong, they were just getting their foothold in the market. and the identity of vocalist and songwriter Tobias Forge was revealed to the public alongside signing with Loma Vista, a contract that many of us at the time thought the label would soon regret. This was also at the time the band for legal reasons was briefly named Ghost B.C. “Jigolo Har Megiddo” is another highlight, heavy on the synths and guitar work giving that level of interplay a feeling of the past with a fresh coat of pagan paint. Infestissumam is a bit of an uneven affair with song placement at times feeling particularly questionable such as following up the aforementioned “Year Zero” with the comparably tame “Body and Blood” feeling as though the album itself lost a bit of steam which only comes back with “Idolatrine” and to a lesser extent “Monstrance Clock.” Speaking of “Idolatrine,” it might not get the recognition of some of the singles here but it certainly is interesting in how it started to incorporate much more progressive elements including synths creating a big Deep Purple vibe. “Year Zero” pulls no punches in terms of their obscene influence, almost immediately invoking the name of Satan as part of Ghost’s ultimate cause. How did a band on Rise Above Records whose identities were shrouded in mystery go on to become the face of hard rock? Let’s look at their five albums ranked to see the transitions made by Tobias Forge and his rotating cast of nameless ghouls. Once contemporaries of Blood Ceremony and Sabbath Assembly, influenced by Black Widow and Coven with added flair from King Diamond, Ghost are now a band that put all of those influences in a blender and added a layer of grandiosity a la Alice Cooper’s later career with a pinch of Queen thrown in for good measure. Ghost are a Swedish rock/metal band that have gone from thoroughly inauspicious beginnings to one of the true critical darlings of the musical world.
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