Ghost - Prequelle
The game is up. The masquerade is over. Whether he dresses up as a pope or a cardinal: we know who is behind the once-mysterious phenomenon of Ghost, that lovable pretend-Satanic retro metal outfit. There's no more pretense that this band is anything but the gimmicky brainchild of one Tobias Foge and a host of replacable - and, indeed, replaced - ghouls. There's also no pretense that Ghost wants to be anything but a slightly louder version of ABBA, which is what I believe all Swedish bands secretly want to be in the first place.
It's a gimmick that only works if you've got the songs to back it up, and Ghost never would have made it this far if they didn't. "Rats", "See The Light", "Pro Memoria", "Life Eternal", after one or two spins they all settle cozily into the mind like old friends. As the mystery has been revealed, the songs are beginning to become more personal and hit closer to home. How does a band as gimmicky and alienating as Ghost sound so warm and snug?
Foge is utterly shameless in subverting all cliché's of serious metal music. "Miasma" has a screechy saxophone solo, and "Danse Macabre" is such a phenomenally cheesy song that Foge missed a trick by not adding a Eurovision-style modulation at the end. But, so what? I quite like louder ABBA. Much of the metal gatekeeping squad hates Ghost. I say they could learn a thing or two from them.
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