Ghost

Only just getting around to listening to the album. Some notes and impressions:
  • "Kaiserion" has such a happy tone to it. I like the scream at the beginning. This is definitely metallic in nature, it's just also weird in its use of what I assume is major key.
  • "Spillways" - yeah, this is very much a pop metal track, the piano is straight ABBA ("Money Money Money"). The vibe I'm getting right now is jarring. I love the guitar though.
  • The first song where I'm like, oh yeah, this is the Ghost I remember from the previous albums, is "Call Me Little Sunshine". Which also isn't very good. It feels more homogenous than last I heard it, but it's not something I think I want to return to very often.
  • I like "Hunter's Moon", but it seems cut from the same cloth as the vastly superior "Square Hammer". It's more fun hearing it on the radio than actually seeking it out.
  • "Watcher in the Sky" is great! It's obviously Ghost, but a little heavier than most of their discography and has some brilliant musical moments (love the guitar backing the chorus, and the bridge rocks). I don't care if Ghost are heavier or poppier so long as they're good, and this time doing something with more bite worked for them. Pretty killer.
  • I still like "Twenties" to an extent, but it's also a very stupid song.
  • "Darkness at the Heart of My Love" is the first real ballad on the album, and it's kinda shlocky. Has a better title than it does music.
  • There's actually a few different vibes I get from "Griftwood". The backing vocals sound like Def Leppard; the piano bridge sounds like Symphony X; the solo sounds like a hint at Randy Rhoads's classic multi-tracked guitar. I actually like most of the song, love the solo, but the bridge falls a bit flat for me.
  • What is the point of "Bite of Passage"? The other two instrumentals had something of a purpose, but this one is literally just part of the intro to "Respite on the Spital Fields". The actual song is actually really good; a quasi-epic ballad with a lot of great moments that comes together nicely. A great finish to the record.
This is all just first listen, and maybe things will get better with time, but right now I feel like it's a mixed bag. A couple great songs, some good ones, some that just don't really work for me. But then I've never been a huge Ghost fan, so that's kind of in keeping with their discography. Not wowed, but it's solid overall.
 
Give at a first listen and it's really good. The 3 I'd heard are the worst 3, particularly Hunter's Moon. First impressions on best tracks are the first and last and Watcher in the Sky.

There's a real 80's/retro sounds to it, Kaiserion has a Queen vibe and I've heard stuff on there that's very similar to Hold the Line, Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love and Kayleigh. Def Leppard style licks as well.

Also, the first album is still the best by a good way. At the moment, I don't want to jump the gun, but it's in the ball park of Meliora and Prequelle, even if it probably doesn't have the big hits of those on first impressions.
 
Yeah, it's real like the breakdown section in To Live is to Die. There's also a bit of the Kayleigh chord progression in there, which comes back in the last track too
 
Had an hour free on the exercise bike today and hadn't heard the new album yet so threw it on.

After only one listen I'm happy to call this my new favourite album of theirs. I adore it. Detailed impressions may come later.
 
Only listened to a couple of songs separately and liked almost all of them, Darkness at the Heart of My Love is my least favourite atm.
 
After more days and more listens I think my favourite song is Griftwood. The chorus is stuck in my head, especially the key changes in the outro.

Overall I just love the vibe of the album.
 
srfc said:
Spillways chorus is basically Poison by Alice Cooper:lol:
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Also the clean tone riff in Respite on the Spitalfields is basically just the Poison riff clean tone.

After a week listening, the album starts and finishes really strongly but is weak in the middle, specifically the section from Hunter's Moon to Twenties. Watcher in the Sky is pretty good but it kind of trails off at the end instead of finishing on a high, but the two tracks they've obviously put the effort in to become hit singles are piss poor. Twenties is rubbish, you might as well be listening to Limp Bizkit during the "listen up you muthafuckas" section, and Hunter's Moon has the arrangement of a pop single, not a good 80's hit, an actual current pop single, I wouldn't be surprised if some hit makers were brought in to edit that arrangement. It's the worst track on any Ghost release. The sad thing is there are two potentially great singles on there in Spillways and Griftwood. They got it spectacularly right on the last album with Dance Macabre and Rats, wrong big time on this one.
 
Some of those are weird, very mid-market locations. A few big cities (e.g., Toronto, San Diego) that make obvious sense but...Huntsville? Peoria? Saginaw??
 
Cornfed Hick said:
Some of those are weird, very mid-market locations. A few big cities (e.g., Toronto, San Diego) that make obvious sense but...Huntsville? Peoria? Saginaw??
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I saw that too. I'm guessing it's because they just finished up touring mostly the major cities, so now on this leg it looks like they're focusing on alternative markets instead of playing the same places over again.
 
Videotron Centre in QC is a 18,000 person arena, they won't sell that out. Place Bell in Laval is where Montreal's AHL team plays - 9k. Saw them there before, great little arena.
 
Finally got Impera! At my2d listen now...not sure if this equals Prequelle but I have a feeling this might be a grower. Oh...and beautiful booklet!
 
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