Album Review: Ghost – Prequelle
October 14, 2020Swedish hard-rockers deliver one of the best albums of 2018
Back in 2018, I wrote a bunch of reviews that I couldn’t publish anywhere. So I’m putting them here.
The meteoric rise of hard rock band Ghost has been one of the most exciting events in metal in recent memory. The anonymous band around frontman Cardinal Copia (formerly Papa Emeritus) draws influence from everyone from Black Sabbath to Depeche Mode to ABBA, and draws its fanbase from as varied a crowd. Three albums in, the band is headlining major metal festivals like Wacken, selling out arenas, and has multiple Grammis awards, as well as a Grammy to their name. This year, the band put out their hotly anticipated fourth album, Prequelle, a vague concept album about death and the plague with ten awesome compositions that rank amongst the best of the year.
Prequelle starts with fist-pumping pop-rock single “Rats”, a song about mob mentality – and fittingly, the catchiest song on the album. Follow-up “Faith” is a Black Sabbath-style, evil metal song, ending on an organ interlude into power-pop ballad “See the Light”.
Among the other highlights on the album is doom-disco single “Dance Macabre”. A song about seizing the day, “Dance Macabre” is a funky earworm that would make ABBA proud. In much the same vein, pop-metal anthem “Witch Image” recalls Alice Cooper and Jethro Tull for a great, radio-friendly headbanger.
Prequelle also has the mandatory ballads in “Pro Memoria” and “Life Eternal”. Luckily, Ghost excels at slower songs, and these end up being two of the most memorable songs on an already unforgettable album. “Pro Memoria” is a piano and organ-driven composition embodying the theme of “memento mori” (the chorus hits the nail on the head with “don’t you forget that you will die”). “Life Eternal”, meanwhile, is a fantastic outro track that asks the related question “if you could live forever, would you want to?”
Prequelle also contains a few excellent instrumentals. “Helvetesfönster” (“Hell’s Window” in Swedish), “Ashes”, and “Miasma” reuse motifs from other songs on Prequelle while switching up the instrumentation to excellent effect. ”Helvetesfönster” draws elements from “Pro Memoria” and “Life Eternal” to act as an introduction to the latter. “Miasma”, meanwhile, is essentially an instrumental version of “Dance Macabre” with lots of added solos. Most notably, “Miasma” includes a saxophone solo by guest musician Gavin Fitzjohn that’s easily the best solo on the album.
With a great mix of radio-fodder, headbangers, and instrumental ear-candy, Ghost’s fourth album more than lives up to expectations. Prequelle is a real treat, and a definite contender for album of the year.
8/10
