Man, this is an album I've been looking forward to for a long time. For those who don't know, I am a big Ghost fan, and I've been waiting to buy this album when it came out on June 1st (in case you are reading this in the future, it is currently 2018). I actually bought the deluxe edition of the album which included 2 extra songs, It's a Sin, and Avalanche, and a cool 3D cover (see pictures of the back and CD below. Sorry for the bad quality photos, I took them with my iPad which has a pretty crummy camera. Also, I didn't take a picture of the 3D cover because you wouldn't be able to see it anyway). The bonus songs were pretty good, but I won't be including them in this review, since I am only reviewing the standard edition of the album.
Ghost (or sometimes Ghost B.C. due to copyright reasons) is a metal/ hard rock band who's shtick is that they are a satanic cult. I know this isn't really an unheard of thing in metal, but this band gets really into it. Their singer is the head of their "cult" and acts as kind of an anti-pope, and the band members are anonymous cultists who are simply referred to as "nameless ghouls." Each album the current anti-pope steps down and his son is brought in as the new leader and singer (really all of the singers are the same guy in different costumes, but we can pretend that we don't know that for fun). Up until this album, within Ghost's cannon, the bloodline of the singers has kept, and each of the singers had the name Papa Emeritus, followed by a generation number: Papa Emeritus I, Papa Emeritus II, etc. The current papa is also featured on the cover of their album. But for this album, the previous papa didn't have a son, so instead the second in command, Cardinal Copia, was promoted to take his place. All of this is really just show since most of the band members, including the singer, have been the same for all the albums, but it adds an extra fun dimension to the band. Ghost's music often uses organs, choirs and other aspects of church gospels to keep with the cult theme. In addition their songs heavily reference Satan and satanic rituals, although for some reason this album seems to be lacking in the satanism department, which did disappoint me slightly. Although, that is not to say they don't reference satanism in this album, they reference it a lot, but just not as frequently and as obviously as in their previous albums. Their music is also pretty light and accessible, which is surprising for a band so into satanism.
The cover art of this album is awesome! This is possibly my favorite cover art ever, I mean just look at it is so cool! There is a giant Cardinal Copia sitting on a throne made out of a castle, which is sitting on top of 3 giant rats. Also there are giant demon wings or something? Who cares, this just looks awesome. This album cover also has at least 2 easter eggs that I found, there may be more, but I haven't heard of them yet. First of all there is a reference to Sepultura on this cover. If you look in the background on the right, you'll see some crosses, and if you look in the background on the left, you'll see the grim reaper. The crosses and grim reaper are also featured on the cover of Sepultura's first official release, an ep called Bestial Devastation, in the same locations (see the cover of Bestial Devastation below). Also, there is a horseman in the bottom left hand corner of the cover. There are at least 3 other versions of this cover with a different horseman which is in a different location. Supposedly, each of these horsemen represent one of the 4 horseman of the apocalypse. The cover below is the version I have, and I think the horseman is war because he is holding a spear, I am just guessing though.
This album is kind of different than their previous albums, it's lighter and more poppy. Even though I really liked the heaviness of their previous albums, this change doesn't really degrade the quality of the album because they keep the thing that made the band so good originally, provocative lyrics that are challenging the norms of this style of music, and awesome, catchy melodies. This album also branches out a bit with some prog and psychedelic influences. The instrumental "Miasma" even has a jazz sax solo! I had a bit of trouble cutting down this album to just my favorites, because this album is so good and as I said, I am a big Ghost fan, but I did it: "Rats," "See the Light," "Dance Macabre," and "Witch Image."
"Rats" without a doubt is the best song on the album. This song is strait out of the classic Ghost playbook with melodies somewhat inspired by Christian mass music, organs, catchy guitar riffs, creepy vocals, and gruesome lyric subjects. This song is about the Black Plague and the rats which spread it via ticks. This is also the first song I heard from the album when it was released a few weeks before the album as a music video. I knew after watching the video that I had to get the album. The thing that really makes the music video is the weird dance moves, he's spinning around in a run down diner full of rats and dead bodies, it's pretty funny (see the music video here).
"See the Light" is a very grand and hard hitting song that just makes me want to dance when I hear it. This song is much more poppy and dancy than Ghost's previous songs, but not in a bad way. The song starts with the singer recollecting the journey he took to get to this point, referencing "Rats" saying "many a rat I've befriended," and then suddenly breaking into an awesome metal dance melody. I'm not sure what this song is about exactly, but it seams to be a kind of a love song to Satan, saying "but of all the daemons I've known none compare to you," and the singer says how the devil is making him stronger "every day that you feed me with hate I grow stronger."
In "Dance Macabre," Ghost shows off another new style they are trying out, this time with hair metal influences. This song is kind of parodying pop song lyrics. A normal pop song might say something like "I wanna be with you in the moonlight," but instead this song says "I wanna bewitch you in the moonlight," adding a kind of funny occult element. This song also has a catchy melody with disco style drums that makes it fun to listen to.
My second favorite song on this album is "Witch Image." This song has some psycodellic influences not present in most of the other songs on the album. It also has some of my favorite lyrics on this album, "while you sleep in earthly delight, someone's flesh is rotting tonight." For some reason I really like this line, and find it kind of funny. Maybe because I like the idea of someone sleeping soundly while there are rotting corpses and tons of people dying outside. This song is continuing the story of "Rats." The narrator of this song is most likely the horseman of pestilence and is talking about how he is causing the Black Plague. No one wants him here, but he is still causing many people to die. The rider of the white horse is the horseman of pestilence in the bible, which makes scene here because the song is referring to the Black Death.
Prequelle isn't Ghost's best album, but it isn't their worst either, it's at least better than their second album, Infestissumam. That being said this is still a really good album and worth listening to. The first album, Opus Eponuymous, and the third album, Meliora, were amazing albums, and set a very high bar for the new album, and in a lot of other bands this could be the best album. I recommend everyone to give this one a listen, it's a great album by one of my all time favorite bands.
Ghost (or sometimes Ghost B.C. due to copyright reasons) is a metal/ hard rock band who's shtick is that they are a satanic cult. I know this isn't really an unheard of thing in metal, but this band gets really into it. Their singer is the head of their "cult" and acts as kind of an anti-pope, and the band members are anonymous cultists who are simply referred to as "nameless ghouls." Each album the current anti-pope steps down and his son is brought in as the new leader and singer (really all of the singers are the same guy in different costumes, but we can pretend that we don't know that for fun). Up until this album, within Ghost's cannon, the bloodline of the singers has kept, and each of the singers had the name Papa Emeritus, followed by a generation number: Papa Emeritus I, Papa Emeritus II, etc. The current papa is also featured on the cover of their album. But for this album, the previous papa didn't have a son, so instead the second in command, Cardinal Copia, was promoted to take his place. All of this is really just show since most of the band members, including the singer, have been the same for all the albums, but it adds an extra fun dimension to the band. Ghost's music often uses organs, choirs and other aspects of church gospels to keep with the cult theme. In addition their songs heavily reference Satan and satanic rituals, although for some reason this album seems to be lacking in the satanism department, which did disappoint me slightly. Although, that is not to say they don't reference satanism in this album, they reference it a lot, but just not as frequently and as obviously as in their previous albums. Their music is also pretty light and accessible, which is surprising for a band so into satanism.
The cover art of this album is awesome! This is possibly my favorite cover art ever, I mean just look at it is so cool! There is a giant Cardinal Copia sitting on a throne made out of a castle, which is sitting on top of 3 giant rats. Also there are giant demon wings or something? Who cares, this just looks awesome. This album cover also has at least 2 easter eggs that I found, there may be more, but I haven't heard of them yet. First of all there is a reference to Sepultura on this cover. If you look in the background on the right, you'll see some crosses, and if you look in the background on the left, you'll see the grim reaper. The crosses and grim reaper are also featured on the cover of Sepultura's first official release, an ep called Bestial Devastation, in the same locations (see the cover of Bestial Devastation below). Also, there is a horseman in the bottom left hand corner of the cover. There are at least 3 other versions of this cover with a different horseman which is in a different location. Supposedly, each of these horsemen represent one of the 4 horseman of the apocalypse. The cover below is the version I have, and I think the horseman is war because he is holding a spear, I am just guessing though.
This album is kind of different than their previous albums, it's lighter and more poppy. Even though I really liked the heaviness of their previous albums, this change doesn't really degrade the quality of the album because they keep the thing that made the band so good originally, provocative lyrics that are challenging the norms of this style of music, and awesome, catchy melodies. This album also branches out a bit with some prog and psychedelic influences. The instrumental "Miasma" even has a jazz sax solo! I had a bit of trouble cutting down this album to just my favorites, because this album is so good and as I said, I am a big Ghost fan, but I did it: "Rats," "See the Light," "Dance Macabre," and "Witch Image."
"Rats" without a doubt is the best song on the album. This song is strait out of the classic Ghost playbook with melodies somewhat inspired by Christian mass music, organs, catchy guitar riffs, creepy vocals, and gruesome lyric subjects. This song is about the Black Plague and the rats which spread it via ticks. This is also the first song I heard from the album when it was released a few weeks before the album as a music video. I knew after watching the video that I had to get the album. The thing that really makes the music video is the weird dance moves, he's spinning around in a run down diner full of rats and dead bodies, it's pretty funny (see the music video here).
"See the Light" is a very grand and hard hitting song that just makes me want to dance when I hear it. This song is much more poppy and dancy than Ghost's previous songs, but not in a bad way. The song starts with the singer recollecting the journey he took to get to this point, referencing "Rats" saying "many a rat I've befriended," and then suddenly breaking into an awesome metal dance melody. I'm not sure what this song is about exactly, but it seams to be a kind of a love song to Satan, saying "but of all the daemons I've known none compare to you," and the singer says how the devil is making him stronger "every day that you feed me with hate I grow stronger."
In "Dance Macabre," Ghost shows off another new style they are trying out, this time with hair metal influences. This song is kind of parodying pop song lyrics. A normal pop song might say something like "I wanna be with you in the moonlight," but instead this song says "I wanna bewitch you in the moonlight," adding a kind of funny occult element. This song also has a catchy melody with disco style drums that makes it fun to listen to.
My second favorite song on this album is "Witch Image." This song has some psycodellic influences not present in most of the other songs on the album. It also has some of my favorite lyrics on this album, "while you sleep in earthly delight, someone's flesh is rotting tonight." For some reason I really like this line, and find it kind of funny. Maybe because I like the idea of someone sleeping soundly while there are rotting corpses and tons of people dying outside. This song is continuing the story of "Rats." The narrator of this song is most likely the horseman of pestilence and is talking about how he is causing the Black Plague. No one wants him here, but he is still causing many people to die. The rider of the white horse is the horseman of pestilence in the bible, which makes scene here because the song is referring to the Black Death.
Prequelle isn't Ghost's best album, but it isn't their worst either, it's at least better than their second album, Infestissumam. That being said this is still a really good album and worth listening to. The first album, Opus Eponuymous, and the third album, Meliora, were amazing albums, and set a very high bar for the new album, and in a lot of other bands this could be the best album. I recommend everyone to give this one a listen, it's a great album by one of my all time favorite bands.
Ghost - Prequelle
1.) Ashes
2.) Rats
2.) Rats
3.) Faith
4.) See the Light
5.) Miasma
6.) Dance Macabre
7.) Pro Memoria
8.) Witch Image
9.) Helvetesfönster
9.) Helvetesfönster
10.) Life Eternal
Album Pictures
Bestial Devastation
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| Notice how the grim reaper on the left, and the crosses on the right also appear on Prequelle |
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