The first time I saw Ghost, it was a revelation. These mysterious Swedish metallers were the perfect embodiment of my holy grail in music: melodic yet thunderously heavy; dark, yet hugely entertaining – and catchy. So very, very catchy. For a niche band (and really, what's more niche than the 13th Floor Elevators attempting to replicate Mercyful Fate's back catalogue with only a couple of scrawled notes as pointers?), their reputation quickly flourished and, among those who heard their 2010 debut Opus Eponymous, only the most curmudgeonly classic-rock fan resisted its flagrant charms. The stone-cold classic 'Ritual' became a stalwart at the cooler rock clubs and, for younger fans seduced by their “fresh new” 1970s sound, their stylings made them not only a gateway drug to the likes of Black Widow and Pentagram, but also such dark, infernal artists as Blue Oyster Cult and Uriah Heep.But last year's leap from plucky indie Rise Above Records to UMG subsidiary Loma Vista, and the enlisting of heavyweight producer Nick Raskulinecz, means that, in time, the epithet 'cult' might only refer to their satanic affectations rather than their rarified appeal. So can they make the leap to metal's mainstream without losing what made them so great in the first place? And will Ghost die-hards, such as myself, who have been anticipating and dreading this second album in equal measure, make the journey with them? Here's a first impression:
'Infestissummam'
Like Opus Eponymous before it, the album kicks off with a bit of Gregorian chanting, but before the cloak of familiarity warms you, the drums and guitars kick in and knock you on your arse. This is a different beastie altogether, and is, on first listen, the best use of choral plainsong in a rock setting since Ennio Morricone's satanic-psychedelic freakout, Veni Sancte Spiritus. Yes, we're only one minute and forty seconds in, but things are looking good.
'Per Aspera Ad Inferni'
And we're off, and, by Christ, this sounds tough as hell. Raskulinecz has taken Ghost's sound and injected it with (in)human growth hormones. Papa Emeritus II weaves his swoony vocals - “Oh Satan, devour us” - over Celtic Frost guitars, fattened by gusts of Hammond organ. The keyboards are far more prominent than before – they've held to their promise that 'Genesis', the instrumental closer to Opus, was a sign of things to come. But while progginess is at the fore, the chorus doesn't skimp on a hook. And the coda comes with a gorgeous key change. Hooray! Ghost have still got it!
'Secular Haze'
Not an obvious choice for the single, this is a slow burner that is still smouldering, but it's worming its way into my affections. The spooky fairground organ motif makes far more sense in these surroundings than as a stand-alone track. In fact, I can see it joining the canon of those great metal songs written in waltz time, like, erm...
'Giggalo'
The pace picks up again with this lascivious thrust of swaggering glam-rock swing. “I am the one who comes richly endowed/ Harvesting fields that others have ploughed, ” drools Emeritus II in celebration of all things carnal. Fantastic! Not only have they rebooted Spinal Tap's classic, 'Sex Farm', but they've thrown in a bit of twiddly Peter Gabriel-era Genesis to spice things up. Is Glam Prog even a thing? Well, it is now.
'Ghuleh'
This is a surprise – a ballad to break things up a bit. A Spartan piano, organ and drum arrangement forms the background for some hushed, confessional vocals … aaaand just about as I was going to invoke the great music-journo touchstone of Berlin-era David Bowie, they pull a switcheroo and now we're off on a Peter Gunn/twangy-guitar car chase, but with Deep Purple pomposity. And here's the chorus: “Zombie queen. Zombie queeeeeeen!” And now the choral society are joining in – this is astounding! At seven minutes long, this is their 'Stairway To Heaven'. If played live, this would have the makings of an absolute show-stopper.
'Year Zero'
For those looking for 'Ritual' part II, this is probably the closest in spirit to its pop sensibilities. But where that was a spooky, abandoned church on a lonely hillside, this is a bloody massive Gothic cathedral with spiky, sky-scraping spires. The "Hail Satan" hook soars, with O Fortuna-style choruses lifting it ever higher. This is definitely the track that will inspire the daft grin/hairs-standing-on-end effect Ghost junkies will be craving.
'Body In Blood'
They've already mastered satanic prog-glam metal, so why shouldn't Ghost turn their hand to sleazy soft rock? Imagine for a second there is a late-70s Spanish semi-pornographic horror film called Los Esclavos Lesbianas De Satanás (there isn't. I've checked). Before the nudity and bad dubbing starts up, the scratchy Letraset titles would be accompanied by footage of a young woman in a summer dress walking along a small village's sunny harbour front while a monk spies on her from a castle window up on a cliff top. This is the only song that could possibly be playing during those titles.
'Idolatrine'
Back to the glam, and an evocation of that Luciferan classic, 'Blockbuster' by the Sweet. A fairly breezy, poppy number by this album's standards, with some (deliberately, you would imagine) saccharine harmonies disguising pretty dark lyrics; “Suffer little children/ come you unto me; Suffer little children/grant me sovereignty”. If, when played live, this doesn't feature monks in cowls, thumbs tucked in their rope-belts, doing that synchronised headbang/ elbow-swagger Tiger Feet dance, I'll be sorely disappointed.
'Depth Of Satan’s Eyes'
Probably the weakest track of the album, a catchy-enough chorus is let down a little by its pedestrian pace and NWOBHM-by-numbers riffing. But you can't really argue with lyrics like: "This swamp of faeces/ that is the world/ flatulates a whirlwind storm/ in which it swirls.”
'Monstrance Clocks'
So to round up this infernal feast, why not invoke the master of horror rock, Alice Cooper? The downbeat, funereal verse leads to a lovely, lighters-aloft chorus demanding that we "come together, for Lucifer's son", and ends with male and female choirs trading that refrain accompanied by a church organ. It's wonderful and wonderfully silly in equal measure, and a masterful end to an album of real depth.
So is it as good as Opus Eponymous? It's certainly not as immediate, but I think songwriters this talented would be doing themselves an injustice retreading the same ground. It's a statement of intent that suggests that in future people will stop describing them as x-meets-y (which I'm aware I've done throughout this piece) and simply refer to their ludicrously alluring mix of pomp, pop and power as "sounding like Ghost". The other occult rock bands du jour – Ancient VVisdom, Blood Ceremony and the like – are going to have a hard time keeping up. Ave Satanis! - Jamie Thompson, The Quietus, http://thequietus.com/articles/11613-ghost-bc-infestissumam-track-by-track-review
It’s difficult not to pull for Ghost B.C.: During the last few years, the mysterious Swedish metal outfit formerly known as Ghost have cultivated a sterling, alluring persona of subversion and symbolism. Their leader is a papal parody named Papa Emeritus II, who comes cloaked in inverted crosses and a sinister skeletal mask. He's flanked by five Nameless Ghouls dressed in matching black uniforms that suggest Darth Vader using the force to infiltrate and overrun the Catholic Church.
Despite mounds of speculation and the exposure risk the band’s touring schedules involves, the identities of the musicians remain unknown (or, at least unconfirmed), furthering the allure of their at-large intrigue. Ghost have risen to popularity in relatively antiquated order, too, parlaying the buzz behind a single issued via social media (a move now more democratic than issuing a 7”) into a record deal and a licensing contract for the exciting Opus Eponymous, a debut that upended many 2010 and 2011 year-end lists. The old-fashioned label bidding war that followed led to a contract rumored to be as high as $750,000 with new Universal Records imprint, Loma Vista. To recap: A major label funds a band that poses as the Anti-Christ and his henchmen and plays old-school heavy metal with hooks as addictive as sin while also covering the Beatles and ABBA: Why wouldn’t you pull for Ghost B.C.?
One compelling reason to forego the Ghost B.C. fanfare is Infestissumam, the band’s mostly laughable second album. The ballyhoo for Ghost’s follow-up has been so strong that it landed them on the 100th cover of Decibel two months before it was issued. A name change, an album cover so controversial some manufacturers allegedly refused to print it, and the fortuitous timing of the actual Pope’s early departure have only ratcheted anticipation. And though these 10 songs seem to be a logical progression from Opus Eponymous, Infestissumam all but abandons the twin senses of danger and discovery upon which Ghost once depended. This is a pop-rock record underwritten with childlike Anti-Christian sentiment; the tension between those underdeveloped directions-- surface-level darkness and near-translucent accessibility-- creates little but an insufferable stiffness.
Sure, Infestissumam delivers a handful of hooks you won’t escape and a few zingers that’ll make you smile, but that’s about it. “Ghuleh/Zombie Queen”, for instance, is the record’s eight-minute centerpiece. Above forlorn piano and Coldplay-earnest guitar, Papa uses his best Ben Gibbard croon to mix Latin and empty Satanic jingoism. The song eventually sidesteps into surf-rock, black metal, and a “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” sing-along; it is one of the most awkward things you will ever hear. At its best, Opus Eponymous capably laced Ghost’s pop ambition with heavy metal’s sense of danger, as with the bracing crunch of “Ritual” or the hangman guitar tone of the simultaneously clever and goofy “Satan Prayer”. At its best, however, Infestissumam is only a reminder of that earlier record’s now-apocryphal promise.
With their label’s largesse secured, Ghost B.C. surprisingly headed to Nashville, Tenn., to record with Nick Raskulinecz, a regular Foo Fighters producer who’s also worked with the Deftones, Alice in Chains, and Velvet Revolver. If Ghost B.C. were going to be a major-label metal act, they needed to sound like a major-label metal act, right? To that end, Infestissumam is at least a crisp and full production, from the grand theatrical choir that invokes the black mass at the start to the pitch-shifting synthesizer that goads along album closer “Monstrance Clock”. But Raskulinecz brightens the band until the mystery and suspense disappear, turning these evil thoughts into baubles that sound safe enough for big money and rock radio.
The record’s back half, for instance, is a half-marathon of bad stylistic decisions that put Ghost B.C. in settings that they just can’t make convincing. “Body and Blood” is about necrotic cannibalism, but it sounds like something Sloan might have left on the floor of the editing room. Its affable jangle and eventual surge wilt under Raskulinecz’s spotlight. If They Might Be Giants decided to cut a funny little metal record (and why haven’t they?), “Idolatrine” and its jaunting organ might form the fourth single. And “Depth of Satan’s Eyes” offers neutered quips about flatulence and feces above a vaguely doom metal clip; it’s the sort of flimsy, silly, and safe pap that suggests Ghost B.C. might be a side-project for another band in costume, the motherfucking Doodlebops. Infestissumam is a great critique of how self-serious yet puerile heavy metal can get, but that’s probably not the point of a lucrative record deal.
In the heavy metal community, Ghost B.C.’s defenders often talk about the band as a gateway for young metal fans, a new chance to expand the musty dark legions. In his smart 2011 piece for Invisible Oranges titled “Why Ghost Matters,” Justin M. Norton argued that metal needs new converts, and that Ghost was the band to do just that. “I could play [Opus Eponymous] for my mother, a Carly Simon devotee, and she’d find something to like. … I see The Undead Pope becoming an effective recruiter, much like Eddie or Anton LaVey. He is metal’s own Uncle Sam.”
But, in 2013, to what exactly is Ghost B.C. a gateway? Back to old notions of rock’n’roll, where Jim Morrison is still a poet waxing above organs and major-label polish is a requisite of important music? To an excuse for a lack of substance in the presence of great style and pristine surface? To a worldview in which darkness and anger and frustration serve only to become a punchline and where the Anti-Christ “comes into the daughters of men” and creates silly portmanteaus like “Idolatrine”? Is that even a gateway anyone wants to offer anymore? - Grayson Currin, Pitchfork, http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/17807-ghost-bc-infestissumam/