GHOST Impera | Weekly Heavy Metal Album Review

Released by Loma Vista Recordings on March 11th, 2022

Quick Background

Swedish occultists Ghost have taken the rock/heavy metal world by storm since the 2010 debut album  Opus Eponymous. Since then their following albums: Infestissumam (2013), Meliora (2015), Prequelle (2018) achieve great commercial and critical success. They soon became a headline act. Ghost is easily recognizable owing greatly to its eccentric on-stage presence. Seven of the group's eight members, its 'Nameless Ghouls'. Ghost mastermind Tobias Forge portray himself in a prosthetic mask and makeup as different characters with each tour/album cycle. I remember seeing them live in 2010 during a summer festival at noom! They were the first act in that stage, and I must say I was already truely impressed. I alos love their first album, hate the second one and reallly like the other two. So let's see what 2022 brings us.

Impera

their fifth studio album Impera is themed mainly on "the rise and fall of empires". It is described to take place hundreds of years forward from the 14th century Europe Black Plague era of Ghost's previous album, Prequelle. It features 9 proper tracks and 3 short instrumentals for a total of 47 minutes. As with all but one of their albums, Impera opens with a short instrumental "Imperium". The song builds up quickly leading us into the powerful 5-min upbeat rock anthem "Kaisarion". "Spillways" which is probably my favorite song on the album is a short catchy song with contagious beat, it's a lot of fun and will do wonders live. "Hunter's Moon" which is featured on the soundtrack of the 2021 film Halloween Kills and "Call Me Little Sunshine" were the first two singles out of Impera.  Both a super well designed hits, the structure, the hooks, simply perfect rock songs. "Watcher In The Sky" dial up the heaviness a bit more with some heavy riffs and chugging guitars. But of course the super catchy melodies are also present. Before we get the next single "Twenties" we first get "Dominion" which is short symphonic dark instrumental, it flows very well.  But "Twenties" is mixed result for me while I like the heaviness of the opening riff and verses, the children's choir singing twenties simply annoys me. I was initially deceived by the first bars of "Respite On The Spitalfields" thinking it was just a long ballad. But actually it's a longer song with some ups and downs and a nice touch t close the album with a song slightly different and more ambitious. 

I'm not sure if all or some of the musicians are the same as in the previous records, but I felt that musically this is the best Ghost album yet. Very interesting guitar and drum work throughout the album. Impera was produced by Klas Åhlund, who also sat behind the desk for the band's great Meliora record. Ghost will be celebrating the release of Impera with the cleverly-titled Imperatour

The Picky Guy

"Darkness At The Heart Of My Love" is the only song on the album that I skip every time now, it's just boring. Other than that I really can't complain about this about. It misses the heaviness and darkness of the debut album, but that's just my taste. 

Wrap Up Opinion 

One of the things I love about Ghost is how concise they are, the songs are short the albums are not too long. And yet the songs features changes, variations and go to different places all of that while being super catchy and dark or heavy at times. It's a powerful combination and it's not a surprise that they have grown so much so quickly. To me this is a 83/100 very good album from a band that will continue to grow and increase their fan base while not alienating the older ones like myself.  

SCORE: 83/100

Genre: Heavy Metal

Released by Loma Vista Recordings on March 11th, 2022

Rating System

99 - 100 Perfect
94 - 98 Excellent
87 - 93 Great
82 - 86 Very Good
77 - 81 Good
66 - 76 Mixed
58 - 65 Bad

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