Ohhhh new Ghost! They used the pandemic appropriately here to curate some new tunes! Truly, I think they had just got done touring for what seemed like forever and then lockdown happened. Perfect timing I suppose.
I don’t know that I’ve ever fully listened through a whole Ghost album, but I know enough of their stuff via my sister that I was pretty excited for this record to come out. It also helps that at the end of 2021, they released a song that showed up on the Halloween Kills soundtrack. I was kind of surprised to see it make the track list for Impera, as I thought it was a song specifically for the movie, but it pairs nicely with other single, “Call Me Little Sunshine.” Both that and “Hunter’s Moon” have a very operatic quality to them, and I could immediately visualize them playing these songs in a dark, foggy church. The Halloween Kills track also ramped up a little more and had those hair metal/anthemic qualities that are quite common for Ghost tunes.
I’m going to start with my least favorite track, which was really only most recent single, “Twenties.” It’s perhaps the most unique sounding song on the record, and that’s because it’s totally in a league of its own! Firstly, it was kind of hilarious. Lyrically, at least. Seriously, go listen to it and you’ll get what I mean. I also heard that lead singer Tobias Forge described the song as “theatrical” and I can certainly agree with that. It’s like they took their anthemic attitude and geared it towards the Broadway stage. Not really my bag, but interesting to say the least. Aside from this track, I’m usually never fond of brief, instrumental tracks. Given that there was a prelude, interlude, and postlude, they definitely helped break the album up to tell the story. The prelude is something I could picture my dad really digging, while the postlude involved some hella tubas.
Everything else on this album was pretty great! It was either fast-paced and reminiscent of 80s hair metal, like “Kaierion” and “Spillways,” or really arena rockers like “Watcher in the Sky” and closing track “Respite on the Spitalfields.” My favorites off the record are a three-way tie with “Spillways,” “Watcher in the Sky,” and power-ballad, “Darkness at the Heart of My Love.” Even the name of that last one gives off strong power-ballad vibes. What I liked most about these songs is how accessible they could be. For instance, “Kaiserion” is something I could picture my mom enjoying which would be the rarest compliment. And “Spillways” is just so big that I know arena crowds will go bananas for it. The closing track had me doing some light research and I’ve come to the conclusion that this song could be a reference to Jack the Ripper? Pretty cool, if so.
Overall, this was a great record, and if you’re looking to ease your way into heavy music, Ghost is the way to go, and especially this latest release, Impera.