Ghost - 'Opus Eponymous' Album Review

I have to come clean and admit that Ghost has been stealthily flying under my radar till now. Their debut album, 'Opus Eponymous,' was released in the US about 13 months ago, but rather than wait to review their next album when it comes out, I'm reviewing this one now. I don't want you to keep making the same mistake I made, because 'Opus Eponymous' is one of the very best debut albums that I have heard in the past two decades.

 

Hailing from Sweden, the same stomping grounds as many of the best bands in metal today (Opeth, Amon Amarth, Arch Enemy, Sister Sin, et. al.), Ghost's music is an enthralling fusion of Mercyful Fate (sans King Diamond's screeching falsetto vocals) and early-1970s Blue Oyster Cult, cross-pollinated with – believe it or not – Toto. No, I am not kidding: Ghost veers dangerously close to pop-rock territory, albeit with extremely evil, satanic lyrics.

 

They have the devilish imagery to match, too: five of the group's six members are clad in black hooded robes which obscure their faces, while the vocalist paints his face to look like a skull and dresses up like some sort of evil cardinal. To make their anonymity complete, the vocalist goes by the moniker "Papa Emeritus,"while the rest of the band members are all merely referred to as "Nameless Ghouls."

 

Despite the pervasive satanic theme going on here, it is very refreshing to note that 'Opus Eponymous'contains no distorted blood-curdling shrieking, no blast beats, no machine gun riffing and no severed sheep heads. Ghost is not yet another generic, boring black metal band; instead they have carved out their own niche with just one 35-minute-long album.

 

Album opener "Deus Culpa" is a minute and a half of organ music; it paradoxically sounds like a church right as the Sunday service begins. That song simply serves as an intro to "Con Clavi Con Dio" and you get to what Ghost is all about: that catchy yet subversively evil mix of 70s-era metal and 80s AOR light rock. An ominous bass line and eerie keyboards drive the song, yet Papa Emeritus' vocals would not sound out of place on a Doobie Brothers or Allan Parsons Project album. He really does not have a voice one would associate with metal, yet it perfectly complements the music here.

And that formula keeps working, over and over again. "Ritual," while still undeniably a metal song, also boasts an infectious chorus that reminds me yet again of Toto, although you’d never hear the 80s pop kings sing lyrics such as "This chapel of ritual smells of dead human sacrifices from the altar bed." Seriously, don't be surprised if you catch yourself whistling the melody in the shower.

"Elizabeth," the fastest and heaviest song on the album, is an ode to the so-called "Blood Countess," Elizabeth Bathory, who supposedly bathed in the blood of virgins in a vain attempt to retain her youth. The song is still loaded with plenty of melody though, and is far more accessible than even the oldest Mercyful Fate songs, which are getting close to 30 years old.

"Stand by Him," however, is another flirtation with pop. In fact, with just a little tweaking, I could totally see a band like Maroon 5 making a single out of this. Of course, they'd have to change around the lyrics first, since they deal with witchcraft and devil worship instead of being dumped by your girlfriend.

The record ends with "Genesis," an instrumental that sounds like it could be on the soundtrack for a late 1970s horror movie like ‘Halloween’ or ‘Phantasm.’ In fact, besides being possibly the best debut album I've heard since Down's self-titled 1995 masterpiece, 'Opus Eponymous' is the perfect Halloween party soundtrack. I’ve even gone back and revised my Top Albums List of 2011 (read that article here) and added this one at #7. Random though: is it just me, or does the album cover remind you of the poster for Tobe Hooper's "'Salem's Lot"?