Fascinating baroque pop and hard rock for a world phenomenon that does not to decrease, will it be for the pact with the goat ?
Sixth studio album for Swedish Ghost titled “Skeletá”, released on April 25 for Loma Vista Recordings. After “Phantomime” of 2023, record that has definitively consecrated them as one of the best rock bands on the planet, with palaces, stadiums and theaters packed in every where, thanks to a very transversal audience, Ghosts change partially, giving themselves to greater intimacy and a more personal rock.
First, the group’s former diabolus machina, aka Tobias Forge announced the fifth version of the Pope, namely Pope Perpetua V, which differs from the previous ones. The change of course towards a more reflective and personal dimension can already be seen from the cover of Zbigniew Bielak which is an integral part of the group’s path, and here you can see a Perpetua V Pope in what looks like a sarcophagus, with two bucolic and arcade landscapes with signs to be interpreted as usual in their covers. It starts immediately with a triptych of songs that are also the new singles, “Peacefield”; “Lachryma” and “Satanized” that immediately put us in the vicinity of previous records, continuing to explore the band’s 1980s vein and glam rock, with so much hard rock and less fast pieces than the other records.
Ghosts change on each record by adding or removing something to their sound, the quality is definitely good, the whole is well cared for and still holds the impact with the best records of the group. You can’t talk about a break or a blank beat for this record, and this for various reasons, including the fact that the music of the record is very good, and that the Ghosts’ path must not be judged for music, concerts or records, but in its entirety and complexity.
This group that plays a lot on its true or presumed satanism, makes high-quality pop rock music, bringing back stadiums and arenas to the splendor of hard rock, in no way anachronistic. In an era in which there is the dictatorship of digital the Ghosts sell wagons of colored vinyl in a thousand different ways, carry out real rituals where there are also finesses from initiated and esotericism is everywhere, and is not just tacky, indeed. Ghosts are a unique phenomenon in the world panorama of music and not only, and you can understand something about them only if you listen well to the records. In “Skeletá, which in ancient Greek means “withered things”, the songs are treated in the smallest detail, there is a care about the detail that brings the Ghosts to the limit of mannerism.
Listening to this work and comparing it with their other works can be said that the songs are all similar, but if you listen well to a track like “Missilia amore” of this work, and you cite this only as an example, you notice how much care there is, how a melodic variation arrives at the right time, or how the bass falls at a certain time. Certainly this last work lacks the most manifest satanism, there are more intimate moments but always south of paradise, like “Umbra” that confirms how you can always find the right melody, the bridge that works.
After the debut more underground and with something doom, the Ghosts have become the sole heirs of a pop that starts from the Abba, passes through the Queen and Def Leppard to get to the present day, with a record that talks about old things but is very modern and powerful. It is never easy for Ghosts to make records, since their audience is quite uncritical but the rest of the world always waits for them at the end, and they do not make mistakes on time. Work full of particularties, unique moments, of refrains well composed of pop, rock and hard rock that will work perfectly in their concerts, the specialty of the house.
On the great distance “Skeletá” does not deviate from the other records of their production, also because all their productions have an organicity that must be considered, and it is a different record than the previous ones, because perhaps it does not have the big hits like “Impera” and “Meliora”, but it is very cohesive and very pleasant to listen to, with different ballads, that making a ballad today is the most hard rock act that can be done, because it is really something of another era. It would be easy to say that we are slightly below their usual quality, but the quality is always very high, we are only in a different area of the planet Ghost, and this is to be explored completely and thoroughly too. In short, even at this turn, you hear again and agian the record.
