- Ghost – Impera ALBUM REVIEW
- GHOST Got Gridlocked | IMPERA – Album Review
- Ghost IMPERA Album Review, Round Table Reaction -Ghost the Saviours of Metal & Rock? The Metal Voice
- Ghost – Impera | Album Review
- GHOST Impera REVIEW + All Albums RANKED
- “Impera” by Ghost (DOES IT LIVE UP TO THE HYPE?) | ALBUM REVIEW
- ????Ghost – Impera – ALBUM REVIEW
Ghost – Impera ALBUM REVIEW
um,hi everyone red thingy blue tano here,the internets busiest music nerd and,its time for a review of the new ghost,album impera yep this is a brand new lp,from the swedish metal outfit ghost,front man tobias forge and the nameless,ghouls are back following up their 2018,record prequel which was an interesting,change of pace for the band,stylistically it saw them stripping back,many of the sinister and more elaborate,heavy metal passages that marked their,music in favor of something that was a,bit more approachable snappier might,have been the bands most accessible,project to date but still had a really,cool dark conceptual underbelly to it,inspired by the occult and of course the,bubonic plague and impera is another,conceptual surprise too one where it,sounds like the band is really pulling,out all the stops sparing no expense as,well this is easily ghosts grandest most,layered and over-the-top project yet,narratively impera is very much about,powerful hierarchies and empires not,only that but reverence of their power,as well as their eventual death and this,manifests in a lot of lyrics that frame,in almost paternal relationship between,a powerful system of some sort and,whoever is living under it nowhere on,this lp is that more apparent than on,the tracks that on the surface level may,read as love songs but on a slightly,deeper but also still kind of,conceptually shallow level the band is,playing into a little rhetorical trick,here that paints more of a toxic power,dynamic luring the listener or some,potential underling into being on the,right side of a figure that is most,likely,totalitarian and drunk on their power,which i think tracks because as with,ghosts on a lot of their records there,are some pretty prevalent themes of,worship and religiosity and when it,comes to abuse of power cultish devotion,often arrives with it hand in hand the,connection ghost is making here is,pretty clear especially considering all,of the not so subtle nods to,self-appointed religious prophet,aleister crowley so ghost is playing,with some pretty huge timeless ideas on,this project that have been mainstays in,human history for thousands of years and,the band has decided to embody these,ideas in,a series of songs and instrumentals that,very much embraced the pomp of 80s hard,rock which makes for a record that,sounds a lot bigger than prequel i mean,bigger than every ghost album so far and,that has its pros and cons depending on,the track theres kaiserian which i,dont think i could have asked for a,better first full song on this project,like the righteous riffs on this thing,are fantastic there are a lot of cool,changes as well infectious prague,passages strong ending kick-ass soaring,falsetto vocals that kick the whole,thing off i feel like im listening to,somewhat of a mix of of dio uh with a,bit of rush as well the track doesnt,really skimp on the song writing either,as the whole thing is compelling and,edge of your seat from end to end so,theres that but theres even more cuts,on this project in my opinion that um,well they feel almost weighed down in,the camp and the melodrama and the,volume of it all watcher in the sky for,example this is just way too much volume,for so many forgettable vocal licks and,some of the most half-baked riffs to,make it onto any ghost song,call me little sunshine again sounds,huge but the pacing on this track is,just awful much of the time i feel like,im just sitting here waiting for the,band to just get on with it please just,move beyond this watered-down metallica,pastiche plus the constant drum fills,and breaks get in the way of the track,really building any sort of momentum and,again sure the pumping riffs and the,reverb and the bells and the group,vocals all sound huge but the,instrumental really fails to instill the,sense of eeriness that i typically enjoy,hearing in ghosts work even on again,their catchiest and sweetest record,prequel and i think this record may be,missing that element in some key points,because some of the vocals or the,writing comes off more cartoony than,creepy call me,little sunshine,then theres the song 20s which i think,is my least favorite ghost,song,ever i hope i never have to hear this,song again i really do the massive,chugging riffs uh come together awfully,with the vaguely latin group,the searing brass hits on top of it are,tacky as hell but the vocals and the,lyrics i cannot,keep myself from laughing at them every,time i put this track on in the 20s 20s,listen up you [ __ ],maybe i do want to hear it more now,this track being unbearably annoying and,unintentionally hilarious is unfortunate,for a couple of reasons not just for the,sound of it but i think this is actually,one of the more essential moments on the,record narratively because in a way it,is a smart piece of commentary on the,current chaos and abuse of power that,has defined the 20s right now our 20s,thus far and in a way the band is able,to subtly link that back to,the politics and the social struggles of,the 1920s with nods to post world war,one germany uh also the fall that came,after the economic inequities of the,gilded age also take a look at the fact,the cover here aesthetically is,borrowing a bit from the art deco period,as well so again ghost is really lacing,this track in this record with a lot of,interesting conceptual easter eggs that,show that the band is putting a lot of,thought into you know the whole,narrative the whole concept of this,project i i just cant stand listening,to the music mostly on this track though,not all of my problems on this record,have to do with the sound of it being,overblown sometimes its so derivative,its a little shameless like the song,griftwood for example i mean i enjoy van,halens aint talking about love too but,did you not think people were gonna pick,up on how similar this sounds im just,being smacked with deja vu on this one i,much prefer the song spillways but even,this one feels like a bon jovi rehash,with just a touch of manfred man in,there with a lot of lyricism thats very,vivid and colorful about uh these,metaphysical things like souls and,beasts and feeding evil a dark side,which most definitely plays into the,records themes of power hunters moon is,a teaser that i wasnt really crazy,about when i first heard it but honestly,it has grown a little bit on me as ive,heard it in the context of the record,though im not sure if that has,something to do with,me just generally preferring it so much,more than some of the lower points in,the track list given the tone of it i,could say the song would fit very snugly,into the prequel,track list especially with its sharp and,sweet melodies and glistening piano bits,and the closing track is sort of the to,be expected lengthy closer that has a,dramatic intro a lot of dynamics the,guitars in the first leg sound like,something out of an 80s goth rock tune,it eventually breaks into something,heavier more anthemic with some great,soaring guitars although there are some,zany and theatrical uh ad-libs vocally,that im not too crazy about very flemy,hits after the end of certain lines like,uh for the dreams that you dread,which sadly just sound forced and um not,at all creepy or scary so unfortunately,i i think im just not really crazy,about this one i think this is the,bands worst lp since infestismum but,for a completely different set of,reasons id like to remind everyone i,have loved a majority of the bands,records so far and to a point i even,thought that things were just going to,be downhill from the sophomore lp but,then obviously ghost came back with the,amazing meliora so maybe ill just wait,to see if the next one appeals to me,more im sure there are going to be some,hardcore fans that get a lot out of this,album especially if they dive deep into,the concept and are maybe a bit more,favorable personally toward the uh 80s,hard rock excesses that are really being,embraced hard on this one but for me the,excess of this record even if it does,effectively
GHOST Got Gridlocked | IMPERA – Album Review
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Ghost IMPERA Album Review, Round Table Reaction -Ghost the Saviours of Metal & Rock? The Metal Voice
oh boy i just screwed something up okay,all right here we are live on the metal,voice today wow,sunday,and uh were going to review a big album,but before we get into the album review,i want to give a shout out to chris,holmes,i know hes uh hes going through some,radiation therapy,hes doing some chemo you know you know,and when youre doing chemo youre not,feeling good you know hang in there,were all going to give you our best i,know allen sends his best,so chris holmes whos a you know a,frequent guest on this show his wife,kathy whos like an amazing person,theyre coming to canada,in september so thats going to be,amazing on the canadian tour so the show,is dedicated to chris and were saying,all of us be well be strong,and you can do this yeah well chris,i like chris i think chris is a really,really good guy and,really,he doesnt get the appreciation or,recognition for his talents i think that,he deserves it i think he deserves a lot,more um not that he doesnt get,recognition but he deserves more,hes great chris holmes is awesome,i had a chance i had a chance to meet,and interact with chris uh the first,time he came with wasp in montreal,and he left me a really really good,impression i thought he was first of all,the nicest guy in a ve in in wasp and i,thought,you know okay heres the guy who enjoys,a bit too much the good things in life,but,he can,do it he cant remember but he was happy,and you cant say that for the rest of,them necessarily,exactly black he was the guy who always,looked like he was in a crappy mood he,was the guy who always looked like,you know blackie let me,let me bridge the gap with the fans here,yeah anyways well wishes to chris holmes,a funny guy a smart guy and a strong guy,and of course to his wife kathy you know,what all the best to you theyre like,family to us at the middle voice so,and well be there when he returns to,town absolutely were all going to be,there all us canadians will be at the,shows,today,ghost impera imperial which was released,what on friday friday 11th,loma vista records,um,taking the world by storm in a sense,right um,theyre,just so everybody knows a little bit of,background i collect all the ghost,albums here,and orlando buys me all of them every,year he goes out and he buys me some,ghosts so weve got a few about a few of,our family,dont like ghosts i mean orlando hates,ghosts right,thats right yeah we have a number of,you know and and kalil and i always,apologize i hope i say his name right,im just such a,im just such a cracker that unless,someones called jim or bob i just have,trouble with their names you know im,just such a white red cracker well well,giles this morning one of our followers,who was labeled as a top fan on facebook,i noticed he said goodbye to the metal,voice in a comment to jimmy he said,goodbye medal in quotation marks voice,im basically insinuating if were going,to talk about ghost on the show hes,leaving the page,so okay,but i noticed that this morning is this,is this cal,no not at all not you know our our good,friends and fans have been with us a,long time,hes a really good guy i like him a lot,but its a strange one because,i know he has a bit of a struggle with,aor in general and,and the ghosts have got tons of ior so i,think it might just be some inherent,kind of thing that he just doesnt like,but then he picks like the then he picks,like the worst song on the record,relatively speaking and singles that out,as like i dont like the song twenties,you know,all right but i would just say also,is very polarizing and itll certainly,be a topic because it just seems that in,the last everything successful is,polarizing all right stephane quickly,what do you want to say,now i want to say to this uh viewer i,dont know what his name is but dont,leave until youve heard what i had to,say,okay all right,look,you gotta people have to understand that,metal is not just you know double bass,drums,and screaming and you know chug chugs,you know thats not metal metal is,theres a [ __ ],of metal poison,yeah yeah yeah yeah so okay so lets get,beginning what we could do is we could,go quickly around the table ten seconds,what did you think on the first listen,yeah whatd you think on the first,listen then we could kind of go track by,track very quickly and what does,everybody think of all the tracks,all right so lets start off stefan boom,boom whatd you think first impression i,guess was your only impression,okay um,this is definitely not the type of metal,i listen to uh its,its stephanie i just wanted to say,something can you bring your camera a,little your heads kind of getting cut,off right here yeah dont worry i have a,big head uh okay go ahead its it i look,it i dont i dont like this type of,music im sorry i know,but,i can certainly appreciate that there,was a couple of good songs on it a,couple of songs ah maybe ill be able to,add this to my,rotation of new songs that i play list,you know,look its not my thing i dont think,its a metal band i think its a little,its a metal,brand its a metal,market its,bubble gum metal is the word,bubblegum it is charles,yeah i mean this is all this is all in,first impression the context of 2022,isnt it,after after weve had like you know 25,almost 30 years of,35 years of things like pantera,death you know death metal all forms of,extreme metal that have found their way,into the mainstream,whereas if we were having this,conversation in 1986 there would be no,question that this was heavy metal so,its all about context and,heavy metal in general,for it to survive needs commercial,jumping on points,now whether it was the music you know,the mega bands of the 70s that kind of,started it,or whether it was a new wave of british,heavy metal that became a commercial,entity through things like early iron,maiden and def leppard and stuff like,that in the early 80s in in england or,whether it is,the desmond child era of bon jovi,slippery and where europe the final,countdown poison,open up and say ah definitely posterior,and that kind of stuff that,arguably at the time people were saying,wasnt metal but,most metal fans you,that i knew growing up those were their,at that age group of that age group,those were their jumping on point,records to then get into heavier stuff,and deeper stuff and,more and more metal stuff so for the,genre to survive you need to have,something occasionally that comes along,and grabs a more wide spread mainstream,audience to draw them in so then they,can go and discover that,the ravens and the merciful fates and,the you know the,whomever else you know what i mean,and,this is,exactly one of those things because,theyre always polarizing theyre always,kiss was polarizing at the start people,used to say oh they cant play its all,show,um,everything has been polarizing thats,had any any any number of success i just,think there seems to be a generation of,people that seem to be a little bit,unaccustomed to the fact that other,people have different opinions than them,all right,but we could also argue and im not,going to debate this right now that,you know with bon jovi and with poison,that was like the end of metal right in,a sense right it just kind of then it,went to another direction they kind of,ruined it for everyone well you know,what i always say,like glam metal died in 92 guess what,thrash died along with it,you know it wasnt just it wasnt just,uh but we could debate that right after,we could debate that right after all,right,yeah well look i think you guys know and,our viewers know i im a i was a pretty,big ghost fan coming into this uh,and we had heard a third of the album,before it was released right theres,nine songs on the album plus some other,snippets and we had heard three of them,so i was excited for the album to drop,uh because i really liked three songs,north american thing it drops it drops,from the sky like a gift from the,heavens,sounds like some goofy hips to speak to,me,uh im a hipster you know me its the,marketing guys at the corporations w
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Ghost – Impera | Album Review
GHOST Impera REVIEW + All Albums RANKED
whats up metal and heavy music fans,today we are ranking the albums of ghost,[Music],all right and as you can see here I,dont think that they have an album,thats below a c but we are going to,rank them so starting with Opus,eponymous in 2010. now these songs were,written in 2008 and recorded in a,basement studio in their hometown of,linkoping Sweden stand by him is listed,as the true start of the band before,they even had decided on a vocalist at,the time the ghoul said they approached,a number of potentials including Messiah,marklelin of Candlemass Mars 11 and JB,Christopherson before Forge decided to,do it himself the demos were put up on,MySpace and man were those the times and,within the next two days he was already,getting phone calls from labels so,pretty meteoric rise it managed to stay,on the charts for five weeks hitting,number 50 and was nominated for a,Swedish Grammy and named the third best,album of the decade by Swedish Rock,magazine just behind Iron Maiden Im,always super fascinated by these,Whirlwind stories of Fame since they are,just so atypical but it just goes to,show the right idea at the right time,and place can sometimes just take take,off now as for my opinion as someone who,has actually never previously taken much,of a full dive Beyond some singles here,and there over the years I can see why,it did and honestly I like it a lot more,than I thought I would its just a fun,Rock album with those classic 70s and,80s Vibes but done in a way that doesnt,just feel like a needless refresh they,definitely have their own sound despite,obvious influences and stuff like,Merciful Fate and damn do some of those,courses get stuck in your head like on,ritual and of course stand by him Im,gonna put this one for now at a tier,then we have infested samam in 2013. so,this album was recorded in Nashville,with Nick Rocky Linux and apparently,because of the location they had trouble,finding a choir that would sing satanic,lyrics so ultimately they ended up,having to do that back in Hollywood,conceptually the last album left off,with the Antichrist being born and so,this one picks up with his story its a,bit more diverse musically with some,cool elements like the choir as well as,some strings and just different,approaches to songwriting and it was,relatively well reviewed it even debuted,at number one on the Swedish charts,quintuppling the sales of the number two,album but to me this album definitely,has some kind of sophomore slump issues,a lot of the songs just dont have that,same fun energy and memorability lots of,bland tracks that arent bad but are,also just kind of forgettable I think,the obvious standouts for me are Zombie,Queen and year zero that second one in,particular having another one of those,supremely infectious courses but Im,gonna put this one at C tier by the way,regular viewers know I always leave you,with something more obscure when talking,about these mainstream bands so if you,enjoy ghost you might also want to check,out twin Temple they describe their,sound as satanic doo-wop and it,basically sounds like those old Phil,Spector Motown records just with much,darker lyrics really interesting stuff,see hold on,a little day,all right back to the list we have,meliora in 2015. they wanted to really,focus on guitars with this album and,apparently playing with a new Guitar Rig,inspired some sounds that they,considered to have sort of a Sci-Fi vibe,to them they also opted to go with,meletron choirs to gel with that sound,and also after the difficulties with the,previous album the focus is around an,absence of God and what happens under,those circumstances this made several,best of year lists and this time one a,Swedish Grammy as well as a US Grammy,for metal performance on the song Cersei,being a guitar guy myself I definitely,prefer this album to the last one spirit,is a very strong opening track to set,the tone and then it gets followed up by,the chunky bass groove on from the,Pinnacle to the pit which in some places,reminds me of voivod though the ghoul,stated it was more inspired by Led,Zeppelin Cersei is a fun stomper with,some Iron Butterfly Vibes love the,little poppy breaks with the piano an,additional percussion to amp up the,contrast of the lights and dark portions,I think I hear a timpani among other,things mummy dust is another Banger with,some great organ Melodies and this,simple little piano flourish that,reminds me of Nine Inch Nails buried in,like a queen song Majesty has some,really fantastic Refuge throughout both,from the Rhythm and lead guitars I sort,of passed on this when it came out since,I was expecting something different,based on the hype but now that I,understand what the band is going for I,see why so many people fell in love with,this one I am going to put it at s tier,then we have prequel in 2018 so after,that this was the first time that ghost,was putting out an album with Tobias,formally confirmed to be the front man,after years of keeping his identity a,secret he described the recording,process on the album to be much more,streamlined and focused but overall Id,say it feels like a continuation of the,sound of meliora with maybe even more of,an arena energy to it rats is the big,single on this one which is a solid one,but I dont think its as good as Siri,say I actually prefer Faith which has,more of a hook and head banging Vibe,alongside the church organ as well as,some fun turns in the vocal performance,dance Macabre lives up to its name,really getting my foot tapping I kept,expecting Danny sex bang of Ninja Sex,Party to make a surprise guest,appearance on this one I actually saw,that this was the lowest rated album on,Metal Storm but I really dont agree,its maybe not as strong or consistent,as meliora overall but I think its,better than the second album at least by,a good margin a few kind of fillery,tracks but a good journey nonetheless,Im gonna put this one at b-minus and,that brings us to impera in 2022 this,was inspired by a book called the rule,of Empires those who built them those,who endured them and why they always,fall and given that this is the newest,release I always like to kind of break,it down track by track so kicking things,off we have the intro Imperium which is,just massive sounding with triumphant,harmonized guitars alongside Marching,Band percussion really setting the stage,and then kaiserion has really upbeat,guitars sounding like something off of,Russias moving pictures complete with a,fun falsetto opening scream like,seriously this is basically just a rush,song right down to the production on the,drums it even has an awesome froggy jam,session in the middle bringing that Tom,Sawyer energy,[Music],dramatic 80s staccato piano lines super,infectious it reminds me of another song,but I just cant put my finger on it so,help me out down in the comments if you,can think of it I also love the little,breaks in the instrumentation punctuated,by the pounding of the toms great,boston-esque guitar solo 2. and if that,was infectious call me little sunshine,is straight up intransit I feel like,people have talked this one to death but,I dare you not to Bob your head to that,opening hook in tandem with the stomp of,the drums and bells,foreign,and not only is it impossible for me to,not sing along with this one but also,pantomime the words like a kid doing,some melodramatic Tick Tock you will,never walk alone God damn is this,straight up songwriting genius the foot,tapping continues with Hunters Moon,which is among the more crunchy 80s,metal style tunes on the album with a,very Alice Cooper evil delivery of the,title and more ominous Melodies theres,even some kind of monk-like chanting in,the background gotta love those wailing,leads on this one it was also featured,on the Halloween kills soundtrack which,I can only hope will bring back the late,90s early 2000s Heyday of awesome metal,horror and action movie soundtracks,probably not but we can pray,[Music],also in this category is Watcher in the,sky
“Impera” by Ghost (DOES IT LIVE UP TO THE HYPE?) | ALBUM REVIEW
good morning metalheads of the internet,and welcome to a brand new episode of,the metal meltdown today we are talking,about a brand new studio album the fifth,studio album in fact from swedish rock,and metal band ghost entitled impera,while many elitist and gatekeepers have,spent a majority of the past decade,bitching and moaning about whether or,not ghost is a true metal band ghost,have become somewhat ironically one of,the most commercially successful and,critically acclaimed metal bands of the,past decade theyve got a very unique,sound heavily inspired by 70s hard rock,and heavy metal as well as goth rock,doom metal first wave black metal,theyve often been described as a fusion,of blue oyster cult black sabbath and,king diamond visually theres a lot of,stuff going on for a long time the,bands mastermind tobias forge was,simply known as papa amaritis and his,band members were simply known as,nameless ghouls concerts were presented,less like concerts and more like satanic,rituals but with you know,rock and roll and heavy metal definitely,a lot of king diamond influence in that,department as well but i will say as,ghost has gotten bigger theyve also,gotten more eccentric and theyve pulled,influence from shock rock bands like,kiss and alice cooper at this point,theyve sold millions of records,released tons of hit singles they won,the grammy award for best metal,performance back in 2016 and were then,nominated for two more grammys in 2019,best rock song and best rock album,theyve toured the world with rock and,metal giants like the foo fighters iron,maiden metallica i personally have been,following ghosts for a majority of their,existence i came to know them just,shortly before they released their,sophomore album infesta suman which,frankly still remains my favorite record,from them though 2018s prequel their,previous studio album is definitely a,close runner-up its packed with easily,some of their best cuts namely rats,see the light dance macabre its just a, fantastic record and and for for,these reasons ive been extremely,excited for impera even despite being,initially underwhelmed by promo singles,like hunters moon and call me sunshine,the latter of which i have to,immediately concede has grown on me,immensely as of late i would even go as,far as to argue that this isnt just the,best song on empira its possibly one of,the best songs ghosts have ever released,it is deliciously evil infectiously,catchy almost a little bit sexy with,those crooning vocals and that very,mysterious shadowy gloomy guitar work i,know a lot of people still compare them,to blue oyster cult and black sabbath,and king diamond but honestly this feels,more akin to a fusion of like candle,mass and def leppard like its so, big and so dark i truly,love this cut unfortunately though the,love that i now have for call me,sunshine does not translate to the rest,of impera i certainly love a lot of what,this band is trying to do,and it is almost inarguably their most,ambitious record since the after,mentioned infesta sumom,but i i think ultimately the record is a,little inconsistent and is crushed ever,so slightly by the weight of its,ambitions one problem i have is how much,more silly and bombastic so much of this,material is to be fair ghosts have,always been very self-aware very campy,people have always looked at them as,being a touch ridiculous to the point,where ghosts have ironically and,unironically been called scooby-doo,metal on multiple occasions but there,are there are some things here and there,on imperia that just dont quite do it,for me and they cross that line of being,silly fun to just plain silly,the track 20s is a great example i did,enjoy this when it was released as a,standalone single but in context of the,entire album,20s is a little bit too strange to,stomach there are some very menacing and,eccentric horns trumpets and trombones,throughout the track that feel more,befitting of a very wacky and obtuse,diablo swing orchestra number there are,also tons of like weird vocal antics,there are some squeaky high-pitched,backing vocals in the chorus theres,some kind of mike patton-esque shouted,spoken word vocals from time to time and,speaking of mike patton the entire track,as a whole just kind of feels like a,really weird faith no more experiment i,will admit that i still kinda love that,main riff i mean it is just,gnarly more gnarly than it has the right,to be like like this thing could tear,through flesh like a chainsaw,but the track as a whole has definitely,lost a lot of its luster and appeal as,ive listened to it more and more,theres also kaiserion which officially,kick-starts this album after the,instrumental piece imperium and does so,on a somewhat obnoxious note its filled,with wailing vocals whirlwinds of of,dueling synthesizers and twin guitar,leads it it feels like something that a,prague metal band would have written for,a rock opera but delivered and produced,with the spectacle of late 80s queen,speaking of the 80s impera more so than,any other ghost album before it is,heavily inspired by 80s hard rock and,pop and heavy metal to the point where,at times it is arguably stealing from,some of the 80s biggest and most,well-known hits griftwood for instance,sports a riff that once stripped of its,melancholy would not be too far off from,a van halen cut whereas spillways,features a keyboard piece that really,does sound like a sped up version of,foreigners cold as ice and then theres,darkness at the heart of my love which,really does feel,like an 80s power ballad with perhaps a,touch more of a romantic goth rock,underbelly to it,akin to that of like a hymns song but an,80s power ballad nonetheless though i,will admit i do genuinely kinda love,this number its cheesy its over,dramatic as but damn it is produced,and performed with the utmost enthusiasm,and honestly its its better than like,a lot of classic 80s power ballads like,you could put this up to any number of,power ballads from motley crew white,snake and this easily has them all, beat as a result of everything,weve talked about impera just doesnt,really have much cohesion to it it feels,very messy at times it doesnt flow that,well from track to track the stylistic,deviations and changes from track to,track could even make it somewhat,jarring and drastic particularly if,youre not the most familiar with ghost,like one minute youre listening to a,relatively straightforward kind of 80s,pop rock banger with some doomy,undertones the next youre listening to,a really flamboyant power ballad the,next youre listening to some really,over-the-top prog metal opuses the next,youre listening to a goth rock cut then,youre listening to a bunch of,interludes and and instrumental pieces,that do nothing but add unnecessary fat,and filler to the record and then you,get the 20s which is,whatever the 20s is im not even,really sure what to call that to put it,very simply theres just a little bit,too much weirdness and ambition to,comfortably swallow in a single sitting,yes its very well produced yes everyone,is playing their hearts out,especially tobias forge or if you prefer,papa amaritis who honestly has never,sounded this confident or comfortable as,a singer god bless you sir your vision,for ghost is truly spectacular but the,execution on impera is lacking it pains,me to say this because i do really love,ghost but honestly im going to give,this a 2.5 out of 5. its just okay,i only found myself really loving a few,songs after multiple listens the rest,ive either forgotten about or i just,dont really care about,i have a feeling im going to be in the,minority on this because ive already,seen some overwhelmingly positive,reviews out there and if thats the case,so be it not the first time definitely,wont be the last time if you love this,album great good for you i hope that you,adore every second of this i hope you,continue to support ghost i hope you,check out records like opus eponymous,and infesta sumom if you havent already,but i
????Ghost – Impera – ALBUM REVIEW
hey yo guys whats up and welcome back,to two toe tags and metal reviews and,tail getting our final review of emperor,by ghost,so weve spent the entire week listening,to impera and i think ill hand the,floor to tv fish i am curious we havent,talked about this all week yeah no not,really sometimes we talk about it,throughout the week this week no we,havent said much lets go its an album,that i think,all of you were really looking forward,to seeing what we have to say after a,week based on what we said last week,where both of us were not too favorable,for this album true after a week you,know you all said oh this will grow on,you this will grow on you did it grow on,me,yes it did grow on me and i think,first of all,that yes the catchy bug entered my ear,and im sure it probably entered yours,as well,its a catchy album yeah it just is,thats just how the music is thats just,kind of how this band is you know they,have riffs that get in your ear and they,stay there now obviously if its catchy,in a good way thats great if its,catchy the bad way then its rough but i,think some of these songs are catchy in,a good way and my favorite song,throughout this entire album was watch,her in the sky,every time this song came on im,thinking oh man this is great its a,song that is just great from start to,finish really good rips nothing really,bothered me has a cool bridge,keeps their character well but it still,feels like theyre kind of pushing their,sound at the same time like overall such,a well-rounded song and i love that i,love the song,um,calmly little sunshine is actually,really good i remember when we first,reacted to it we were kind of like,okay like kind of you know didnt really,feel too strongly about it yeah and the,album came out and im like you know,what actually this is pretty good and,then after listening to it for me im,like you know what this song is really,good and it makes sense why its the,first single from this record,technically second because hunters moon,did come out first true but that was for,the halloween kills promotion this was,the first single promoting the album,directly right and i think its,effective that way i think it still,really sounds like ghost and thats good,but i kind of felt like,for a while that the first half the,album was stronger than the second half,and i i felt like after watcher in the,sky it started to slip,dominion,is still pointless why is that track,there honestly it really hurts the um,the flow of the album,because watcher in the sky is a great,introduction to the second half of the,album based on its sound its effective,okay but if you have dominion right,after you kill all the momentum that,song created and then 20 starts so,that song just,so completely pointless why is it there,and it never really adds anything at the,very least with bite of passage that,might be 30 seconds,but at least it doesnt really like,annoy,me,you know i just listen to it like okay,its there its fine its over before i,really notice its even happened,and thats okay i guess but,you know 20s,is a song that i like it has really good,riffs,really good almost everything i just,dont like the chorus of that song i,just dont like how the voice sounds i,dont like that crowd vocal that happens,thats just it annoys me every time i,hear it but other than that its a,pretty strong song i will say okay,darkness at the heart of my love starts,off great the beginning is really really,nice as soon as i hit the first chorus,its not nice anymore i just,i dont know i just i it just kind of,rubs me the wrong way even though they,do come back like thats kind of the,sound that i like at the beginning of,the song obviously is the verse sound,and i like that right but its just,hearing,it as just i dont know whatever pop,ballad just kind of put me the wrong way,grip the wood was good,but the thing with griftwood is that i,kept forgetting it and i dont know why,every time it came on im like yeah this,is pretty good oh its grip wood cool,and then i would completely forget what,it sounded like like right now im,thinking about it and im kind of like,barely holding on to what it sounded,like because at one point today i,thought i would just played it back in,my head after hearing it just to be like,okay i want to remember this this was,pretty good,so i dont know why that was happening,and then by the passage respite on the,spindle fields is good as an ending,track i still believe that,but its not like the track is super,duper mind-blowing but it does do one,thing which is really cool is that near,the end of the song it plays the same,guitar riff thats in the intro track,imperium and thats really cool you know,creates a bookend of the album and i,think thats really clever,but overall it felt pretty strong i mean,kaiserion grew on me i started to not,mind that it sounded the way it did as a,ghost song because its just a good song,that female scream in the beginning i,still dont like it is it a female i,thought it was i dont know thats what,i was just,toby whatever it was at the beginning,whatever it was in the beginning i,didnt like it but other than that its,a great song,spillways grew on me a lot just from its,catchiness,its a weird name i guess but um,yeah i guess thats thats kind of the,main thing though is that the first half,kind of feels stronger but the second,half isnt terrible its just weak,you know you said a lot of very,interesting things and a lot of it im,gonna basically 180 on you,um starting with watcher in the sky,thats my least favorite song on the,album i just did not care for the song,at all whatever im not gonna go into,too much detail about that um,so,okay so ghost does this thing ive,noticed before and ill give you a,couple examples and you already said one,um where the rift in imperium is the,same rift used on respite of the spider,spittle fields they,do that same rift kind of thing um they,did this on the last album with ashes,use the same riff thats in in rats um,so this is the thing that they do and,what they do what its doing is its,its like a prelude or like an ominous,like hey this is something thats gonna,come later on right,um,dominion,not a pointless track sounds like a,pointless track what does dominion do,dominion is an all an omen or prelude,whatever you want to call it,420s,it sets up 20s very nicely no it doesnt,set it up in a way where it bleeds into,it but what it does is it introduces,horns,you get the horns in there,and then 20 starts and you got the big,band going with all the horns and the,band playing and everything like that,when i kind of put that together those,two pieces together i went okay that,makes dominion way more,um,purposeful on the album,does that mean i like dominion i still,think it could have been left off its,not imperative it doesnt need to be,there but thats the idea behind it is,just to kind of plant a little seed like,hey somethings coming heres some horns,for you be prepared its going to get,bigger and the way the way i learned to,appreciate it was imagining it live like,if i was going to see a ghost show and,it opened up with dominion playing the,curtains still up and then also in the,curtains dropping in 20s as the first,line is playing,wow what an explosive start to a show,that would be i think that would be sick,perhaps then,you could even reorder things on make,that the beginning of the album like i,feel like dominion could have been maybe,a little bit better as a ninja track for,that reason however i do think imperium,is just a better sounding intro track,dominion doesnt thats thats fine okay,yeah so okay i was picturing it more,like if this was like maybe like a mid,album or a mid concert uh thing like or,like after an intermission after,intermission yeah something like that,that would make it right especially,because of how long their shows are they,could do that and make it work exactly,um,so what called me little sunshine was,kind of my highlight track im off my,first impression because i was most