Ghost Appreciation Thread

Motley Crue

I saw this band support In Flames a few weeks ago and was completely blown away. Their debut album was only released in January 2011 but the buzz behind them has grown so much that both James Hetfield and Phil Alesemo have name dropped them as a band to seriously watch.

Putting aside their sound for a moment, this band (in case you've never heard of them) are from Sweden and offer one extremely unique thing - their commitment to a bit. I implore you to watch the first video below, a HQ video of their appearance at Hellfest this year, because this is exactly how this band dress and appear onstage for every performance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrRZtys5GU4

There are rumours who the main person in the band (credited as Papa Emeritus) actually is but the rest of the band are simply credited as "unnamed ghouls" and have appeared in a video interview - with their voices distorted - as such. Emeritus has never, in character at least, done any interview that I'm aware of. The band also appeared at Download performing with Down.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFU0UZrsYA0

In this age of Internet I have to applaud the band for their commitment to their anonymity and their commitment to a bit. I also love their sound. And for some reason they also cover The Beatles from time to time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8oFlXnnwKI

AaronEnnis

The whole mystery shtick was/is completely ridiculous. For anyone who cares, its Tobias Forge, who is also in Repugnant.

chin_grin

Well firstly thanks for bringing this to our attention.

In my honest opinion it's a classic case of style over substance. Their sound is WAAAAAY too light for their image. I was expecting some awesome drone or sludgey stuff (maybe like Sunn O))) ). But we got some old school heavy metal. Which isn't a bad thing, just doesn't fit. At all. I feel it's all been done before........by Mike Patton. :pac:

Yer man has an incredible voice, but still...........the image. It's like chalk and cheese.

Reminded me of a lighter Candlemass.

Ah Candlemas.........the one album I was in to. Never got in to their other stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8th_3AoTm_E

ush

Excellent band. Best thing since short skirts.

Motley Crue

AaronEnnis wrote: »

The whole mystery shtick was/is completely ridiculous. For anyone who cares, its Tobias Forge, who is also in Repugnant.

Don't tell me you're not capable of a little sense of imagination. You have to admit that whatever band is capable of producing this kind of thing deserves a little attention. OK, the image is a little heavy for the sound, but it's classic rock (or metal) in a modern setting and few bands are looking and sounding like these guys - especially younger bands. I predict a good future for them.

And as for the spoiler, you have to admit, that information was obtained by those who went to the Swedish songwriters association and asked to find out who was collecting the cheques for this group. So otherwise he kept it fairly zipped.

I've not heard much of Repugnant, but this would be them. Good band but not really setting themselves apart from most upcoming Thrash/Punk Revivalists - they sound a lot like my mates Toxic Holocaust

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVEx1Jz7_30

ush

Fantastic band. I always thought they'd go down better in catholic countries than their native Sweden. The whole pageantry surrounding the band (evil bishop dressed in full canonicals) seems wasted on protestant scandinavians. They also prove that you can be heavy and old-school at the same time.

Nea

Absolutely love this album, its damn catchy, tho its one not to be played in front of the kids I could just imagine my son going into pre school singing "The Devils Power is the greatest one................"
I look forward to seeing them live

You may like The Devils Blood from Holland who are in the same vein. I would recommend The Time of No Time Evermore, havent got the new one yet. They are playing The Pint in Feb

Morf

Their demos are worth checking out on youtube. One or two of the songs are better than their counterparts on Opus Eponymous.

ush

Nea wrote: »

Absolutely love this album, its damn catchy, tho its one not to be played in front of the kids I could just imagine my son going into pre school singing "The Devils Power is the greatest one................"

"Hear our Satan Prayer, Our Ante-Nicene creed" while swinging a thurible. Seriously, whats not to like.

ush

chin_grin wrote: »

Their sound is WAAAAAY too light for their image. I was expecting some awesome drone or sludgey stuff (maybe like Sunn O))) ). But we got some old school heavy metal. Which isn't a bad thing, just doesn't fit. At all. I feel it's all been done before........by Mike Patton. :pac:

Its does fit. Woof-woof death metal cookie monster vocals are a dead end street and thats been done to death. Ghost aren't original. Its been done before. But compared to most things that are condsidered heavy these days, they're innovative, intelligent and accomplished.

AaronEnnis

Motley Crue wrote: »

I've not heard much of Repugnant, but this would be them. Good band but not really setting themselves apart from most upcoming Thrash/Punk Revivalists - they sound a lot like my mates Toxic Holocaust

Thrash/punk? Eh... Repugnant are a death metal band.

viadah

chin_grin wrote: »

I feel it's all been done before........by Mike Patton. :pac:

Patton's done everything before, in fairness.

RayCon

Must explore the album .... would defo go see them live if they played.

chin_grin

julyaric720 wrote: »

I think that's awesome. Makes me feel layered. Like some sort of epic lasagna

Lasagna is epic. Comparable to nothing. NOTHING! :pac:

Gave them another listen. Still a little too tame for me. And no, I'm not only in to the "cookie monster vocal" bands, or otherwise known as brutal death metal or grindcore or I've heard one genre called pornogrind.......core.......death. Something.

ush wrote: »

Its does fit. Woof-woof death metal cookie monster vocals are a dead end street and thats been done to death. Ghost aren't original. Its been done before. But compared to most things that are condsidered heavy these days, they're innovative, intelligent and accomplished.

Did you listen to the Candlemass song I posted? (Regarding vocals).

In all fairness I was expecting them to sound like these guys. Amazing Irish band. Churchs level of theatrics is a bit too far though. Although in saying that these guys perform in the same way. With robes..........so I'm talking out me hole. No! Wait, my point was the style. Yes. The "style".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9tZQzUj8Tk

Motley Crue

The Devil's Blood don't make it easy to get your attention, their MySpace was last updated in late October saying "this page will soon be deleted" and their official website, which they encouraged people to follow them on, is still under construction.

Poor management in terms of publicity.

http://www.thedevilsblood.com/

metzengerstein

Asolutly love this band,debut album is amazing , i havent seen
a live show yet,but from what i see online i cant wait to get to a show.the costumes are awesome.someone mentioned the music is very light for the image,why does it need to be heavier,in my opinion everythig fits very well together,sometimes bands that are heavy but not too heavy can be more darker, and this is the case with ghost for me .

Nea

I had to dig a bit for info myself

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mc7YbOPx1Wo

devildriver

Motley Crue wrote: »

The Devil's Blood don't make it easy to get your attention, their MySpace was last updated in late October saying "this page will soon be deleted" and their official website, which they encouraged people to follow them on, is still under construction.

Poor management in terms of publicity.

http://www.thedevilsblood.com/

Site seems to be working for me, what's more they are playing Dublin in February:

http://www.thedevilsblood.com/rituals.htm

Motley Crue

devildriver wrote: »

http://www.thedevilsblood.com/rituals.htm

Interesting, quite a random solitary show, hopefully more to follow

The video's don't seem to do them justice, have to be honest, Ghost seem to look more the part and their stage presence adds a lot to their performance. Plus with a female vocalist I'm not too fussed about seeing these guys now.

Nea

Motley Crue wrote: »

Plus with a female vocalist I'm not too fussed about seeing these guys now.

Any reason why? That sounds quite sexist that a female vocalist would put you off, I think her vocals really suit. Any live reviews I have read seem to be promising.

I am looking forward to seeing them in Feb, tickets are cheap and The Pint is a great little venue. They are also playing Manchester the night before.

I also hope the hint I dropped at home for their new album for Christmas has been picked up on

devildriver

chin_grin wrote: »

Well firstly thanks for bringing this to our attention.

In my honest opinion it's a classic case of style over substance. Their sound is WAAAAAY too light for their image. I was expecting some awesome drone or sludgey stuff (maybe like Sunn O))) ). But we got some old school heavy metal. Which isn't a bad thing, just doesn't fit. At all. I feel it's all been done before........by Mike Patton. :pac:

Yer man has an incredible voice, but still...........the image. It's like chalk and cheese.

Reminded me of a lighter Candlemass.

Ah Candlemas.........the one album I was in to. Never got in to their other stuff.

I'm with you there, the major dischord between the image and the sound is quite offputting. It's sort of like seeing Slipknot come on stage and launch into a sean nós session (which I'd gladly pay to see!).

In the end though, stage garb matters very little in the grand scheme of things and it's all about the tunes - I'll give them another spin.

Motley Crue

Nea wrote: »

Any reason why? That sounds quite sexist that a female vocalist would put you off, I think her vocals really suit. Any live reviews I have read seem to be promising.

No no, I would want to eliminate any sexist aspect from this straight away, to be honest there are many reasons why this band doesn't do it for me. It might seem a little shallow to say this but their image is a big deal and with this kind of music they look just like every other band on the Metal circuit whereas Ghost have made an effort to conceal their identity and put on a certain persona during the performance. I think, for me personally, this is a strong draw to their live set and their sound for me. I like the vocalist in Ghost and the band's music but their image also helps the package a lot, because they look different.

And for the record, while I have personally found it difficult to accept Metal bands with female vocalists over those with male vocalists (because I prefer the naturally deeper bass voice that a male voice-box is capable of producing in terms of my singing) there are still many, many good female artists out there performing in and/or fronting metal and hard rock bands - bands like Straight Line Stitch, The Donna's, Bleeding Through and Lacuna Coil to name but four I have personally seen live

There is no sexism involved in my choices whatsoever, I expect just as much hard work from both male and female musicians to obtain my personal "fandom" (if you want to use that word) and many of those musicians have while many musicians of both genders have also failed to impress me.

Nea

Haha no worries, not trying to start a sexism war or anything.
Just thought you may have liked them as they are quite similar bands:)

RayCon

Motley Crue wrote: »

Interesting, quite a random solitary show, .....with a female vocalist I'm not too fussed about seeing these guys now.

Plus if she doubles up as the bands driver , she'll never get the van down the little alley behind The Pint.:pac:





I'll get me coat ....

ush

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8KYiaIytsw

Passenger

Listened to Infestissumam there the other day and it didn't grab me as much as the fist album. The production is very good though. It was produced by Nick Raskulinecz (QOTSA, Stone Sour, Rush, Deftones, Foo Fighters) so it has a nice polished sound. Gonna give it another listen asap.

Kess73

Not nuts on the new album. Just feels a little bit contrived.

Am loving the new Ancient VVisdom album though.

RebelSoul

Nea wrote: »

I had to dig a bit for info myself

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mc7YbOPx1Wo

Thanks to my insomnia I found myself reading this thread last night. So glad I did. Never heard this band before. They're great. Remind me of Roky Erickson mixed with Uli Jon Roth era Scorpions. Fantastic.

Passenger

RebelSoul wrote: »

Thanks to my insomnia I found myself reading this thread last night. So glad I did. Never heard this band before. They're great. Remind me of Roky Erickson mixed with Uli Jon Roth era Scorpions. Fantastic.

That's not a bad description. :pac:

The Time of No Time Evermore was pretty good. Been meaning to get The Thousandfold Epicenter.

buck65

Gave the new album a listen on Spotify to see what the talk was all about, but really lads isn't this a joke? Does anyone listen to this and believe it's serious music.
Are they not having a Spinal Tap laugh at metal? Their music is rubbish and the singer is surely hamming it up.
Jesus if I paid money for this I'd be ****ing upset. Joke music.

ush

Agreed. Metal should be humourless.