{"id":8508,"date":"2015-08-10T09:40:33","date_gmt":"2015-08-10T09:40:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-ghost-meliora\/"},"modified":"2015-08-10T09:40:33","modified_gmt":"2015-08-10T09:40:33","slug":"album-review-ghost-meliora","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-ghost-meliora\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Ghost – Meliora"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"At times repetitive and uncharacteristically optimistic, Ghost<\/b>\u2019s latest incarnation have lost their satanic charm.<\/figure>\n

Ghost<\/b> have always been the black sheep of the metal family. A Swedish heavy metal band of Nameless Ghouls with a skeletal Pope at the helm – the personification of a punchline of a bad joke. Backed by anonymous members that appear to change with the wind, frontman Papa Emeritus is currently on his third regeneration, and quite possibly the worst. Proffering a dated vocal performance, the band has lost its backbone to the tune of an embarrassing dad at the karaoke machine.<\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n

\u2018Meliora\u2019<\/i> opens with the synth-heavy psalm \u2018Spirit\u2019<\/i> that wouldn\u2019t sound out of place in a 70s budget sci fi movie. \u2018From The Pinnacle To The Pit\u2019<\/i> follows with a dark energy reminiscent of Ozzy Osbourne, although Papa\u2019s vocal range is far too light to add enough menace to its satanic whispers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can feel the thunder that\u2019s breaking in your heart, I can see through the scars inside you,\u201d<\/i> chants \u2018Cirice\u2019<\/i> bursting forth from a misleading acoustic opening. Despite the repetitive lyrics stretched over an extremely tiresome 6 minutes, an expert Queen-esque guitar solo makes for light relief.<\/p>\n

\u2018Majesty\u2019<\/i> emerges as an atmospheric treadmill \u2013 it\u2019s trying hard to go somewhere but gets absolutely nowhere. Salvaged by an intricate guitar solo, however, it\u2019s preceded by the laughable \u2018Mummy Dust\u2019<\/i> and followed by the utterly pointless organ interlude \u2018Devil Church\u2019<\/i>.<\/p>\n

\u201cEver since you were born, you\u2019ve been dying, every day a little more you\u2019ve been dying, dying to reach the setting sun,\u201d<\/i> reminds the catchy sermon \u2018Absolution\u2019<\/i>, before fizzling out on the overly-melodic \u2018Deus In Absentia\u2019<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Ghost<\/b>\u2019s talent for commercialising ecclesiastical, borderline satanic metal has faded significantly. Fronted by a vocalist that would sound more at home in an ABBA tribute, the novelty has been stretched beyond its means. Perhaps it\u2019s time to end the sermon before the parishioners flee.\n<\/p>\n

2\/5<\/p>\n

\u2019Meliora\u2019<\/i> by Ghost<\/b> is released on 21st August on Spinefarm Records<\/b>\/Loma Vista Recordings<\/b>.<\/p>\n

Ghost<\/b> links: Website<\/a>|Facebook<\/a>|Twitter<\/a><\/p>\n

Words by Ali Cooper (@AliZombie_<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At times repetitive and uncharacteristically optimistic, Ghost\u2019s latest incarnation have lost their satanic charm. Ghost have always been the black sheep of the metal family. A Swedish heavy metal band of Nameless Ghouls with a skeletal Pope at the helm – the personification of a punchline of a bad joke. Backed by anonymous members that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[4261,826,4964,313],"class_list":["post-8508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-album-reviews","tag-ghost","tag-loma-vista-recordings","tag-meliora","tag-spinefarm-records"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAlbum Review: Ghost - Meliora - Already Heard Staging<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"At times repetitive and uncharacteristically optimistic, Ghost\u2019s latest incarnation have lost their satanic charm.Ghost have always been the black sheep\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Album Review: Ghost - 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