Review Summary: This haunting, riveting third album sees Ghost push the boundaries of doom and prog rock.
Ghost is a band that really caught my eye the first time I heard them. They have this ominous, haunting aura that distinguishes them from their contemporaries. But much like their contemporaries, they have an uncanny knack for pushing the envelope, and their live shows are one of a kind. Each one of their albums has seen a new lead vocalist for the band, each one going by the haunting persona Papa Emeritus. The instrumentalists refer to themselves as Nameless Ghouls, so with that said, the true identities of this group have yet to be revealed. In the meantime however, their anonymous designation is by far the most alluring aspect of the group, and their music only gets better with each listen.
I loved this group's first album "Opus Eponymous." I wasn't very high on "Infestissumam." "Meliora", however, is easily the best album of the three, and with the youngest and clearly most talented Papa yet at the helm, this group's already compelling discography continues to forge towards the stars.
The end result of this album will surely turn some heads, and will probably urge parents to keep this out of their children's hands. Let them do so, though. The rest of us can enjoy this thematic masterpiece, which sees the band use their sonic talents to promote the idea that "better things await."
Lead off track "Cirice" was my first taste of the new Papa, the younger brother of PE2. "Cirice" is my pick as the best song of the record. Papa III has a very alluring and mysterious voice, which appropriately serves as a benchmark for how the Ghouls behind him follow suit. The album as a whole segues between doom metal and prog rock, while nodding to 70s and 80s rock. The correlation between the two is most evident on tracks such as "He Is" and "Deus in Absentia", the latter of which draws comparison to Deep Purple and Cathedral.
The album is heightened by bewitching choruses where Papa 3 soars with his potent vocals, but the main focus of the album is the theatrics. You don't need a live show to see how this group's musical intensity goes hand in hand with grooving bass lines and the aforementioned nods to 70s and 80s prog rock. Using their influences in a way that harkens back to them but doesn't carbon copy them is arguably the crowing achievement of this record. The various instrumentation, the synthesizers, everything that this album manifests is worth multiple spins and one of the best albums of the year.
