Psychological subtlety and self-examination aren’t the qualities you’d instantly affiliate with Ghost. Tobias Forge and his Swedish ghouls have surged from power to unholy power, with their mix of pantomime blasphemy and flamboyantly-lit retro rock already pushed as far excessive because it’s affordable to go. After which a rattling sight additional nonetheless. However the inimitable mainman has spoken frankly about his want to make this feverishly-anticipated sixth album “extra introspective” than what’s come earlier than. It’s the execution of that daring proposal that makes Skeletá Ghost’s deepest, most intriguing assertion up to now.
Members of the congregation, worry not. Regardless of that cranial idea and rib-rattling album title, there’s been valuable little stripping of musical flesh from the bones. Epic opener Peacefield builds from the eerie sound of a youngsters’s choir into the form of heart-stopping refrain that will do Survivor or Journey proud: a Satanic tune of reward within the face of a world going to shit. Lachryma permits unhappiness to seep in, accompanied by Sabbath-worshipping weight. Then waltzing lead-single Satanized spreads its blessed black wings, seeing depraved parallels between demonic possession and falling in love.
Tobias’ ruminations manifest themselves subtly. The color and bombast of ’70s and ’80s radio rock songwriting has all the time been a part of his infernal system, however right here he appears to be connecting to the very feeling of these previous recordings, embracing a barely washed-out manufacturing and mid-tempos realized from AOR giants like Kansas and REO Speedwagon when he was a boy.
Texturally, that provides poignancy to an influence ballad like Guiding Lights, and a touch of haunting sincerity to De Profundis Borealis’ journey into the wintry abyss. On Cenotaph, in the meantime, he dares incorporate basic steel playfulness right into a depending on bereavement.