Music

Album Review: Ghost ‘Opus Eponymous’

Published

13 years ago

December 30, 2010

Sweden has, in my eyes, some of the best music acts these days. You’ve got Opeth, In Flames, At The Gates, Dark Tranquillity, Meshuggah, Pain Of Salvation; the list goes on and on. These bands, and more from the Scandinavian region, are often credited with shaping today’s metal scene. Most of the time, these bands are focused on moving forward, creating the next iconic sound. Ghost has taken the opposite approach and went back in time, forging a Satanic heavy metal album that hearkens back to the 70’s and 80’s NWOBHM (New Wave Of British Heavy Metal). Does it work or is it too pretentious for it’s own good? Check after the jump for answer.

Kicking things off with a warm, yet oddly creepy, organ tune, ‘Opus Eponymous’ really gets things going with ‘Con Clavi Con Dio’. Starting with a thick yet articulate bass, the band blasts open with organs, crunchy guitars and harmonized, almost wailed vocals. Since the first word you hear on the album is “Lucifer!”, you kinda know what you’re getting into right away. The song is energetic and easily brings back memories of old Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath.

The production of the album is very polished yet sounds like an old recording. The tones of each instrument are as vintage as they come, bringing a lot of nostalgic emotions into the mix. The bass, as stated above, is very thick yet never muddy. The guitars are panned spaciously and have just enough crunch without going into full out distortion. The drums are also mixed very well. The vocal style is what easily might throw off many a listener as they are all sung and harmonized with no growling or screaming. The extra little flourishes on the album serve great purpose by adding texture.

The album flows very naturally and rarely changes form or style. It’s also an album that with each listen more comes out. The drumming is very clever and the bassist often sticks to the bass drum, rather than constantly matching the guitarists, creating a solid foundation that is easy to nod your head to. To put it simply, it’s a joy to listen to this album.

The Final Word: With elements from Bigelf, Opeth and the early NWOBHM acts, Ghost have put out a great album in ‘Opus Eponymous’ that is as catchy as it is Satanic. Who says you can’t worship Satan without dancing a little jig here and there?

JonathanBarkan

Managing editor/music guy/social media fella of Bloody-Disgusting

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Music

“He Walks By Night” – Listen to a Brand New John Carpenter Song NOW!

Published

1 week ago

April 9, 2024

John Squires

It’s a new day, and you’ve got new John Carpenter to listen to. John Carpenter, Daniel Davies and Cody Carpenter have released the new track He Walks By Night this morning, the second single off their upcoming album Lost Themes IV: Noir, out May 3 on Sacred Bones Records.

Lost Themes IV: Noir is the latest installment in a series that sees Carpenter releasing new music for John Carpenter movies that don’t actually exist. The first Lost Themes was released in 2015, followed by Lost Themes II in 2016 and Lost Themes III: Alive After Death in 2021.

Sacred Bones previews, “It’s been a decade since John Carpenter recorded the material that would become Lost Themes, his debut album of non-film music and the opening salvo in one of Hollywood’s great second acts. Those vibrant, synth-driven songs, made in collaboration with his son Cody Carpenter and godson Daniel Davies, kickstarted a musical renaissance for the pioneering composer and director. With Lost Themes IV: Noir, they’ve struck gold again, this time mining the rich history of the film noir genre for inspiration.

“Since the first Lost Themes, John has referred to these compositions as “soundtracks for the movies in your mind.” On the fourth installment in the series, those movies are noirs. Like the film genre they were influenced by, what makes these songs “noirish” is sometimes slippery and hard to define, and not merely reducible to a collection of tropes. The scores for the great American noir pictures were largely orchestral, while the Carpenters and Davies work off a sturdy synth-and-guitar backbone.

“The trio’s free-flowing chemistry means Lost Themes IV: Noir runs like a well-oiled machine—the 1951 Jaguar XK120 Roadster from Kiss Me Deadly, perhaps, or the 1958 Plymouth Fury from John’s own Christine. It’s a chemistry that’s helped power one of the most productive stretches of John’s creative life, and Noir proves that it’s nowhere near done yielding brilliant results.”

You can pre-save Lost Themes IV: Noir right now! And listen to the new track below…