Rating : NN Rating: NN
It might be time for Sweden’s Ghost B.C. to give their hooded robes, inverted crosses and frightening face paint back to the black metal practitioners they borrowed them from. Their five-song EP produced by Dave Grohl and featuring covers of songs by ABBA, Depeche Mode, Roky Erickson and Army of Lovers is ridiculously lightweight.
Gone are the creepy atmospherics, headbanging-inducing riffs (aside from some too brief guitarmonies on DM’s Waiting For The Night) and in-your-face bass lines, which Grohl mustn’t have realized are the band’s secret weapon. Papa Emeritus’s upfront vocals are supremely unscary – even comical when he horror-whispers on AOL’s Crucified.
Ghost’s April full-length, Infestissumam, was closer to pop-rock than doom, and they’ve never kept their non-metal influences a secret. So maybe this pop tangent is just a bit of fleeting fun.
An anvil-heavy live version of Infestissumam’s Secular Haze caps the album, roaring with unsettling organ, slaying riffs and chilling vocals. You can just see the fog rolling across the stage – finally a glimpse of familiar Ghost which just twists the knife in further.
Top track: Waiting For The Night
