GHOST SKELETÁ album review

GHOST – ‘SKELETÁ’, SIXTH ALBUM OPENS A MASSIVE NEW CHANGE IN DIRECTION.

It’s no secret I’m a massive Ghost fan – I do after-all have a whole convention dedicated to them (Ghost Con UK), and a tribute band; Popestars! But even the biggest fan can be turned off, will ‘Skeletá‘ be their final nail in the coffin?..

Ok, so this is off to a bad start for me, I can’t stand children’s choirs! But given this is an intro and not too bad sounding, it’s just the one child with an adult choir – I can suffer through this without too much irritation.

So lets go into ‘Peacefield’ proper, and it’s a step into the past! Are we in the 80’s? Is AOR OK to play on the radio now?? Is this the direction for the albums sound? Well if Y&T is your thing, keep listening! Tobias says this sets the tone for the album and it’s with a big dose of hope.

Typically Ghost will open every tour with the first track of the album but at first listen I can’t quite see this as a show opener. It has a catchy chorus but there’s a lot of lyrics to remember, it doesn’t have that ‘pow’ kickstarter. But upon my fourth listen this has hugely grown on me and I feel the huge uplift and positive energy. I can’t wait to see the faces of fans on the Skelátour who have no idea how this sounds!

‘Lachryma’ does indeed continue this retro sound, but here we have 90’s Metallica heaviness meeting an Alice Cooper kind of edge. Beefy, riffy, I like where this goes, certainly the heaviest song on the album, and you gotta love that one note bass chug.

‘Satanised’ we know by now – again with an 80’s heavy metal vibe, shredding and pounding like Judas Priest. This stands out actually, it feels more downtuned and the emotion is strong in despair. And in fact I think this doesn’t quite flow with the rest, but having been written in the Impera era could explain that, but where else would it go?!

‘Guiding Lights’ is the big power ballad, matching the ‘Prequelle’ era ballads, this wouldn’t surprise you if it were written/performed by Heart or Journey.

‘De Profundis Borealis’ comes in fast and heavy, but clean. Starting with technical changes but post solo continues without much variation and out with a fade. I actually like a repetitive pattern the builds and develops, which this does, and steams through like an express train and doing so with the guitar solo. Named from an Oscar Wild letter ‘De Profundis’ meaning ‘from the abyss’, and ‘Borealis’ meaning northern. ‘from the northern abyss’. In fact, I feel like we’re in a 90’s racing game night time race soundtrack, or even Airwolf! With a pace akin to Avenged Sevenfold’s ‘Lost’, ending to a fade out where we’re reintroduced to some Gregorian vocals reminiscent of Opus Eponymous. This is fast becoming a top three song for me.

‘Cenotaph’; is perhaps the pop pinnacle for the album, I think , synth tones, clean production, but that catchy chuggy Ghost sound. This would follow the ‘Jesus He Knows Me’ cover very well. Displaying a cleaner guitar distortion and a more 80’s style snare sound, we’re almost getting into Status Quo territory at some points here.

‘Missilia Amori’, we’ve a slower pace but not at ballad level and still heavy. Tobias states this is his ‘Pour Some Sugar on Me’ moment. “Love rockets”?? I’m sold – and if you like Tyketto, you will be too!

‘Marks of the Evil One’ follows nicely with the same depth of heavy but at a standard pace, signing of disciples of the Devil, and a decent twin harmony solo but let down by a very obvious fade out – OR, is that a deliberate nod to a cheesy ending..?

‘Umbra’, well we’ve finally got some cowbell in Ghost! Time to revive Cowbell Ghoul (incidentally, special guest at this years Ghost Con UK!)! Upbeat, and some interesting drums and then a proggy breakdown with a Deep Purple esque keyboard solo.

‘Excelsis’ looses the tempo that has been building, into one final ballad and closing the album. I’m not sold on this sadly, I’m not into ballads as it is so the album ends on not a low, but a kind of unfinished note for me. And it’s not to say modern fans won’t like this, the song is at first pretty average and as many may know, some tracks take time to develop and reveal their full grandeur.

Whilst this album has plenty of synth, we don’t have layers of orchestration, in fact – theres mostly no other sounds on the keys at all. There’s no multi layers of harmonies in the vocals bar a standard harmony line and double tracking, and drums are very straight forward.

I find the album fun, it gives me feelings of being a young kipper in the 80’s, hearing these weird synthy sounds that didn’t sound like an instrument or necessarily good sounding, but were everywhere. A time when music had the attitude of doing what you wanted, who cares what people say, lets have fun.

‘Skeletá‘ is fine in the background and I’d like to try it out in the car, there’s a lot of riffs and gallops to drive sensibly to at a maximum of 70mph! I’m not bothered by ballads but I wouldn’t mark an album down for it, I can simply skip as that’s a personal preference, this album isn’t heavy in that area thankfully. It’s going to take a good few listens for the tracks to individually stand out and start getting those “A-ha” nuggets of genius pop through – something I had with Prequelle. Will Ghost fans like this? The old school gatekeeps – absolutely not. The Prequelle newcomers, yes! And it’s a great album to introduce youngsters to the sounds and styles of another generation, go look back at; Foreigner, Journey, FM, even some Night Ranger, Loverboy, and Stryper.

How does ‘Skeletá’ compare to the back catalogue? Sound wise – it’s the child of Prequelle, Impera, and Phantomime. There’s not really anything comparable to releases of old. Personally, I wouldn’t place it above Meliora, Opus, and Impera – but probably on the level with Infestissumam. After sitting on this for a couple of weeks, and a few listens later, it’s certainly a grower once you’ve got used to the vibe and simply becomes more and more fun.

 

I think a solid: 4/5

Ghost – ‘Skeletá‘, Loma Vista Records, 25 April 2025

www.ghost-official.com

 

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