Hi everyone. Spookthony Scaretano here, the Internet's busiest music nerd, and it's time for a review of this new Ghost album Skeleta.

Mysterious Swedish metal outfit Ghost. They are back and still sounding quite ghostly. I'll be honest, I've been covering this band since they broke over a decade ago at this point, and for a while I thought they were one of the most exciting things happening in metal music currently. I mean, I get why records like Opus Eponymous wouldn't necessarily appeal to everyone or just all metal fans, but that record still stands out to me as a modern metal classic and a very refreshing return to writing songs in this genre that are just a bit more tuneful and anthemic without necessarily coming across as just an exercise in nostalgia.

And through multiple album cycles, I've also loved the band's devotion to theatrics. I feel like you can't really enjoy Ghost without also appreciating their presentation, with the different changing front men of each record, the whole Papa Emeritus cycle being swapped in and out like new popes. Obviously there is a lot in the band's music and conceptuality that plays on themes of religion and specifically Catholicism in a kind of blasphemous and satirical way. And while I'm by no means an expert on the band's entire lore, it is an entertaining piece of the Ghost puzzle, as there are numerous videos and social media posts and articles dedicated to keeping track of the Lore. And it's kind of sad how in a recent conversation with NME, there was like an acknowledgement that this aspect of the band may be kind of going away a bit.

Though who am I to judge? I am a notorious Lore neglector at this point.

I hope the band doesn't give up entirely on the idea of conceptuality with their presentation and their music, as I think it's been a key element of some great albums and their catalog, like the very underrated Prequelle from 2018, which has numerous tracks that pull inspiration from the Black Death – the Plague. Kind of crazy considering what happened a few years later after that album dropped.

I went into this new Ghost album with a lot of mixed feelings and hopes as their last record, Impera in 2022, I think was handily their worst LP thus far. There are so many songs and lyrics on that record that are just painfully on the nose, plus the vocal play and production on that record brought the theatrics and drama of the band to a truly obnoxious peak.

So on this new record I was just hoping for something better in any way, and I'm happy to report this album meets at least that standard, even if I think the singles were a little underwhelming. Like "Lachryma" for example, which is a twinkly anthemic hard rock ballad with some grim and thrashy riffs popping in here and there and overall it's fine, but I feel like the band has written this song before at least a few times, but the one defining characteristic of it happening this time around is that you have like some airy wintry atmospheric keys hanging in the mix that bring the song a bit of dazzle for sure.

You also have "Satanized", where the theatrics return with a force not only with the soaring Crypt Keeper guitar leads that open the track up, but you also have these weird down-pitched religious chants that pop in right after the hook that are honestly horrendous and add nothing to the tune. Still, this track is somehow more listenable than a song like "Twenties", which I'm just gonna continue pretending doesn't exist.

And there's also "Peacefield", which serves as the album's opener too, a track whose angelic choral vocals and atmospheric keyboards definitely set the tone for an album that is a bit softer and glitzier in comparison with other Ghost releases. Think the prime glam metal releases of artists like Alice Cooper or Dakken and Guns N Roses, but now done with Ghost's trademark hyper clean and somewhat eerie lead vocals and harmonies. It's a really strong tune to open up the record too, with a lot of lyrics that envision what sounds like the end of a monarchy or some kind of destructive power hierarchy, and the potential for each new generation to enact some kind of revolutionary change or upheaval. It's quite the opening statement and we have very consistent vibes.

Going deeper into the album, we have "Guiding Lights", which I think is the most melodramatic power ballad type tune the band has ever put out in terms of not just how it's written but also performed, as there are numerous points where Tobias Forge's surprisingly expressive vocals see him kind of cracking a little bit. Could be somewhat inadvertent, but he does sound legitimately choked up when singing some of these lines and it is actually quite a sad song when you think about it. At least my read on it is the track's all about the long road of life and how it's eventually leading nowhere. And at the finish, there's no real promise of a heaven or a final destination.

So I think the slightly softer and just different sonic direction this track goes in definitely lends a larger emotional impact to the slower and more nuanced cuts on the album. But by that same token, it does kind of defang some of the more aggressive or upbeat tracks on the record too, like with "Cenotaph".

And honestly, I'm not really sure where to start with "Missilia Amori". Oh, wait, I know where to start: the lyrics. You know, I don't think the meaning of this track is hard to suss out. Interpret it how you like. Either way, I think what it's saying could have most definitely been put better.

"So you want out now, don't you? / Love was I not all you were dreaming of? / Love rockets shot right in between your eyes / Love rockets / Excite me with your demise / Before my love has turned to hate / Before my love it is too late / Love rockets shot right in between your eyes."

And as an added bonus: "I'm gonna hunt you / Wherever you may hide away / I'm gonna hunt you down / A man of faith is hard to find / You showed me yours / I'll show you my love rockets."

Which, given that this is Ghost, I'm not against the idea that this is just like being sung in character and it's over the top for a reason, but still, like, my skin crawls listening to this.

The final leg of the record is okay. We have "Marks of the Evil One", which I think is one of the best tracks here and really a true blue Ghost classic. You just have like this very melodic and anthemic metal rager that's all about, you know, reflecting darkness, spiritually speaking. I love the chants of "There there" in the chorus. It's a very hype, exciting track.

The following "Umbra" is a bit more experimental and jammy for the band, as you do have like this whole rock organ odyssey in the second half of the track. That's pretty sick.

But I did find the closing track maybe a little bit tedious and dragged on for a bit too long. Even if I do appreciate the fact that the lyrics of the track do tie up the album's themes around death and an afterlife pretty well.

But yeah, overall, while I do think this record is an improvement on Ghost's last LP, the songs in the production made this record a bit too much of a mixed bag for me to be as impressed with it as some of their best LPs to date. Which is why I'm feeling a light to decent 6 on this album.

Anthony Fantano, Ghost, Forever.