Ghost-Meliora (2015)

Ghost-Meliora (2015)

“Indubitably, magic is one of the subtlest and most difficult of the sciences and arts. There is more opportunity for errors of comprehension, judgment and practice than in any other branch of physics.”

Aleister Crowley

By: Ghost Writer

Although I'm not a big fan of this Swedish occult metal phenomenon, Ghost shows again that they are not only enormously popular, but also very prolific, delivering us a new record, successor of 2013's Infestissumam.

Meliora is Ghost's latest offering, and I must say that it is about to became the band most solid effort, opener Spirit shows a great opening full of eerie keyboards and monumental gothic choruses, the band immediately switches to its unique brand of classic heavy metal mixed cleverly with more modern motifs, drumming is as solid as ever and melodies simply goes from obscure to really catchy, as the band executes a quite complex tune that reveals the dark nature of this new record, while From the Pinnacle rob the Pit rocks with a powerful groove, showing the band leaning towards the melodic obscure hard rock of a band like Alice in Chains, as the hypnotic vocals flow in a sinister way along great guitar lines and a powerful rhythm section.

Cirice goes back to classic thrash metal intros, sounding like the kind of stuff Metallica or Slayer did circa Master of Puppets or South of Heaven, but although the song is a hard hitting one, it definitely stays away from thrash as the tune turns into a whirlwind of melody, powerful drums, epic guitars, dreamy vocals, sometimes recalling serious hard rock, with slight touches of gothic keys.

The intro to Spöksonat is far from spooky, it's boring and a complete turn off, ending up as a kind of 60s psychedelic song, but Ulver was amazing at this, Ghost lacks that innovative spark and the song simply ends up nowhere, but they come back with a vengeance on Mummy Dust full of hard riffing, rabid vocals and intense keyboards, the band Appling full power on this one conjuring enough black magik power to really rise expectations once again, repeating the formula on the southern rock tinged riffs of Majesty, which quickly evolves into a complex epic.

A little recycling goes on in Absolution, Pope Emeritus III, the band's singer starts getting a little redundant and simply plain in his vocal approach, if he is capable of something else, he is not willing to show us, and although melody great, the song is nothing but generic Ghost stuff with a little 70s prog rock influence, closing the record with the interesting Deus in Absentia, a kind if rock opera and a tune that sounds like something Alice Cooper could have penned in the 70s with the aid of the great Bob Ezrin, which makes me question myself, why Bob is not behind the mixing board on a Ghost record? It could be a smash without a doubt.

Meliora is a very solid heavy metal/ hard rock record, is definitely not a stellar record, but it will obviously satisfies the hardcore followers of this Swedish band that although shows a great ability to craft good heard rock, heavy metal sounds, it is still on the way to deliver a master piece that establish them as a really force to be reckoned with, and not just pure image.