Ghost: What's The Point?

[Original article 'disappeared down the memory hole' by a certain website. Resurrected and revised for my own blog].

As a metal veteran that's been into the scene for two decades, you see many things come and many things go. Notably, one of the most memorable ones was (to my ears and eyes) the downfall of 'proper metal' that was brought by the late 90s wave of nu metal and pop metal bands; a time of which I wondered what the hell was happening to the scene. Fad bands appear, and disappear; some bands mature and outgrow a fad to transcend their roots – Deftones being the best example.
Recently, there's been a resurgence of what I call 'proper metal' – thrash metal, death metal has become more prominent, the reanimated corpses of hair metal, and five minute wonders that capture the imagination that are instantly disposable such as The Darkness for example. To be cynical, most of this is fuelled by the fickle minded pop culture powered by soundtracks heard on console games such as Grand Theft Guitar Hero, raiding charity shops to look like they fell from 1974; a culture sporting silly beards, dodgy flares, and paying money for old technology like music centres, film cameras and record players – because looking like you came from the past is apparently the new future. Over the past few years, visually and audibly – we have fell into a deep romanticism with wanting to emulate the past, spearheaded by the likes of watching Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes. In fact, yours truly would give one of his gentleman vegetables to own a 1979 Ford Granada 2.8 Ghia just so I can fulfil my childhood wet dreams of cruising around looking like an extra from The Professionals.

Which brings me neatly onto a band that has jumped on a retro 1970s emulating Zeitgeist – the band in particular is Ghost, a band hailing from Sweden with strange quasi-satanic imagery and a sound that is a bland blend of 1970s rocks clichés.

Ghost, are a source of never-ending bemusement. I first heard of this band from a few friends who I know, and these guys are strictly of the 'kvlt' school who often question some of the bands that I hold so dear – even being as quirky to have a dislike of most forms of thrash metal, disliking the current neo-trash metal renaissance doing the rounds, and even picking holes with certain black and death metal bands and declaring them to be sell outs. In fact, the mention of one highly popular black metal band sends one of them into an incandescent rage when you point out that they once liked them – to reply with the aloof answer of “Well, we've all grown out of listening to them – why haven't you?”.
Yet, these very same people turn into shrieking teenage school girls when you mention Ghost. They have what I can only describe as a pathological adoration for them, and have seen them numerous times with other bands and have also seen them at festival appearances; declaring them to be the best thing since sliced bread or the invention of the wheel. Being a man who is willing enough to give anything the benefit of the doubt (who is often wrongly declared as rigidly liking nothing but black metal and trad goth/post punk/darkwave exclusively) I have decided to give them a listen. Hell, I even sat through Bring Me The Horizon which amongst my friends is universally hated!

So, what is exactly wrong with them? Well, musically they are pretty decent and can pen some nice riffs and melodies which obviously work well for what appears to a 'vast majority' of people out there. Personally, I'm not so sure. They're not an awful sounding band per se, far from it. There is a certain element amongst their song writing that just doesn't appear to work. Take the song 'Guleh/Zombie Queen' for example; it comprises of a simplistic chorus that is almost nursery rhyme like in structure with a style that appears to be stolen single handedly from a lysergic session of overdosing on far too many Blue Oyster Cult albums – and to be honest, this sort of thing has been done better before and inspiring more excitement to the listener.

Other problems with the band manifest themselves in the form of the vocals of Papa Emeritus. He has a nasally, and curiously patronising tone that you could be forgiven for thinking is singing with a condescending drone that mocks the listener: “Na na na na naaaa, we're a pub band covering Blue Oyster Cult, someone gave us a record deal - more fool you!”. The vocals feels like they have more to give, but are lacking any form of dynamics to drawn the listener in. The overall sound of the music comes across as a mockery and sound so terribly twee laced with faux Satanism in an attempt to sound edgy and cool. 'Monsterance Clock' demonstrates this perfectly, composed of a simple nursery rhyme song structure that continues on in a varying theme throughout their songs, while “If You Have Ghosts” and “I'm a Marionette” has cloying harmonious singing combined with Hammond organ backing that in essence is a musical rock death by syrup that should carry a diabetes warning, The musical acid test for me, is to play songs in a rock nightclub or in a rock pub somewhere to see if they can stand out amongst all the hustle and bustle of such an environment. If a band stands out enough, the punters will automatically feel compelled to ask what the band is and I've often heard a very catchy earworm that I couldn't shift out of my system for weeks on end because of such an occurrence. In the case of Ghost, they would simply fade into the background noise and become a part of the furniture that is for the most part unnoticed.



Which brings me neatly onto the imagery of the band; a look that has ripped off the cloaks and scary demeanour of Portal in an attempt to add further interest to the band, Don't get me wrong, a mysterious shadowy imagery for a band in the live setting is a good thing and I much prefer a band that 'looks the part' rather than a bunch of scruffy herberts that have wandered in off the street which was a problem that I have with pretty much all of the grunge bands that were out at the time. However, in the case of Ghost I feel that this is an excessive gimmick in a manner similar to Slipknot, which also matches badly. Visually, before you heard them you would expect something like King Diamond and think “Ah sweet, these Ghost guys look cool! I've got to check them out”. Sadly, it strictly ends there with music that sounds truly pedestrian and treads water.

It's all very well to emulate and express your roots which inspired your band, but I believe that you need to add something to it that makes it stand out from the crowd. Imitation is often cited as being the sincerest form of flattery, and then there's just out and out brown nosing that is quite nauseating. Sadly, Ghost take far too many pointers from well-established bands and in an effort to make themselves stand out from the crowd and do nothing to innovate and make themselves sound interesting. Cynical Ghost fans out there have pointed out that I am taking them too seriously and they should be enjoyed for what they are, rather than digging around too far into what inspired them in the first place. The neo-thrash renaissance is a perfect example; been done before but don't concentrate too seriously on the originators of the thrash scene and I can appreciate them for what they are, an enjoyable blast not to be taken too seriously.

One of the best subtweets I read one night went along the lines of “Ok, so Ghost suck because they're a modern band and don't come from 1974. So, if Ghost originally came from 1974, would that make them good?”

My answer to this: No

Good music doesn't age, be it released 5, 10, 15 or 30 years ago. I don't have a problem with bands that emulate a sound from days gone by, such as Grand Magus, Witchcraft, Big Elf, Broadcast and the more experimental works of Opeth that are heavily prog rock influenced that veer away from their extreme style. Ghost are a relatively new band, which I believe may find themselves painted into a corner one day in the future and become a flash in the pan. For me, I feel Ghost must try to innovate somehow as opposed to emulate. Other bands are inspired and innovate, but there is a neutered quality that is bland and curiously lacking no matter how many times I listen to them.

To conclude, Ghost had better enjoy the good times when they can. Eventually, the novelty will wear off and they won't be remembered like the classic bands of days gone by they emulate so much. However, at this moment in time they continue to succeed in filling out stadiums, and festival appearances appealing to a disposable Grand Theft Guitar Hero inspired fan base, probably crossing the lines into the mainstream musical conscious at some point. Long may you continue to baffle, and bemuse me in equal measure.