http://www.myspace.com/thebandghost

Really been enjoying these songs here. Pre-ordered their album. The music is just brilliant. It's like a nice mix of Mercyful Fate and Blue Oyster Cult.

Amazing band! I need to order their album too. I definitely hear the Blue Oyster Cult in them, very very cool band. Rise Above always sign the best bands ever!

Yeah Lee never seems to get anything wrong.

I actually can't fault this band in any way at all. Been listening to their demo a lot and I'm gonna buy the 7" too.

Yeah been listening to them for a while now, killer music with really catchy yet interesting hooks. Can't wait to see them at Live Evil!

You know what I'm gonna have to miss that gig. Was gonna come down for my 19th birthday but funds will not allow it. Bugger.

Just got the album didn't listen to them at all before, I got to say it is amazing stuff.

OK, I saw Ghost at Live Evil, here is my review:

They kept the audience waiting for over an hour. There was supposed to be a 15 minute change over, total bullshit. It went beyond tension building and into 'fucking annoying' territory. Oh well.

Anyway, the house lights eventually went off and their intro track started playing. One solitary red light illuminated the stage and strange chanting filled the room. Four black-robed figures entered the stage, each adorned with a mask which showed only their eyes and the Ghost inverted cross necklace. They looked fucking evil. Suddenly, the moment we had all been waiting for... The singer appeared through the curtain, looking literally like a cheap Marilyn Manson copy. This sucked big time.

He was wearing a 'my mum sewed this for me' pope-robe covered with glittery inverted crosses and one of those bishop style hats with the Ghost logo on it. The whole thing was totally tacky compared to the simple black robes of his comrades. He had a golden censer which filled the room with a nice church, incense smell. He also wore an old man mask (which, when he lifted his head up, you could see his real neck underneath) painted with a skull. Pretty bad but the worst part was his mismatched goth contact lenses, no wait, the worst part was his fake Transylvanian accent when he spoke! Cringe!

Anyway, aside from the total letdown of anything really cool and Satanic coming from the frontman (whom I was convinced from the songs that he was a real Satanist, not just some Marilyn Manson style bullshit artist) the sonics were AMAZING. I don't know if it was the extra time they spent coming onstage but the Underworld has never sounded so brilliant. You could hear everything! It kind of sucked that they didn't have an organ to complete the vibe of their recorded stuff but they really rocked. They were much heavier and more powerful than their album and people were actually moshing! They played like 5 songs which is total shit, no Stand by Him or Satan Prayer. The singer hardly spoke at all (thank fuck) and kind of bobbed round the front of the stage, lest his hat fall off I imagine. His only banter was giving out some communion wafers and wine(?) at the end. Not great.

The gist of the whole thing was, laughable, cheap costume, fantastic music and sound. They may get better if the stage show does, but could end up as a joke. Come on Ghost, sort it out you are better than that.

6/10

Hahaha, communion wafers and wine, I don't even know what to say to that, hahahaha!

No Stand By Him or Satan Prayer, that's rubbish... did they play Genesis? Actually I imagine they can't have been able to with no keyboard player. Well, at least I don't feel so bad about missing them now, although it does make me feel quite sad that they were more hilarious than amazing. I'm all up for theatrical goodness, but if you go too far you can just come off looking like a right plonker, and it really takes away from the power of the music. There's a lot to be said for bands who just stand still and play their music (as long as the music is good), I have come to realise over the ages. Although personally I'll always enjoy running around on stage because I certainly do love to rock, it is nice to go and watch an amazing band just play amazing songs and not fanny about with any such shenanigans, although wearing some nice fancy clothes can make it nice and fancy. Astra for example (they don't wear fancy clothes). Fucking ASTRA. You all need to see Astra live. Jesus christ, nothing has ever blown my mind so much ever. And also Graveyard. Yes, GRAVEYARD. Rock and fucking bloody roll.

Anyway, I got the real album, and it has a lovely cardboard casing (not a digipak, just a nice sleeve) like all of Rise Above's new releases, and the logo is lovely and shiny, and the lyrics in the booklet are printed in an amazing style of gothic madness, I bloody love it. Absolutely amazing album, and an amazing band, I just hope they sort themselves out and aren't dickheads when it comes to playing live. They're Swedish, so they must be amazing and wonderful, they probably just want to have a good old fun time.

I like the idea of having the band masked because then you can replace members without the public knowing.

The demo/7" tracks and Con Clavi... are amazing. Stand by Him and Satan Prayer are a bit 'Austin Powers' rock. Bit of a disappointing album in a way, although I've been playing it a lot.

Hahaha, Austin Powers Rock is my new favourite genre of music!

The only track I do kind of lose interest in on this album is Prime Mover, even though right now it won't get out of my head, I find it a bit annoying and I can't really be bothered to listen to it. I think Genesis is the best track, even if it does repeat the same melody over and over again, but it's so amazing that it's okay that they do that. They should've let the acoustic part go on for longer though! Hopefully on the next album they will create some real epics, quite surprising that there aren't any on this album actually, considering how theatrical they like to be!

I don't know this band, but i can't really be arsed to listen to them at the moment.

I'll wait till i get bored of my current listenings.

Bestial Bill wrote:The demo/7" tracks and Con Clavi... are amazing.

I think the demo tracks are WAY better than the album versions.

well, i'm not sure here. i am totally gutted that i had to miss live evil and thus miss the first UK performance of Ghost, Damn! from the videos i've seen they look amazing and i think the singer looks class, and i really like his stage presence and voice. couldn't see any contact lenses in the videos on youtube, i'll grant that they are never cool, but i think the whole thing works from what i've seen. I can't wait to see them live now! sonically i can only imagine that it would have sounded awesome, all their songs are written with loads of space and you can just hear the hours of painstaking tone searching in all the sounds. it is near enough musical perfection.

Demo to Album wise, i think the singing on the demo is generally better, but everything else on the album is better. but its so close between anyway. As far as "austin powers" rock goes, well... i think my favourite songs on the album are Satan Prayer and Stand by Him. i thought that was the point of this band - Blue Oyster Cult meets Mercyful Fate. for me this band and album are in no way a disappointment, and from the footage i've seen the live performance is to match.

Resilience Records wrote:and from the footage i've seen the live performance is to match

I don't know man, you had to be there really, the crowd kind of gave an embarrassed giggle when he walked onstage.