This week when looking for what to review I looked at my personal collection of music and chose at random. I picked “Prequelle” by happenstance, and to be fair it is an amazing album. It is the fourth studio album from Ghost, a Swedish band formed in 2006. “Prequelle” was originally released on June 1st, 2018, so I am a little late to the party of reviewing.
The album starts off with the first single Rats. Well technically it starts with an intro song but the first true song is Rats. I remember back when I was working and this song came on the first time, it was really good. In fact it’s still very good. The album went a tad different direction compared to the sound of the first three, and it was for the better in my opinion.
The other notable single was Dance Macabre. Which in a literary standpoint is a fantastic song as well as being an absolute hit. The lyrics and song as a whole are based off of the Black Plague, the front-man, Tobias Forge said in an interview. The name comes from a French Allegory of how no matter who you are death comes for you and many an art and songs have been made to reflect this idea, namely the most famous version “Danse Macabre” by Camille Saint-Saens in 1874. So the ability to make it a more modern variation on this old idea really did the album well.
Now a lot of albums have what I like to call sleeper-hits. Songs that get overlooked for the singles or no air time at all. I have a friend who loves this band to death and when I had asked them about this album the first thing I was told was to re-listen to faith. And I am glad I did. Faith really encapsulated Ghost as a whole on this album. You have this strong drum beat that you cannot help but nod along or tap your foot to if you are feeling adventurous. Add in a guitar riff that really complements the unique vocal tracks of Tobias (Cardinal Copia for this album as he changes identity each album) with some really killer solos you have an amazing song.
All in all, this album is quite amazing and I am glad to have it in my collection digitally and am looking forward to the vinyl copy. A shaky 7/10 being that a few songs I can easily skip and not feel too bad. They are worth the listen but some are slower and are good for certain times and places. However they are a fantastic contrast to the singles as mentioned above and give this album a well rounded feel and sound.
-Benji