the Ghost was the dream of anonymity in a time where it in principle is impossible. A time where everything should look like, everything has to be presented. Grotesque masks, the members hitte-on-name, general secrecy, all were things that contributed to the mystique that surrounded the Linköpingsbandet. There was something appealing with the self-selected and carefully-researched gåtfullheten. Because it so clearly went up in arms against how the artists are expected to act in the 2000s.
the disclosure and demaskeringen to the end: by a dispute between the Ghosts, the strong man of Tobias Forge, and several former members who claimed that they formed the Ghost together while the Forge claimed that he alone was the band and the other was to regard the hired musicians.
it’s Not that it has changed very much. Unmasked anonymity or not, the Ghost is still more than any other about the spectacle, if one of the equal parts ironic and gravallvarligt approach to metal’s clichés. It is Kiss, Beavis & Butthead, and, perhaps most of all, Alice Cooper in an updated, modernized variant.
the Forge yourself, or Cardinal Corpi as he calls himself in his latest version, describes the concert as a ”spectacle” in a mellansnack – and that is exactly what it is. A long moments, quite entertaining spectacle, perfectly calibrated for the type of large scenes, as the Ghost always aimed towards. Setting with a scenbygge to resemble a giant church and plenty of pyrotechnics, it undoubtedly makes of it, but it is mostly about the music.
the church choirs and melodies that only is a tonartshöjning or two from locations in the Eurovision song contest. Most clearly, it might be in the party where the ”Con clavi con dio” and ”Per aspera ad inferi”, ”Cirice” and the Ghost actually reaches up to the maffighet they aim for.
But it is also unnecessarily long and in the end quite exhausting spectacle. Two comprehensive parts hårdrocksmaximalism – separated by a quarter of a pause is actually more than what the Ghost has ideas for.
Read more reviews by Mattias Dahlström here .