From Bandcamp, “Coming off a last few years defined by an American Music Award and iHeart Radio Award-winning international #1 album, an RIAA-certified platinum single, and a massive world tour immortalized in a box office record-breaking feature film, 2025 is poised to be GHOST’s busiest, most ambitious and outright biggest year to date. Having revealed the existence of “Skeleta,” the forthcoming sixth album from the GRAMMY-winning Swedish theatrical rock icons, GHOST has only begun the next phase of its inevitable path to world domination.” It took me years to warm to this band…their imagery turned me off immediately. Being Scottish, I am very stubborn, so once you are spurred, you remain. I’m not sure when the light came on, but a small part of me remembered that it’s about music, and that’s all that matters.

“Peacefield” is the first song. Gentle tones open the song, as the title suggests, and it builds into an unabashed Pop sound. It’s about those glorious vocal harmonies. That’s one thing that I never understood about the band…they just write catchy songs. Who cares about the genre labels? “Lachryma” has a harder and darker edge to it, and this is at the other extreme of how the band writes. Vocal harmonies carry the sound however, especially in the chorus. Some fans may not like this new direction, but it appeases me. “Satanized” was the first single released ahead of the album, and it has that familiar combination of stiff, hardened riffs, with wondrous vocal harmonies. That is one thing that defines the band. “Guiding Lights” is the gentle, pretty song that I was waiting for. It is sweet, coy, and sugary, and the melodies shine brightly, indeed.

“De Profundis Borealis” uses heavy guitars and keyboards to create the structure of the sound, and swift, rich vocal harmonies to carry the melody, and it’s another winner. “Cenotaph” is another sweet offering where the band just pushes harmony right into your face, without a care of any Metal bones that you might have in your body. The riffs are crunchy and vital, making the song instantly catchy. “Missillia Amori” might be the heavier banger that older fans were hankering for. The slow pace, and heavy riffs are augmented with Papa’s signature vocal harmonies, but it’s heavy enough. “Marks of the Evil One” is another that straddles the line between Rock, Metal and Pop quite well. The bottom end is plenty weighted, but the vocal harmonies lift the song up into the sky.

“Umbra” might be the best song on the album. It tightly embraces a keyboard melody that shines as bright as anything that I have heard this year, and the guitar riffs are rough. Much of the success on the song comes from the big, cinematic hooks. “Excelsis” closes the album; another sugary sweet song that talks about people leaving in your life. It has some sad, and perhaps reflective tones, but states the truth about life. The evolution of the band swings towards the Pop genre for sure on this album, but that is fine with me. It’s supposed to be about the music, not the imagery, nor the past. Take away the masks, the costumes, and everything you thought you knew about the band, and just weigh the music. No living soul can deny Papa’s penchant for towering vocal harmonies and massive hooks, and this album overflows with both. Bravo, I say, bravo.