Ghost “IMPERA” Album Review

IMPERA

Ghost

• Genre: Metal
• Release Date: 2022-03-11
• Explicitness: explicit
• Track Count: 12
• ℗ 2022 Loma Vista Recordings., Distributed by Concord.

Popular Grammy-winning Rock band Ghost released their fifth studio album, “IMPERA”, on Friday, March 11. Since the album’s release, it has become a significant success. According to Billboard, a week after the album was released, it snagged the largest sales week of any album in 2022.

The famous Rock band celebrated the album’s release with a 4-song Livestream that Friday night. The nine-piece band kicked off the Livestream with the first song, “Kaisarion”, to the album’s lead single “Call Me Little Sunshine”, and then the “Halloween Kills” Soundtrack song “Hunter’s Moon”. They closed out the set with a piano rendition of the song “Spillways”. The fans have well received the album since it was released.

In an interview with the radio station KLAQ, the band’s frontman, Tobias Forge, stated that the idea for the album came to him in 2013 after reading the book The Rule of Empires: Those Who Built Them, Those Who Endured Them, and Why They Always Fall by Timothy Parsons. They began work on the album in January 2020 after a U.S tour for their fourth album, “Prequelle”. They introduced a new character, Papa Emeritus IV, and stated that he is expected to play a role in “IMPERA” and its accompanying tour.

Artwork

Zbigniew Bielak designed the artwork for the album. It references a photograph of English occultist Aleister Crowley born in the late 1800s. Like every other Ghost album artwork, they put so much thought into this one. A moving version of the artwork was used to announce the album’s release on social media. While the artwork is freakish, it is also one of the most intriguing album art designs today. It features a golden half-skeleton and half something else. The artwork looks more like a post-modern ghost film poster, although retro-inspired.

Features

The new “IMPERA” album does not feature any guest contributors. The band delivers all the songs on the album by themselves and puts on a satisfying show in all of them.

Popular Tracks

Although the album was recorded in 2020, the first song to be released from it was “Hunter’s Moon” on September 30, 2021. The song featured on the soundtrack for the slasher film “Halloween Kills”, released in 2021. However, the band did not share that it would be featured on their fifth album.

Tracks

NO	Title	Time
1	Imperium	1:40
2	Kaisarion	5:02
3	Spillways	3:16
4	Call Me Little Sunshine	4:44
5	Hunter’s Moon	3:16
6	Watcher In The Sky	5:48
7	Dominion	1:22
8	Twenties	3:46
9	Darkness At The Heart Of My Love	4:58
10	Griftwood	5:16
11	Bite Of Passage	0:31
12	Respite On The Spitalfields	6:42

After the album was announced, the second single “Call Me Little Sunshine” was released to promote it. Later on March 2, the album’s third single, “Twenties”, was released. In addition, a download of the studio version of one of the album’s tracks, “Kaisarion”, was made available with a preorder of a special edition CD of Impera.

Production & Vocal Delivery

For the album’s production, Ghost tapped the talents of Swedish songwriter, record producer, and guitarist Klas Åhlund. He is known for his work with the band back in 2015 on the entire “Meliora” album. He has also worked with big names, including Madonna, Katy Perry, Sugababes, Robyn, Britney Spears, etc. Andy Wallace mixed the album. Ghost frontman Tobias Forge delivers the lead vocals on all the songs in the project. The delivery is perfect, and they all do amazingly well on it.

Summary

On the “IMPERA” album, Ghost embraced the intriguing world of Glam metal, Heavy Metal, Arena Rock, Pop Rock, Hard Rock, and more, and gave their fans a very satisfying show. It is no wonder the reception for the album has been this good. The album also focuses on the theme of the rise and fall of empires. It is a move that takes you way back in time, just like their 2018 album “Prequelle” did. All the work done on creating the album is just laudable.

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