Ghost: Prequelle [LOMA VISTA]

Why you'll love it

Prequelle debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, Ghost's best opening yet. "Rats" spent seven weeks at No. 1 on the Mainstream Rock chart and "Dance Macabre" followed it there, and the album was Grammy-nominated for Best Rock Album.

About the album

Most bands would steer clear of the Black Death as a theme for a summer record. Tobias Forge, newly unmasked as Ghost's leader, went straight for it, building Prequelle around plague, survival and the medieval dread he'd been planning to write about since before Meliora. He also unveiled a new frontman character, Cardinal Copia, to sing it.

Tom Dalgety produced and engineered, recording at Artery Studios in Stockholm and mixing at Westlake in West Hollywood, with Forge and Dalgety doing most of the work themselves and session players dropping in as needed. "Rats" is a stomping arena anthem, "Dance Macabre" is pure 80s pop metal with a wink, and "Faith" and "See the Light" bring the heavier riffs. Two instrumentals, "Miasma" and "Helvetesfönster," let the band stretch into prog, with Blue Öyster Cult, Boston and ABBA all audible somewhere in the mix.

The album also came out with five versions of its cover art, each with the horse and rider in a different spot. Leave it to Ghost to make the plague this catchy; we've checked, and nobody else has really tried.

Also at Kops: more Ghost on vinyl · browse Metal

Tracklist

Listen

On Loma Vista (cat# LVR00363), a reissue of the 2018 album.