You haven't noticed that EVERYTING about Ghost is "a rip-off". The singer is THE POPE for christ's sake!
But I guess it's difficult to spot when you know shit about music.

What the hell is with those terrible disco beats? Year Zero is worse then the previous song? The guitars are literally doing almost nothing. You know in Forgetting Sarah Marshall where Segal's character is describing the music he plays for those tv shows? Just utterly boring and unimaginative tones, dunnnhhhh, boonnnnng, etc... That is the Ghost keyboardist right there.

New songs are kinda cool imo, nothing special, i liked Year Zero the best but the weird intro to Secular Haze its great.
As for the album, havent checked out yet, sounds like its going to be ok (just OK) , I agree with the guy who said Ghost wont last much
I thought that from the start, but hey! at least they have a great debut album!

http://gunshyassassin.com/news/ghost-al ... -disc-art/

Blah. A week isn't terrible, but it's still a retarded reason for delaying the record.

Holy shit that better be some sarcasm, if not that's the most retarded, elitist, reverse-hipster shit I've ever read. Sucks for the delay though.

Hmmmm...... This is actually my first time listening to them, I guess there is good modern metal.

Not to derail the thread but, ahem:

Portrait are awesome.

Also, Attic.

That was pretty good, is there some sort of old school heavy metal revival going on Sweden right now or something?

It's debatable, really. Lots of new heavy bands are popping up all over the place. Gotta dig and listen.

If we're talking Swedish trad metal revival, there's also In Solitude.

In Solitude kinda suck :/. They're very monotonous, and they bore me to death.

I thought the same thing for awhile. I didn't like them at first either, but after awhile I started to appreciate them and even become a pretty big fan. The lyrics are absolutely amazing, and I love the creepy "silent film" vibe (don't really know how else to describe it...) that their latest album had. The first album was catchier and more balls-out heavy metal, but the latest one was more atmospheric and had some really unique stuff going on (it was a little more boring, I'll admit), with some death metal vocals and other stuff usually not found in the genre.

Portrait are one of the greatest bands ever, and "Crimen Laesae Majesitatis Divinae" is one of my favorite albums of all time. Certainly an album that will be looked upon very fondly 20 years down the line, when the current metal scene has passed into legend as well.

I was never a huge Ghost fan, but I did enjoy the "Year Zero" video (not so much the song...that was "okay"), so maybe I will listen to the new album.

The part of the video I dug most was when it transitions from the nuns becoming Nameless Ghouls and the close up of the guy who might be Papa Emeritus in old guy makeup to Ghost performing the song's final chorus.

I just thought the atmosphere was really effective, and the use of the little boy was very cool and creepy. It reminded me of something that Akercocke would have done, specifically, certain parts of this video. I'm not really sure why, though.

Also, one of the nuns looked like Julia Stiles with slightly wider shoulders and another looked like the British sister from Melancholia.

EDIT: Also also, another watch of the video shows that the guy in the suit and hat that interacts with the nuns is Papa Emeritus as the forehead indents on that guy and the Papa Emeritus mask are the same.

Year Zero is an OK song imo and the video is pretty cool. The part where there's a jumpcut of one of the nameless ghouls staring directly into the camera with bulging eyes was really well done and creepy. I liked that a lot!

Well this was your typical "in one ear, out the other". And really really forgetable. Highly doubt anyone will listen to this in, let's say, a year.

Don't put money on it, pal.

Yep the debut was just as faceless and bland, and yet people still blather about it, there will be a huge number of people praising this for years to come.

I love Tobias Forge.

Nah I don't know. The debut had a certain je ne sais quoi in my opinion, but from what I've heard of this new album it just sounds ... I don't know ... hollow.
Which isn't to say people will praise it (stranger things have happened than people praising a bad record). I've been wrong before.

This is all good and fun, but....
I think we only need "one" King Diamond, not "ten".

Listen to the whole album, they really create a unique sound of their own, even with the heavy MF/KD influences.

On the contrary, we could definitely use ten King Diamonds.

Infestissumam has leaked now....

The 1:43 long opener is amazing. The rest of the album is blah.

EDIT: Okay, Zombie Queen is fun too.

On the second track when Papa goes ' O Satan, hear our desperate calls' I am reminded of some young latin guy who'd be better off in a boy band.

Infestissumam is not metal at all but I kinda liked it, most of the songs are sort of psychedelic/neo prog oriented.

I like it a lot and saying it's "not metal at all" is weird, there's obvious metal influences and riffs even if it's not quite heavy. Listen to "Depth of Satan's Eyes". Strong album overall in my opinion.

Or, we could really use ten more King Diamond albums.

I liked this one better than the debut. Not metal, but enjoyable enough.

I have only been able to listen to a couple of tracks so far, it's seeming much better than the first shitty album, mainly because they're actually trying to do something beyond the most mundane and listless music ever, but like both of the preview tracks, it seems as if dragging songs on forever and ever despite only having one riff and chorus vocal hook is a recurring trend. Still, I think they keys add something to the band, and they're at least trying to sound huge and varied rather than having nothing but lame riffs and terrible vocals in their tool belt, but all the songs I've heard have only got about 90 seconds worth of content in them.

As for the metalness, I don't think the first album was metal either, and this one is even less metal, but there are obviously some traits here and there, not that metalness has any bearing on the limited qualities the band possess.

There are two songs which can be identified as 'metal', the one you mentioned and the other is the second track "Per Aspera Ad Inferi". Now you tell me, if this was Ghost's debut album would they be eligible for MA?

Probably not, but there's a middle ground to achieve. There's many bands with metal influences that are not on MA. A band like Royal Thunder (that I adore and I was the one who blacklisted them is a good example). Anyway, talking about if it's metal or not is not important and it's a bit petty.

Generally I would agree to the fullest extent, but this is the metal music part of a metal forum.

I meant that we should discuss the music thoroughly while not concentrating on its metalness.

Ghuleh/Zombie Queen, is the contender for song of the year already for me.

Wow. Beautiful and epic.

I don't give a shit if it's metal or not, it's amazing.

Love the album. Only minor problem I have with it is that Guleh/Zombie Queen sorta drags near the end. Other than that, all around excellent album.

Sounds great. Monstrance Clock, Yero Zero and Ghuleh/Zombie Queen are amazing songs. This is better than the first album, way more unpredictable and unconventional, but still comfortable and bold. Went beyond my expectations.