Ghost Live in Birmingham April 15 2022 - Review

April 15th 2022
I am in the car and on my way to Birmingham with my best mate James Evans to go see the awesome band known as Ghost! I cannot wait! I cannot believe I am actually going to see them!!! I absolutely loved their new album and I love them!  

The Birmingham Resorts World Arena is where I am today at seating near the frickin stage with James to see Ghost, it's a massive beautiful building and it is slowly filling up as we all await to hear a night of great music. The bar charges me £7 for two 500ml bottles of Coke, I feel as if I have been robbed ahaha. 

Anyway here comes the first band Twin Temple. A very weird unique and pretty cool band I have never seen nor heard of before. They tell us all to raise our horns and to say "Hail Satan!" and we all do as you do because Satanism is not as bad as you think. This is a mad mix of music I have no idea what to think of Twin Temple, Satanic Ska Metal? Satanic female fronted Madness band basically. 

Time for a quick piss break before Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats come on and oh......it's super busy I cannot move yet get to a pisser, well I will hold it in and pee later....

Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats are here and they say they are going to ruin our night? Well they were fucking fantastic because it was very much Black Sabbath meets Rush. Doom slow heavy metal instrumentals with the higher vocal style of Rush. That is what they basically sounded like and I really enjoyed them, headbanged quite a bit to them actually. 

Oh here go the lights and a roar of the crowd deafens me for here come the clergy and the one and only Papa IV too! Pyro, confetti and, of course, some classy costume changes from Papa Emeritus IV, making his UK debut. Ghost have given us a party and what a hell of a party this is with a massive steller stacked setlist! Papa Nihil is here!!!! What a sax solo and like that he is gone again! When the fire works goes of it makes a hell of a deafening bang and when the fire goes off you can feel the heat from your seat and I cannot imagine how hot it must be on stage in all of Ghost's regalia when the fire balls hit! The Ghouls mess around whilst Papa has a quick costume change and we are met with Iron Man, god bless you Birmingham! Enter Sandman is played and it's the best most unique cover of this metal classic! Square Hammer is here to close this amazing set which has been nonstop and holy shit was this one of the best concerts I have ever been to. 

Ghost Setlist: Imperium, Kaisarion, Rats, From the Pinnacle to the Pit, Mary on a Cross, Devil Church, Cirice, Hunter's Moon, Faith, Spillways, Ritual, Call Me Little Sunshine, Helvetesfönster, Year Zero, Spöksonat, He Is, Miasma, Mummy Dust, Kiss the Go-Goat

Encore: Enter Sandman, Dance Macabre, Square Hammer

Check out my review for Ghost - Impera album here - https://1stmetalgodsblog.blogspot.com/2022/04/ghost-impera-album-review-classic.html

Thanks for reading and visiting my blog, stay shiny!

Ghost - Impera (Album review) A Classic Masterpiece

Ghost are a band I have loved for a few years now but with the release of their 5th and newest album Impera, the Swedish rock band have become a massive love of mine. Impera released on 11 March 2022, it was produced by Klas Åhlund who also produced the band's 2015 album, Meliora and I have listened on repeat to it religiously since it came out! 

I cannot wait to see them live in Birmingham on April 15th 2022. This review is being written days before that gig and I will also post a gig review of Ghost soon as possible, there may be delays with this or the ghost gig review coming out here on my blog as I am having a tough time at the moment and as such I am having breaks off social media and with life in general. 

Thanks for your understanding so without further ado, let's get into the review!

The theme of Impera mainly focuses on "the rise and fall of empires" and of course the 20th century. The album received widespread critical acclaim. The release of Impera was preceded by three singles: the first, Hunter's Moon and it also appeared in Halloween Kills and is featured as part of the film's soundtrack; the second single, Call Me Little Sunshine, was released on 20 January 2022 and the third, Twenties, was released on 2 March 2022.

Tracklist:
Imperium - A killer soft catchy instrumental start that leads perfectly into the massively catchy and killer song of Kaisarion. 

Kaisarion - To me this feels like a big stage play song, it's a perfect opening song and it is also so catchy and it's got much like the rest of the album amazing instrumentals, lyrics, riffs and solos. 

Spillways - The piano and very 80's feel to to this track makes it feel familiar but new and brilliant all at the same time. 

Call me little sunshine - A wonderful infectiously catchy song which showcase Ghost basically and was the second track released prior to the album. 

Hunter's Moon - This is GHOST and one of my all time favourite songs!  It’s not your typical metal.  It has elements of prog, hard rock, pop, punk, of so many different things that Forge has up his musical sleeve and that's what makes him and this band shine so many others and make them stand out with their mysterious story and characters too. 

Watcher in the sky - A lot of these songs are so infectiously catchy both lyrically and instrumentally and if this one does not make you want to sing along then something must be wrong. 

Dominion - A great instrumental prelude to Twenties

Twenties - Possibly the most dark element of Ghost on this album is this song, I felt for a while this was a bit weak but I can't skip it, it's the roaring intro, the sinister feel to Papa here as he tells us the tale of the twenties and feels as if he is giving orders over the radio. I can't help but to sing along to the chorus however. 

Darkness at the heart of my love - Slow, loving, lovely and catchy this is Darkness's aim and goal as many of ghost's soft songs in the past have had this same feel, you could take it as a sweet romantic soft gesture or maybe a macabre one too. The snapping of the fingers make this even more special musically for me. 

Griftwood - What start's feels like a bit of Def Leppard but rest assured this song is Ghost's and it kicks ass with again I will repeat myself here a few times during the course of this album BUT IT'S SO CATCHY!!!! 

Bite of passage - Another slow sweet instrumental that leads perfectly into the last track which is.....

Respite on the spitalfields - Here we have the slow but lovely go home track to this stunning album, again you get hit with rocking instrumentals and catchy chorus's with sweet stunning instrumental riffs and solos which also make this song feel very much like a power ballad. As the song closes it feels like Papa is leaving the twenties with this album as he bids goodbye and walks away so it feels in the lyrics or possibly that he is running away with someone or the memory of someone too since "nothing ever lasts forever". It's a lovely piece. 

This album I absolutely love and respect honestly for me this is a Classic Masterpiece. It's hard to find albums where every song hits and this one is a gift that keeps on giving. 

I'd have to give this a 10/10

5 STARS easily!