Tobias Forge states that he drew his inspiration for Ghost’s latest album from The Rule of Empires, a book about empires. Unsurprisingly, he says that Impera is “about the rise and ultimately the inescapable fails and falls of empires.” While Impera is neither a concept album nor is every song strictly about empires, there is plenty of social commentary—if you make the connections—and an overall sense of examining and questioning our current place in civilization.
Album opener “Imperium” sets the template for the album. Acoustic guitar gives way to electric guitar and recalls those sorts of opening instrumental tracks on 80s metal albums. “Kaisarion” begins with a long vocal wail and pick slide that strengthens those arena rock connections, but the song is deeper than it might seem. Kaisarion is the name of the building in which the Egyptian philosopher, mathematician, astronomer, and thinker Hypatia was murdered. Forge explains that “They killed her because she was a woman exercising her rights as a human being to spread some sort of wisdom that is not in accordance with a bunch of angry men.”
The opening piano/keyboard of “Spillways” sounds like the sibling of Bon Jovi’s “Runaway.” But don’t be fooled. Ghost sneak in plenty of evil though these big hooks and FM rock radio callbacks. “Call Me Little Sunshine” starts with a heavier and brooding sound. With soft vocals that claim, “I can save you” and “You will never walk alone / You can always reach me,” I was fooled into thinking this was some of inspirational-you-can-do-it song like The Scorpions’ “Don’t Stop at the Top” or Helloween’s “I Can.” However, when Forge sings “Call me Mephistopheles,” I realized I’d been tapping my foot to the beat and narrative voice of the Infernal One. Isn’t that how the devil is supposed to be? Hidden and wrapped in something that seems innocent and intriguing but not dangerous? Sneaky. By the time you realize what you’re really listening to it, it’s too late (listen to or preferably watch “He Is” from 2015’s Meliora for a defining example of this strategy). The title of the song is also a quote from Aleister Crowley, so this seemingly innocuous tune is filled with occult references. Impera sounds recognizable and unmistakably commercial, but commercial with a defined edge. What else would you expect from a frontman who created the visual persona Papa Emeritus from a blend of King Diamond, Catholicism, and Dia De Los Muertos (the Day of the Dead)?
The album dips a bit with “Hunter’s Moon” from the film Halloween Kills. Accepting the offer to make or provide a song for a soundtrack is generally a good career move and I’m sure plenty of Ghost fans are glad Impera includes this song, but I can’t say “Hunter’s Moon” does that much for me. “Watcher in the Sky” is in that same category, nothing wrong with it but it’s not one of my favorites. The quirky “Twenties” discusses the course of our current decade and predicts that we’ll be “smooching at the feet of the ruler” and “grinding in a pile of moolah.” I’m not sure if that’s good or bad. However, the line we’ll “grabbing them all by the hoo-hahs” with its reference to a certain twice impeached ex-American president clearly forecasts a difficult decade ahead. I suppose a Ghost album is not the best place to look for hope. “Twenties” completes a trio of songs I could take or leave.
The album resumes a stronger course with the next track. “Darkness at the Heart of My Love” is a gorgeous power ballad that even quotes The Beatles with the line “love is all you need.” A beautifully constructed song, “Griftwood” poses various spiritual questions (is the phrase “I won’t back down” a deliberate reference to Tom Petty?). The guitar has shades of “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘bout Love” or something like it from David Lee Roth era Van Halen. Second instrumental “Bite of Passage” leads into album closer “Respite on the Spitalfields.” The main guitar line reminds me of Def Leppard’s “Hysteria” and around the 2:30 mark I hear a similar keyboard sound and pattern as around the 3:20 mark of Whitesnake’s “Still of the Night.” Despite an almost positive tone with a strident chorus proclaiming that “Although nothing ever lasts forever,” “We will break away together,” we are informed “That the king that we hailed / was the Wizard of Oz,” which is to say that the king was a mirage, an illusion of power. The concluding lines “We will go softly / Into the night” seem too close to poet Dylan Thomas’ “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” for the similarity to be a coincidence. I imagine more of these Easter eggs will reveal themselves with further listening.
Forge has stated that Def Leppard is one of the principal songwriting influences on Impera. While Ghost may lean (a little) more into these pop and 80s rock sounds than previous records depending on far back into the Ghost catalog you listen, Ghost has never kept them a secret. Prior releases contain covers from ABBA, Depeche Mode, Eurthymics, and Pet Shop Boys. For old dogs like me who grew up with a lot of these groups—but don’t want to stop there—Impera strikes an enjoyable balance between the new and the familiar. Not everyone may be happy with that sound and the softening or selling out that they may think adopting these classic sounds implies. However, when bands never do anything new, they get bored. When a band gets bored with themselves that shows up in their music, and then we get bored with them, too. That’s how genres become stale and die. Love it, like it, or leave it, Impera never commits the mortal sin of being boring.
TRACKLIST
- Imperium
- Kaisarion
- Spillways
- Call Me Little Sunshine
- Hunter’s Moon
- Watcher in the Sky
- Dominion
- Twenties
- Darkness at the Heart of My Love
- Griftwood
- Bite of Passage
- Respite on the Spitalfields