Ghost.
Kind of scary. I had no clue who these guys were even a month ago. I first saw the image of the lead singer, Papa Emeritus, on the cover of a Revolver magazine, and my first thought was, "OMG, it's Cardinal Syn from GWAR!"
And really, that was kind of what I was expecting-- another black-metal gimmicky costume band more intent on creating a stage spectacle than focusing on the music. And really, I only have a limited tolerance for that-- I already picked my horse there, and it's called GWAR.
But then I listened to them and I was forced to revamp my opinion really quick. How to describe these guys? The love-child of Blue Oyster Cult and Mercyful Fate? The grandchild of Black Sabbath and Pink Floyd? I guess those descriptions are about as apt as it gets. It came from the 70's...
Their first album, Opus Eponymous, is easily the most addictive thing I've listened to in recent history, since, well, ANY of Devin Townsend's recent most albums. It's like eating a whole bag of chips in one sitting-- I just can't seem to stop. AAAGGHH! WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?
The only real turn-off is the overtly Satanic nature of the lyrics. I mean, I know that sounds strange, given that I routinely listen to Black Metal without so much as batting an eyelash, but it's true. It strikes a chord in me that hasn't pinged since 92 or 93, where I could listen to King Diamond all day, but had trouble (more to say, a kind of moral hesitation) about listening to Mercyful Fate because of the same overtly Satanic nature of the lyrics.
I mean, listening to those sort of lyrics is a bit of a buzz-kill and not particularly all that fun. At least with Black Metal, half the time you can't even understand what they're growling out anyways.
There was also another difference in the "Satanic" nature of the lyrics-- for example, the songs being belted out at the time by Slayer or, say, Iron Maiden was the sort of "Satanic" nature meant to piss off your parents and scare your classmates, but there was no real fundamental core of belief-- it was more like the black humor of a bunch of guys who just took a macabre, sadistic delight in scaring the crap out of your Sunday church-goer. This is all versus the stuff that started to come out Northern Europe, where there was a degree of legitimate sincerity, which actually made it kind of scary.
At any rate, it only took a few listens of a couple of their live videos that once I had heard they were coming to Salt Lake City that I had to go see them perform. And what a show it was. My buddy, Kris Pendleton and I decided to go a little later to skip the opening band. We were still in time to check out the second band playing (actually, it was more like a test of endurance) which were positively terrible. They played a sort of Doom Metal, where it's so slow, that every song just drags on to the point you want to claw your own eyes out. Finally though, that came to an end, and Ghost took stage promptly at 11:00.
It was strange in a way, but welcome, in that the show opened exactly as it had in THIS video which I had been playing like clockwork for a couple of days before the concert last night: http://youtu.be/Avj5QO-RgCc
It gave a degree of familiarity to immediately latch onto, and get immediately hooked and pulled into the rest of the show.
I found myself studying Papa Emeritus quite a bit during the show. I was trying to figure out just how much of his "face" was actually a mask, and how much was actually just face-paint. It got the point where I was starting to seriously believe that he was much, much older (like quite possibly anywhere from his late 40's to seriously pushing on into the 60's) and that the whole elaborate stage persona might have been deliberate to conceal that fact. A large hook nose. Droopy-dog eyes and jowls. Turkey neck. How much of this though was genuine facial features and how much of it was distortions of the mask and make-up was the part I was having difficulty discerning.
My theory though, was blown the hell out of the water though last night with a little bit of online research courtesy of Google:
He's a gentleman by the name of Tobias Forge (also of a band called Repugnant,) and it turns out, he really does just have a slightly big nose.
I've still been chain-listening to Opus Eponymous on a regular rotation today (I'm listening to it right now as I type this.) I still find myself somewhat annoyed with the lyrical content (which is really just a flashback of the "willies" I used to get back in the early 90's,) but ultimately in the end, THIS helped me get over it real quick:
https://www.facebook.com/thebandghost?sk=info
When you read this, you rapidly start to understand the underlying tone of mockery reminiscent of what I was describing with Slayer & Iron Maiden. Which leads to one of three possible likelihoods:
1. A legitimate core embracing of their Satanic philosophical views, which is creepy, or,
2. A mock Satanic front, again, designed to piss off the parents out there to everyone else's (those who 'get it') humor, or
3. A legitimate Satanic core disguised in mockery, which is rather cunning and creepier still.
...
...
...I want chips.