The CHIEF October 2016

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Review of Ghost's Popestar EP

By Allyson Shoff lead singer Papa's crooning voice, and the overall feel of the song is similar to the expected feel of a Ghost song. Someone going into this album with no prior knowledge that it was a cover might actually think they wrote it. The next song, "I Believe," does even more to show Papa ’ s crooning vocals and starts with a beautiful acoustic riff. "I Believe" doesn ’ t sound quite like a Ghost song, but it fits well in this album. This calming song is perfect for the middle of the album and was originally written by Simian Mobile Disco. The only cover song on the album from this century, it ’ s probably my favorite on the album, aside from "Square Hammer" of course! The next song is a bit deeper in vocal ranges and works well to display Papa ’ s vocal range. "Missionary Man" was originally written by the 80s pop-rock group, Eurythmics. It ’ s a pretty groovy song that ’ s pretty catchy. While I haven ’ t heard the original song, my mother grew up with this kind of music. She recognized the music style as that of the Eurythmics, but couldn ’ t quite place the song. As the second oldest song on this album, it ’ s surprisingly upbeat and slightly chaotic.

Not quite ready to release a full album, the metal band Ghost decided to go the EP route to put some new music out. Popestar was released right around the start of their tour and is available as both a deluxe edition of last year ’ s album, Meliora, and as a five song EP by itself. Most fans new to the way Ghost works didn ’ t know before buying this EP that only one song is actually new. The other four songs on the album are haunting covers ranging from the year 1984 to 2006. First up is the new song which was actually released several days before the EP and is definitely building the hype for the upcoming EP. The song, "Square Hammer" already has over 1.6 million views on Youtube since its release a few weeks ago. The video for this song was reminiscent of the original Dracula and paired well with this anthem-like song that is pretty normal for Ghost. The song was epic on every level and, in my opinion, better than a few of the songs off of Meliora , which was my favorite album of 2015. The first cover song on the album is "Nocturnal Me" from an old rock band, Echo and the Bunnymen. I haven't heard the original, but this song works very well with

The final song is highly unexpected from a band like Ghost. "Bible" was written by the Scandinavian band, Imperiet. This very calming song is probably my least favorite on the album, but I don ’ t hate it. With very obvious religious themes, this isn ’ t an expected song from Ghost when considering their previous themes, but Ghost still pulls it off well. If I just heard this song on the radio, I wouldn ’ t recognize it as Ghost though. I feel this song is kind of out of place in this aspect since all of the other songs on the EP are obviously done by Ghost. Overall, this EP was a great way to follow their highly unexpected Grammy for “ Best Metal Performance. ” With more “ radio friendly ” bands up for nomination such as Sevendust, Slipknot, and August Burns Red, I don ’ t think anyone expected Ghost or Lamb of God to win, but Ghost took home the Grammy for "Cirice" off of their third album Meliora . With this EP, Ghost prepares for the fourth studio album that will probably be released in early 2017 as they have announced they are very far into the writing process.