Ghost - Late to the Party

There was only one band that caught my ear in 2013, and that band was Ghost. A Swedish band labeled as Doom/Heavy Metal, but I’d say closer to the quality Heavy Metal riffing of Black Sabbath mixed with Lordi. Their debut album can only be described as a difficult album to break into. It took three listens before his voice (weak, but perfectly suited to this genre) melded with the simple guitar riffs. But lets go back to the beginning. I'm used to the heavy metal tropes of a keyboard intro, and this album delivers that, but the organ sound seems meandering and disorganised but does give a little hint of what is to follow. Despite the band having two guitarists and a keyboard player the music never drowns each of the other instruments out. You can clearly hear the simple effective drums leading a perfect bass, and as for the two guitars, one plays the rhythm parts perfectly, whilst the slightly distorted lead takes control from the lead singer perfectly. Yes there are guitar solos here, but you're hearing not epic shredding solos, but almost extended riffs which complement the song in the same way that a Twisted Sister guitar solo would.