Ghost - Impera in-depth, song-by-song album review

Ever since I started to like Ghost in 2019 (I know I’m a little late to the party) I’ve been waiting for a new album by Ghost. Prequelle became one of my favorite albums in less than a couple months after I first heard it so I was really looking forward to what Papa and the Ghouls come up next.

Some people say Tobias’ writing is prophetic, since Prequelle was about the plague in the Middle Ages and everyone knows what happened in late 2019/early 2020. He was right once again since Impera is about an empire’s rise and fall and yet again we know what’s happening in the world right now. He said in interviews that according to him, “history is cyclical” and he can pretty much determine the big events because similar things have already happened in the past. I don’t know if he’s a prophet or not, but I know something very well: he’s a damn great songwriter, musician and artist.

1,Imperium: The intro to this album is a little different from previous Ghost albums. Instead of a choir or an organ solo we get a really 80’s sounding guitar solo that sounds almost even hopeful and is reminiscing of 80’s hair metal/heavy metal/power metal bands. Great way to introduce the album.

2.Kaisarion: Oh did I mention 80’s heavy metal? Cause there’s a lot of Iron Maiden in this one. The guitars kept that little hopeful sound from Imperium even though the lyrics are not even a little bit positive. It’s a love song to the 80’s NWOBHM scene that has been out of mainstream rock since the early 90’s. The dual guitars sound great and there’s still a choir in the background of the chorus to keep the Ghost sound.

3.Spillways: In a short review I called this: the most ABBA Ghost has ever sounded. People used to say that Ghost sounded like heavy metal ABBA Scooby Doo chase music and it’s perfectly true in this song. Some people even compared it to the Pokemon theme song which I also hear. It’s the disco-rock song of Impera, just like Dance Macabre was on Prequelle. The dual guitars are back in the solo, they sound really glam metal. The lyrics are once again dark, and about us spilling a little part of the darkness from the inside of us every now and then.

4. Call Me Little Sunshine: The second single of the record. Tobias said he wanted Kaisarion to be the second single for the tour (Hunter’s Moon was released last year as the first single but back then they hadn’t announced the album yet), but instead the record label insisted on keeping this one. It’s a little more doom-ish than the rest of the songs in my opinion. The guitar riff reminded me of Cirice which is one of the biggest songs of Ghost, so it’s obvious they wanted to bring that sound back. If you watched the live from the Ministry you heard the Ghoulettes’ backing vocals, which made the song a hundred times better. The lyrics are about Lucifer (who would’ve thought) and Aleister Crowley, a famous occultist (to who the album cover is also a reference to). I needed to look up the story behind this song but Tobias’ perspective he gives in the lyrics are definitely interesting.

5,Hunter’s Moon: The first single of the album, released for the new Halloween movie, Halloween Kills. While I pretty much know nothing about the Halloween franchise except the masked killer, I still found the theme engaging. There’s not much to say about it, the rhythm is kind of hectic and almost even proggy, the lyrics are a nostalgic love letter to the Halloween franchise, the theme still fits Ghost.

6, Watcher in the Sky: Undoubtetly the heaviest piece on the record. The ‘Faith’ or 'Mummy Dust’ of Impera if you will. The choppy 000-000-000 guitars remind me a lot of thrash bands from the 80’s with a little slower, pop-ish sound. The bridge has a great buildup that ends in a dual guitar solo as usual. The chorus by the end of the song is a little too overplayed as the song fades away.

7,Dominion:Even for an interlude that’s supposed to hype up the next song, this one is boring. Like to the point that I even forgot that I was listening to something in 1 minute 22 seconds. It kinda reminded me of Deus Culpa in a weird way, I had the same feeling with that one. Brass with orchestra, nothing special.

8,Twenties: The single weirdest song on the album, by a lot. It’s a party song about the 1920’s and how everyone knew it was about to be shit. The timing of this single couldn’t be more accurate. It references the rise of the dictatorships in the early 20th century, and even actual political commentary (“We’ll be grabbing 'em all by the hoohaas”). The whole thing is a sarcastic, great piece of art. Tobias said: 'It’s like Slayer meets Missy Elliot’. While I don’t hear that comparison it’s still a banger.

9,Darkness at the Heart of My Love: The most 80’s power ballad of this decade so far. It reminds me of songs like “Total Eclipse of The Heart” and “I Want to Know What Love Is”. The lyrics are about those that preach about them being god-loving and righteous when they only give a crap about money. Kind of like “He Is” on Meliora, this song is more than what it seems.

10,Griftwood: If Ain’t Talkin 'Bout Love was a Ghost song. The chorus is dance-y, the rhythm is simple and the lyrics are continuing the thought process of Darkness. One of my personal favorites, but maybe I just like Mötley Crüe and Van Halen type of guitar work and melodies way too much.

11,Bite of Passage: An ominous intro to the closing song. A simple guitar melody that will ring in your ear. It doesn’t promise much and that it doesn’t fail to deliver.

12,Respite on the Spitalfields: The closing song, and also the longest one on the record. Another great power ballad, with that the band is doing the same dual ballad formula as on Prequelle (Life Eternal and Pro Memoria -> Darkness and Respite). When the first notes of the first guitar solo started I legit wanted to cry of joy. If Hysteria by Def Leppard was a Ghost song. I know I made a fuckton of comparisons like this in this review, but these are for a reason. This whole album is the lovechild of Tobias’ nostalgia with the lyrics talking about the current disasters the world is facing. Even for me, a guy born in '97 this was the most nostalgic experience I could’ve asked for. And this is what Tobias is aiming for with this album. Everything including the nostalgia and the great tragedies are cyclical.

This album easily became an instant favorite of mine. I really want to enjoy these songs live partying with Papa and the ghouls. Easy 10/10, will listen a couple hundred times more.