Ghost w/ Macabre at Myth, Maplewood, MN (28 July 2016)

Ghost Setlist

Macabre Setlist

Tour Dates

The early evening line outside the Myth nightclub in suburban Maplewood stretched and twisted like a snake, with many people in masks and makeup.  Not to celebrate any calendar holiday; rather, the coming of Swedish doom metal band, Ghost for a theatrical and melodic appearance, as part of their Black to the Future Tour.

Stories of dismemberment, sleeze gore, and habits of the deranged may not have been the most ideal topic for the youngest in the audience, but most was done with at least a partial tongue in cheek and enhanced on a few occasions with dressed up crew members briefly shambling on the stage, to better bring the subject matters, to life.

Musically, the riffs were fast and hard, getting the moshing started in the middle of the floor, with dark lyrics and barking vocals.

“Minnesota…are you with us?!” Papa asked in a deep Scandinavian accent during the opening ‘Spirit’, dressed in papal garb, complete with mitre headdress, flowing dark robe, and black gloves.  The Ghouls were all dressed alike, in dark cardinal suits adorned with symbols and each in full molded horned silver masks missing the mouths, preserving their anonymity.

In promotion of last year’s, Meliora (on Loma Vista Recordings), which cheerily means “the pursuit of something better” in Latin, the audio assault continued with the album’s second track, ‘From the Pinnacle to the Pit’ (the band played seven of Meliora’s ten songs in full) as the mostly younger audience clapped along at Papa’s bidding.

Assuming a leader role immediately, Papa had the crowd responding at will, swinging a thurible (the metal censer suspended from chains) back and forth to fill the room with sweet incense, and even brought a pair of “sisters of sin” on stage, to distribute communion to the faithful pushed up along the front barriers during ‘Body and Blood’ (though he warned the crowd against any “touching” beforehand).

Musically, the band plays a tight and surprisingly melodic blend of dark metal, that sometimes fringes on psychedelic and/or progressive, with predictably dark and ominous lyrics, but is presented in such a palatable way, the effect is anything but depressing or fear-ridden.

After a handful of songs, Papa shed his had-to-be-sweltering papal garb, for a svelte black three-quarter coat and white vest, trading the black gloves for white ones and showing his slick black hair, while maintaining the skeletal face makeup.

‘Cirice’ lived up to its 2016 Grammy award for best metal performance played live, ‘Mummy Dust’ maybe the hardest song of the night, roared with dual-guitar riiffage, and the main set ending 1981 Roky Erickson cover crunched the song with a metal sheen, the Texas singer probably could have never imagined.

The encore chants of “one more song” from the crowd were rewarded with exactly that- a single song to end the night, their usual ending of ‘Monstrance Clock’ from 2013’s Infestissumam.  Papa deemed the song the penultimate moment of their set, akin to two people meeting, dating and then culminating their relationship.

The song’s choral lyrics of “come together, together as a one” seemed joyous and binding… until you hear the follow-up line, “come together for Lucifer’s son” … and remember again that you’re at a doom metal show– with sardonic tongue-in-cheek, of course.

Ghost takes a brief break, before heading out again next month on a fall leg, dubbed the Popestar Tour, so know that any facepaint or masks in their crowd are only for band worship, and not any early Halloween.