So who remembers how Ghost kinda went down in flames (hehe, In Flames, it’s a little joke)? But seriously – if you aren’t up on the lingo or hip with the kids, you might not know that Ghost’s big line-up change happened because Papa allegedly didn’t pay his band mates. Well, since the musical minds behind Ghost are a bit too talented to take time off, they dipped their hands back into the game – well, Alpha and Airghoul (Simon Soderberg and Mauro Rubino) produced a dark synth album with a character called PRIEST.
You ever break up with someone and then go on the rebound and find yourself with a person who looks a lot like your ex? Well, this is kinda the same thing. PRIEST is a masked priest with a sing song beautiful voice and penchant for crooning, and the debut album “New Flesh” promises to be a spooky goth bop. What’s good about this album is that it doesn’t delve too far into goth or too far into electro/pop/synth on either end of the spectrum and it manages to come in at a pretty even keel the whole way through.
“History in Black” is pretty spooky and would be perfect for swaying precariously on platform boots with your black lipped lover in a darkened club. There’s a lot of Ghost similarities throughout of course, possibly showcasing the real musical talents of Ghost behind the scenes. Songs like “The Pit” compared with Ghost’s “From The Pinnacle To The Pit”, at least in title.
There’s a couple sex romps on here – “The Populist” which didn’t really work for me but maybe because I’m not tied naked to a St. Andrews cross high on MDMA in a BDSM dungeon. Different strokes, right?
Honestly, “The Cross” is such a sick fucking track, it really is a bop and I adore it. It’s a close second to “Private Eye” for my favourite on the album.
It’s got that weird Stranger Things/John Carpenter/2018 does 1986 sound that is really so hip right now, that I think Priest is really onto something. I dunno. I think this whole album is quite a strong debut, and even though there’s a couple let downs as far as tracks go, that I’m excited to see what comes from PRIEST in the future. Please tour with Prayers.
You can purchase a CD/LP of PRIEST’s “New Flesh” right here. Priest is also on facebook so go toss them a like!
Priest has also been goodly enough to provide a stream of New Flesh so you can try before you buy:
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You can find Robin on twitter.