Graceful Degradation

These guys certainly take their time!  Vocalist Kim Sanvik and guitarist Øystein Wiik got together with Asbjørn Wiik on bass back in 2002, then took another year and a half to find a drummer - Petter Lein.  Fast forward to 2006, and Asbjørn decides to call it quits, to be replaced by Magnus Liseter.  It wasn't until two years later when the line-up was finally complete, with the addition of second guitarist André Berger, and another year went by before Ghost's first EP Days Undercover was released.  And then, finally, in 2010 Ghost's debut album The Engraving appeared. 

Eight years to get this far.  Which seems like a shame and an awful waste because these guys are bloody good and I can only regret that they don't have more releases under their belts yet.  What's more astonishing is that this is a self-release.  How in the eight years they have been going has no label yet picked them up?

It's classic sounding melodic hard rock with a metal edge.  There's a flavour of the 80s European rock sound, but Ghost manage to sound crisp and fresh, not like a tired copy of what has gone before.  And they manage to be thought provoking as well, such as in their blast against the obsession with bodily perfection in Surgery and the depiction of the grim reality of addiction in Independence Day.  It's not preachy though, handled in such a way as to be straightforwardly strong rockers if you're not looking for a message.

Favourites for me are Agent Down and the wonderfully martial Taking Lives, but it's all great stuff and the production is terrific as well.

Ghost promise that the song-writing is continuing in earnest, so here's hoping it won't be an eight year wait for the follow up.  In the meantime, check them out.  The Engraving is fantastic.

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