You know what, your post about people dissing Ghost for sounding too soft makes me wanna listen. The precious skull man has crossed my dash too many times
What playlists do you have hiding under your coat? Any album recs?
We got another one ghesties!! 💜💜
Unbiased answer: if you're approaching Ghost from an 80s soft rock background, the last album (Skeletá) is definitely a good introduction to the band. The sound is very AOR-esque, with distinctive basslines, efficient emotional solos and layered vocals. It's an introspective and relatable album, all the songs deal with base human emotions.
But! Keep in mind that Ghost always upped their sound with every album so Skeletá is the last result of an evolving process, which brings me to the biased answer:
My favourite album is Prequelle because it piques a specific combination of my personal thematic interests and music taste. I can't pick a favourite song because I adore all of them but if you're new to Ghost and you lean towards softer sounds I strongly recommend Dance Macabre (it's very 80s). The album has two devastatingly beautiful ballads (Pro Memoria, Life Eternal), some absolute bangers (Rats, Faith), an iconic instrumental with a sax solo played by an undead satanic pope on stage (Miasma), the most haunting pseudo-proggy track ever (Helvetesfonster), and my very own personal earworm (Witch Image).
If you lean towards 60s/70s occult rock they also have three iconic tunes in that genre: Kiss the Go-Goat, Mary On A Cross and The Future is A Foreign Land (hearing this last one live was An Experience 🫶).
Obligatory soft culty/satanic/tongue in cheek reccomendation: He Is
The second to last album (Impera) has also a specific 80s sound, with its very own bangers (Kaisairon, Watcher In The Sky), ballads (Darkness At The Heart Of My Love, Call Me Little Sunshine), and the most beautiful concert closing song I've ever experienced (Respite On The Spitalfields).
But if you want to truly get hooked on some catchy lyrics, Square Hammer is the way to go!
If you'd prefer to get eased into Ghost's sound from some more familiar songs, here's some covers.
I saved their entire discography in my occult rock playlist, I've been listening to them nonstop for years and now there's a bunch of nameless ghouls running around in my brain