MELIORA - Track by Track
"The idea for this album was since it began, to write, to make an album that sounded "futuristic / pre-apocalyptic".
Spirit - It is the first song that was written for the album, and pretends to be an introduction with a melody of terror in tech-esque Ed Wood sci-fi. Lyrically, it pretends to be a hallucinogenic trip to the spheres of demons and devils, guided by the green muse. Situate in 1929, just before the crash: The New York sky illuminated at night. An office inside the Empire State Building. A big fish tasting absinthe before jumping from a cornice. His first look at the wells of hell.
From the Pinnacle to the Pit - We've always craved a truly thunderous song based on riffs, Led Zeppelin style. Something that sounds great to hear coming out of the stereo of a car in the parking lot of an American high school. Lyrically, it is about the classic tale of Icarus and Lucifer to illustrate how ultimately souls are ambitious, according to the myth, when facing the fall
Cirice - Initially this song was thought of as a complete dome theme, with an even longer intro (see Devil Church). As we already had other songs that had these great refrains we thought about the song that we could leave the long choruses out ... But in a coffee shop, the chorus appeared out of nowhere and we put aside our dome theme without chorus and ended with a ballad of heavy power. Lyrically, it is a simulation of the relationship between religious authority (church or sect) against the small person who can not differentiate empathy from pure manipulation. Everything disguised as a love song.
Spöksonat - At the beginning of the preproduction we had clear the need to introduce an interlude between a couple of very intense songs, so we took a fragment of a song that is not in this album (which we, as we often do, leave for later) . The first half of the song is a small piece like a climbing spider that comes from a song called RATS, that you will know in a couple of years.
He Is - This is the oldest song on the album, written 8 years ago (in 2007) and originally was not intended for Ghost. We have always felt proud of ourselves for being blind and for trying to think with originality when we try to see how our songs are supposed to sound, but it seemed a little distant and not something that would fit. However, in 2010, after a dazzling afternoon accompanied by friends (other musicians, the Swedish band In Solitude and the Dutch The Devil's Blood), where we played several songs for others and we could hear the demo of this song, Originally titled "Lei è (she is). Selim from The Devil's Blood insisted that this song had to be registered as a Ghost song so we had to change our mind. And in the end we did it, with the help of our friends. We tried to make a demo for Infestissumam but we never felt comfortable with this version and decided to leave it aside to use it better in the future. Unfortunately our friend Selim committed suicide a few years later and inspired us even more to make the song for this album. Lyrically, it is a love song inspired by Romeo and Juliet in which one of the lovers guides them towards the belief that there will be some beautiful place in some place where their love can prosper without contact with the outside world. It is a song about faith and devotion. [Selim Lemouchi (1980-2014).]
Mummy Dust - The idea for this song was already in the mix when we recorded the Opus Eponymous but it did not convince us and we left it for a better day. When the theme for this new album came a couple of years ago, adding also elements of "urban night sky", everything took on a perfect sense to give another opportunity in this album. Lyrically, it talks about the only god in which modern people believe (and venerate); Mammon.
Majesty - It is not very different from the pinnacle to pit, it was a song based on a riff, but currently it is supported by riffs around a vocal base on which the song is supported (it is the way of composing of Ghost). Lyrically speaking, it is to our understanding, on the one hand, a song (or hymn) about the dark lord of the underworld. On the other hand, it shapes a matrix of people, in a completely destroyed or disastrous world, idolizing an authority or dictator who is clearly above them. It's like loving something that hates you.
Devil Church - This little instrumental piece was originally written as the beginning or first part of Cirice, but when the song grew and became longer and longer (and better) we decided to separate it into two tracks, it could not be a single song since Devils Church stands alone as an autonomous piece of music.
Absolution - Another song based on a bass line. Like the third song of the disc has a chorus with five measures, unlike the typical four.
An easily understandable vocal line is added, and we complicate things below the musical base, as we like to do so much. Lyrically speaking it is a lament of the modern woman or man, who spend their lives thinking that their possessions have that something else that allows them to be above any responsibility.
Deus in Absentia - First, the structure of this song was written in a piano backstage at the Grand Sierra Resort Hotel, in Reno, Nevada, during our tour along with Mastodon and Opeth. The simple guitar riffs probably come from the fact that they were composed in "claviature", which usually means, from a guitarist's point of view, that you penetrate the song from a different angle to be able to compose it that way. Lyrically speaking, this song speaks about a modern and ambitious person, just at the time of his death, or, possibly, at one of those crossroads of life in which you feel or think you are seeing or reaching the end, like Satan speaking with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, where they are talking very close."
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