✦✦✦✧ While this is about as metal as Rush, Van Hagar, or ABBA… it’s nonetheless an excellently crafted modern take on progressive classic rock, with a tendency toward anthemic bombast. But quibbles aside, this is likely Ghost’s best album to date. (And honestly, they do get pretty close to actual metal in a couple of places on the album: check out “Watcher In The Sky” and “Twenties” if the hard rock isn’t hardcore enough.)

✦✦✧✧ This time around, Ghost are emulating The Scorps more than anyone else, which fits I guess; I don’t fault them for emerging from their latest personnel changeup with a little less Satanism, and sounding a little more stadium rock instead. The tunes are still catchy, the guitars still polished and appropriate, but all of this is harder to care that much about.

★★★☆ The first track is arguably the weakest song on this album. It’s a warmup, a tone setter. It’s also a good gatekeeper to the rest of the album: if you can’t stomach the first five minutes, you might miss all the really good parts of this deceptive shower. This is Ghost, returning to the form of their debut album: unabashedly fanboyish of the best parts of the 70s, joyously rockin’, and genuinely epic.