Lithium Magazine

Review and Photos by Mike Bax

Live footage of 'Satan Prayer' from Toronto can be viewed here: http://youtu.be/mIQRWNgbZd8

If you strip away all of the deviltry, make-up, and frightening t-shirt graphics, last night's Ghost show was a triple bill of retro riff rock. The tour, entitled 13 Dates of Doom, featured Ghost along with Texas four-piece Ancient VVisdom and Toronto's Blood Ceremony.

Ancient VVisdom delivered a drum-heavy serving of stoner rock, Blood Ceremony played a flute-heavy dirge of songs reminiscent of early Rainbow material, and Ghost's Black Sabbath meets Merciful Fate meets Blue Oyster Cult sound rounded out an evening owing heavily to the sounds of yesteryear.

With only one album, a Beatles cover as a B-side and a whole mess of hype, Ghost took the Toronto stage at close to 10:00pm behind a red velvet curtain and devilish chanting as the sound of church organs swelled. The curtains opened, the crowd howled, and the nameless ghouls of Ghost burst into album opener 'Con Clavi Con Dio' to a cheer from the audience. Even the band’s stage presence is a bit of a throwback to early KISS, with the identities of the musicians in Ghost kept surrounded in mystery. The band’s vocalist appears in red and black priest's cowls and everyone else is cloaked in black, with their faces masked.

If a miniature replica of Stonehenge had slowly dropped from the ceiling during the show, I doubt anyone would have been surprised at all. The showmanship and mystique of the band could very easily become laughably old-hat very quickly… IF (and that's a BIG if) their debut album Opus Eponymous wasn't so DAMNED good.

For now, Ghost is quite simply a spectacle VERY much worth seeing. Another album or two and a litmus test on the threshold of fans and their tolerance for the secretive nature of the band will quickly tell if they will hold any staying power. They are certainly THE band to see and hear if you listen to any musicians that are pressed about new music they are currently enjoying. Ghost is name dropped OFTEN by musicians big and small, and this interest from metal’s mainstay musicians will surely propel Ghost into the public eye over the next few years.

Ghost's singer performs adorned in priest's garb, a pope’s hat, and his face made up to look like a skull. His moves are very slow and corpse-like and he used much of this performance to bless the crowd and allow them to touch his outstretched hands as he sang the material from Opus Eponymous seamlessly. While his vocals are all smoothly delivered, he addressed the crowd with crusty broken English, saying "First time in Toronto; is perfect." He mimed towards each member of the band during 'Genesis' and elicited applause for each of his bandmates, and brought out a chalice filled with wine and some hosts during 'Ritual' (the final song of the evening) and bestowed Ghost's holy sacrament to a few lucky followers towards the front rows.

The entire Ghost performance lasted maybe an hour. The apex of the evening was 'Genesis' and 'Here Comes the Sun' blended together with some high pitched distorted screams from a child as the backlight stained glass windows behind the band pulsed with a sinister orange and pulmonary purple colour.

A young girl from the crowd climbed onto a gentleman's back and swayed around during the entirety of 'Here Comes the Sun', rolling her head around like she was being excised of some un-spoken evilness as ghoul number one slowly twitched about on the stage in front of her.

I loved this show. Everyone in the venue seemed to feel the same way. If the show wasn't sold out, it couldn't have been by much more than a handful of tickets, as the venue was jammed with people upstairs and down. A bevy of Ghost shirts were sold (with some fans buying multiple designs). It was a fine first live show for Ghost in Toronto. I have it on good authority they will be back this way in the spring.

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