Ghost: All Albums Ranked
Unless you’ve been living under a sizeable rock for the last 10 years, you will know that Ghost are on their way to being a generation-defining band, with legions of fans across the world embracing not only the fantastic music but also their unique visuals and tongue-in-cheek lore. The All Things Rock team have debated this ranking list long and hard - and to spice things up, we have included EVERY commercial Ghost release, including their live albums and EPs. What you do you think? And where will the upcoming ‘Skeleta’ fit? Check out this Spotify playlist and have your say in the comments!
Hot on the heels of the second record ‘Infestissumam’, Ghost released a 5-song EP that featured 4 covers and strangely sleepy-sounding live version of ‘Secular Haze’. This was Ghost’s first foray into the post-album covers EP (to date, there have been three) and it certainly has some kind of charm to it.
The opening song ‘If You Have Ghosts’ is the clear highlight, providing something of a theme song for the band in their early days. The strings-led live version on ‘Rite Here Rite Now’ is better, but this studio version still builds to a beautiful climax that sounds like it was written by the band themselves and not Roky Erickson.
Unfortunately, the rest of the EP is very ponderous and largely forgettable. Abba’s 'I’m a Marionette’ is given a dark, gothic treatment, and ‘Crucified’ by Army of Lovers features some intricate vocal harmonies and demonic, camp vocals in the verses - but it is unlikely that you will give this EP multiple spins.
Standout tracks: ‘If You Have Ghosts’, ‘Crucified’
Just 3 albums and 2 EPs into their career, Ghost pulled off a feat that you would normally only expect a band on the scale of Iron Maiden or Metallica to achieve - a double live album that is captivating from start to finish. ‘Ceremony and Devotion’ is a comprehensive document of Ghost’s 2017 tour of the USA in support of the ‘Meliora’ album and its follow-up EP ‘Popestar’ which had introduced ‘Square Hammer’ to the world.
The record is great, breathing new life and energy into songs like ‘Guleh / Zombie Queen’, ‘Body and Blood’ and ‘Con Clavi Con Dio’ which, on reflection, sounded somewhat muted in their original studio form. The between-song banter is superb too, with Papa Emeritus sounding both the menacing pantomime villain (before ‘Mummy Dust’) and friendly stand-up comedian (the x-rated intro to ‘Monstrance Clock’) - and it is fun hearing the brief snippet of Pink Floyd’s ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’ at the start of ‘Cirice’.
That said, ‘Ceremony and Devotion’ has been rendered largely redundant following the release of the incredible ‘Rite Here Rite Now’ in 2024, which trumps it in terms of production and setlist.
Standout Tracks: ‘Body and Blood’, ‘Guleh / Zombie Queen’, ‘Ritual’
They came from nowhere, and suddenly Ghost (then, for a time, ‘Ghost BC’) was the name on everyone’s lips, with high-profile fans including Dani Filth (Cradle of Filth) and James Hetfield (Metallica).
Metalcore, Blackened Death Metal and Hardcore were in full swing in 2010, so you would be forgiven for looking at an early photo of Ghost and assuming they would play Behemoth-esque levels of satanic brutality. Imagine the surprise, then, to be confronted by church organs, 70s-sounding guitars, intentionally straightforward, pounding Deep Purple-esque drums and soothing, detached-sounding vocals. There seemed to be a mismatch between the image and the music, and it was nowhere near as heavy as the album art and an apparently Satanic Pope suggested. It was dark, but in a creepy, ominous and churchy way rather than screaming in your face.
Maybe this was the intention, but ‘Opus Eponymous’ arrived sounding dated - like a relic from the late 70s. As for the songs themselves, ‘Ritual’ remains as catchy and life-changing as it did the first time, ‘Elizabeth’ has a wild, pummelling energy, and ‘Stand By Him’, supposedly the first-ever Ghost track to be written, has a controlled, chugging riff that supports the glorious vocal harmonies in the chorus. Unfortunately, compared to Ghost’s later albums, ‘Opus Eponymous’ becomes a bit of a slog by the final 3 tracks (‘Death Knell’, ‘Prime Mover’ and ‘Genesis’) where the instrumentation is great but the snare-on-the-first-beat-of-every-bar drum style wears a little thin. A fantastic start, showing that Ghost were different from everyone else - but it has been trumped by subsequent records.
Standout tracks: ‘Ritual’, ‘Elizabeth’, ‘Stand By Him’
Released during the ‘Meliora’ touring cycle 2016, ‘Popestar’ is a 5-song EP that, like ‘If You Have Ghost’, features 4 covers and one original. The original, in this case, was the magnificent ‘Square Hammer’, which has a fair claim to being the best Ghost song so far. Not only did it win numerous ‘Song of the Year’ awards, but ‘Square Hammer’ embraced the magic 4-chord sequence in the chorus that guaranteed it would be an earworm for the ages. It was arguably Ghost’s most ‘pop’ song to date, paving way for ‘Spillways’ (there’s that same chord progression again), ‘Mary on a Cross’ (there it is again), ‘Dance Macabre’ and ‘Satanized’.
Following ‘Square Hammer’, the EP goes in a completely different direction with a relatively restrained set of covers. ‘Missionary Man’, originally by British duo Eurythmics from their 5th album ‘Revenge’, and ‘Nocturnal Me’ (Echo and the Bunnymen) both sound like they could have been penned by Tobias Forge himself, though they are unspectacular. Simian Mobile Disco’s ‘I Believe’ is largely forgettable.
The highlight, at the end of the EP, is the majestic and glacially-paced ‘Bible’. Had it been a Ghost original - and it sounds like it could have been - it would arguably have been an even better end to ‘Meliora’ than ‘Deus in Absentia’. The tune is magnificent, sung with euphoric harmonies, and aided with some new lyrics that are some of the best that Tobias Forge has written (“Now who will pray for Babylon? Sing a song to Babylon. On your knees before Babylon. Beat that drum because Babylon is falling. I will wipe from the face of the Earth this human race I have created. And with them, the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground, for I regret that I have made them”). Wow.
Standout Tracks: ‘Square Hammer’, ‘Bible’
It may have only featured two songs (nowadays 3 on Spotify with the addition of ‘The Future is a Foreign Land’), but ‘Seven Inches of Satanic Panic’ was a pivotal release in Ghost’s discography.
Initially a fun, random release of two songs that were engineered to sound like they were recorded in the 60s, this EP took on extra significance when ‘Mary on a Cross’ went viral on TikTok and quickly became Ghost’s most-streamed song. Suddenly, Ghost became known for a cheeky double entendre set to the best song that The Doors never wrote. It was played in shops, cafes and radios across the world, and opened Ghost up to a whole new audience.
The lead song on the EP, ‘Kiss The Go-Goat’, is a light-hearted and playful tune featuring blasphemy, innuendo and beautifully-sung Latin (“But he's the guy you wanna do and you know that it takes two. Luckily he wants to do you too. Satan, Lucifer, Osculum obscenum”). Admittedly both the songs sound better with the beefed-up live sound on ‘Rite Here Rite Now’; but ‘Seven Inches of Satanic Panic’ is great fun, achieving its aim of sounding like a a relic from the ‘Papa Nihil’ era.
Standout Tracks: ‘Mary on a Cross’, ‘Kiss The Go-Goat’
‘Infestissumam’ is a curious one. Several of the songs are absolutely stellar - particularly the jubulous calling card of ‘Year Zero’, the exultant closer ‘Monstrance Clock’ and mini-opera ‘Guleh / Zombie Queen’. However, the overall impression that the album leaves is that Ghost were undergoing something of an identify crisis on their second record.
Papa Emeritus looked more menacing now, and the Nameless Ghouls and overall band presentation were dark and satanic. However the music was, honestly, curiously toothless at this point in Ghost’s history. The record that followed, ‘Meliora’, addressed this issue triumphantly, and suggests that Tobias Forge himself wanted the band to present a harder and more metallic sound moving forward. While a track like ‘Secular Haze’ had all the potential to echo System of a Down, retold through the light of a stained-glass church window, unfortunately it lacks the bite and energy and sounds more like a demo, especially with a muffled and subdued drum sound.
‘Body and Blood’ is one of Tobias Forge’s best early Ghost songs, with the perfect mix of catchiness and blasphemy. However, it is let down by the production, and the live version on the ‘Ceremony and Devotion’ record is far superior to the album version. Overall, ‘Infestissumam’ is a fun listen that adds a few new ideas and textures to those presented on ‘Opus Eponymous’, but it doesn’t present the excitement of the albums that followed.
Standout tracks: ‘Year Zero’, ‘Monstrance Clock’, ‘Per Aspera Ad Inferi’
‘Phantomime’ is Ghost’s 3rd covers EP, released a year after ‘Impera’, and it is an absolute knock-out. The production is crisp and powerful and the song choice is superb. Long-term fans may argue that the quintessential Ghost sound (70s prog rock with simple, pounding drums, and drenched in organs) has been replaced by a more polished, modern sheen - but when it’s this much fun, who cares..?
The highlight is ‘Jesus He Knows Me’, one of the best Phil Collins-led Genesis songs, which is made heavier than the original and is the perfect platform for Tobias Forge’s love of stacked vocal harmonies. Accompanied by a debaucherous video (reminiscent of The Prodigy’s controversial 1997 hit ‘Smack My B*tch Up’), it burrows deep into your ears and is hard to get out of your head.
Also superb is a faithful recreation of ‘Phantom of the Opera’ from the first Iron Maiden record, complete with virtuoso musicianship and ominous vocals. The Stranglers’ ‘Hanging Around’ is another fantastic reimagining, maintaining the distinctive bounciness of the original, and even managing to incorporate an homage to Metallica’s ‘Fade To Black’ in the bridge. Add in the curiosities of ‘We Don’t Need Another Hero’ and ‘See No Evil’ and you have an EP that stands up with some of Ghost’s later albums.
Standout tracks: ‘Jesus He Knows Me’, ‘We Don’t Need Another Hero, ‘Phantom of the Opera’
Whether you watch the full ‘Rite Here Rite Now’ movie or just listen to the soundtrack, you are in for a real treat here. This is the finest document (so far) of Ghost in all their live glory, showcasing a range of songs from ‘Impera’ amongst a spread of classics (though some early songs such as ‘Ritual’ and ‘Con Clavi Con Dio’ feature in the film but not the soundtrack).
The production is magnificent, beefing up ‘Kiss The Go-Goat’ and ‘Mary On A Cross’ which had (intentionally) sounded like relics from the 60s on record. ‘Twenties’ sounds far better live than on ‘Impera’, and the additional female vocals on ‘Kaisarion’ take the song to practically orgasmic new heights.
And when the album is capped off with a supposedly ‘lost’ track from ‘Papa Nihil’ (The Future Is A Foreign Land), you can truly see how much meticulous work went into such a phenomenally fun soundtrack album. Chef’s kiss.
The storyline of the movie can be devisive. You may find the back-and-forth forays backstage a distraction from the live show, or you may lap up the extensive additions to Ghost’s lore, scene by scene. Either way, as a live document, ‘Rite Here Rite Now’ has a claim as one of the greatest live albums in rock history. Seriously.
Standout Tracks: ‘Twenties’, ‘Watcher in the Sky’, ‘Kiss The Go-Goat’
By the point of releasing ‘Impera’, Ghost were megastars - and not just in the rock & metal world, but increasingly in the mainstream thanks to the unexpected success of ‘Mary on a Cross’.
‘Imperium’ opens the record with a beautiful, simple plucked guitar, giving way to a full stadium-rock bombast, with layer upon layer of instrumentation (what Guns n Roses attempted with ‘Chinese Democracy’, only good) that launches into the major-key, wild ride of ‘Kaisarion’ where everything is turned up to 11. When the ‘Imperium’ melody repeats at the end of closer ‘Respite on the Spitalfields’, it makes the record feel wonderfully complete.
Yes, Tobias Forge may now have as many co-writers and session musicians as Taylor Swift, but with hooks as big as ‘Spillways’, ‘Call Me Little Sunshine’ and ‘Darkness At The Heart Of My Love’, Ghost fans are being thoroughly spoilt.
If we are getting nit-picky, the chorus of ‘Watcher in the Sky’ goes round a few too many times, ‘Griftwood’ is a somewhat lazy rehash of ‘Witch Image’, and ‘Twenties’ feels bizarrely held back by its profanity (and the live version on ‘Rite Here Rite Now’ is much better). With some minor adjustments, ‘Impera’ would have a claim to the Number 1 slot on the strength of the mighty collection of knock-out songs on offer here, all underpinned by huge production.
Standout tracks: ‘Respite on the Spitalfields’, ‘Call Me Little Sunshine’, ‘Kaisarion’
We were introduced to ‘Prequelle’ by the release of the ‘Rats’ video, depicting a very different lead singer to the string of Papas that Ghost had been known for. Suddenly, here was Cardinal Copia, a cheeky character with a more comical vibe to his ‘predecessors’ - and, my god, that guy could move. Suddenly, Ghost was a band you could dance to.
‘Prequelle’ expanded Ghost’s sonic palette somewhat, introducing a more conventional drum sound (less of the pummelling, snare-on-the-one caveman beat) and bringing in more elements of pop into the songwriting. ‘Square Hammer’ had introduced Ghost to a more mainstream audience by this point, which paved the way for the incredible ‘Dance Macabre’, ‘Rats’, ‘See The Light’, ‘Faith’ and ‘Witch Image’.
The record has its fair share of light and shade, including the excellent closing power ballad ‘Life Eternal’ and two full-length instrumentals, the best of which is ‘Miasma’ which brings to mind the finest moments from Meatloaf’s ‘Bat Out Of Hell’ album, complete with a joyous saxophone solo (played live by the resurrected Papa Nihil). The only dud is ‘Pro Memoria’ which is a little too ham-fisted with its lyrics (“Don’t you forget about dying. Don’t forget about your friend Death. Don’t forget that you will die”), though even this comparative low point is a better song that most Goth-rock acts would kill for.
Standout Tracks: ‘Rats’, ‘Miasma’, ‘Dance Macabre’
It’s a tough call, but ‘Meliora’ has the edge over other Ghost albums by presenting what is arguably the best incarnation of the band. The production is immaculate, getting the balance right between the organic 70s prog rock sound and the studio polish which they would lean on further with ‘Prequelle’. The band looked amazing at this point too, with genuinely creepy-yet-classy Nameless Ghouls, and a live backdrop that indicated Ghost were moving up into the higher echelons of stadium rock.
But above else - the songs!!! Detailed, original, intricate pieces with massive riffs (‘From The Pinnacle To The Pit’ and ‘Mummy Dust’ at the heavier end of the scale), euphoric, classy choruses (‘Absolution’, ‘He Is’ and the Grammy-winning ‘Cirice’), and rousing tunes that leave a lasting impression after multiple listens (‘Deus in Absentia’, ‘Majesty’).
Even without ‘Square Hammer’ (which was featured on the Popestar EP and was repackaged in the deluxe edition of ‘Meliora’), Ghost’s 3rd album is a masterpiece. With the inclusion of ‘Square Hammer’ - potentially Ghost’s greatest song - it is simply unstoppable.
Standout tracks: ‘Cirice’, ‘He Is’, ‘Absolution’
