Ghost is a name many will be familiar with as the famed hard rock/doom metal band from Linköping Sweden, who have been around for over a decade. Since their 2010 debut record, the band have gone through many personnel changes with only founder Papa Emeritus IV staying a consistent member. But now, ex-members Water and Air are back with new names and new faces. Water (now known as Mercury), Air (now known as Salt), and non-Ghost alumnus Sulfur have come together to form the band Priest. So far, they have sent one message loud and clear: this is not Ghost. Priest have taken a wild departure from the pop-y hard rock of their former band, instead leaning into a slightly industrial, synthwave cyberpunk sound. And with Priest’s new album Body Machine they’re delivering a serious…ly mediocre album.
Look, it’s not bad by any means, it’s just not great. The worst this album gets is bland. The album just doesn’t have anything interesting going for it, with boring lyrical themes and while the melodies are fun, they’re not substantive in any way. There are some very good tracks though. Track one “A Signal in the Noise” and Track three “Hell Awaits” are probably the best on the album. Track three is interesting though as it uses a sample from what appears to be a speech by some sort of priest or other religious figure, and bits of it are repeated throughout the track. It’s quite a neat little sample that re-enforces the idea of priests and god, which as far as I can tell is never revisited on the album again.
The music itself sounds like something you would hear at an 80s themed disco. It’s very new wave retro revival which is fine. I enjoy synthy music as much as the next person at an LCD Soundsystem concert, but it’s an overcrowded market. There is a sea of 80s new wave revival albums much better than this one. There is an industrial element however, which does add a bit of uniqueness to it, but if you’re looking for industrial music, this isn’t it. Priest does everything it does fine, and that’s about it. There are a couple very enjoyable tracks on the album, but other than that, Body Machine does very little to impress.
(Addendum from someone who actually lived through the 80s: Body Machine is a fun synthwave album, in places reminiscent of The Human League and Oingo Boingo amongst others. The obvious comparisons are with Depeche Mode and Duran Duran, but in this album Priest go a little further and deeper than just that. Although not enough to take it out of the fun fluffy category.
(6/10 Dexter Grahame)
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