Are They Even Metal?
Well, hardcore metal fans don’t consider Ghost as metal, and they think that it’s an insult to the genre to even call them METAL! Of course, these metal fans are more exclusive, and have specific criteria on how a metal band should sound to truly be “metal.”
Ghost, as a band, defies all those criteria, they use heavy guitar riffs which, a metal trait, but their songs are often down-tuned, and the lyrics are about dark, Satanic stuff, but there are several problems negating those characteristics.
Ghost doesn’t even have what we call the “wall of sound,” which a lot of heavier metal bands have – their guitar levels and bass are more closely with 70s hard rock bands like Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and Blue Oyster Cult, and their very prominent use of keyboards adds even more of 70s-prog kind of element which is a corny thing.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bv7jxidhw7d/
And finally, the way they dress – they are heavily relying on their satanic imagery which will, without a doubt, scare or enrage some people.
Something that non-metalheads may not get – Ghost is the perfect example of image and marketing over actual substance.
But, of course, in today’s time, nobody likes anything anyway. The debate over what is and isn’t ‘metal’ has been going on for like decades now, and one thing I can tell you, it will always vastly depends on each individual.
Me, honestly, I don’t like Ghost, and this is just my opinion – I find them cheesy and overdone. It’s boringly predictable.