For the latest installment of the Knotfest Bracket Challenge, the fans were asked to voice their take on which album of the new year was most-anticipated.
Pooling a diverse assembly of heavy music veterans, emerging sensations, and generational fixtures, the initial field of twelve included a broad spectrum of the genre. From ageless heroes like Megadeth and Judas Priest to ascending aggressors like Zeal & Ardor, Vein.FM, Venom Prison and Rolo Tomassi - the list of 2022 entries was both varied and impressive in a way that underscored the kind of health of heavy music is currently flexing.
From Korn and Meshuggah, to Avenged Sevenfold and Amon Amarth, one band in particular managed to steal the shine of 2022. Following weeks of pitting some of the biggest and brightest in the genre against one another, Papa Emeritus IV and the Nameless Ghouls of GHOST have conjured the children of the clergy to name Impera the most-anticipated album of the year.
The band’s fifth entry into their sweeping catalog is title Impera and conceptually sees Ghost immersed into a world hundreds of years ahead of the Black Plague-era European world of Prequelle. The 12-track collection details an expansive narrative that centers on the rise and eventual fall of empires in a body of work that is being referred to as the band’s “the most current and topical” to date.
Ghost architect Tobias Forge referenced the book, The Rule Of Empires: Those Who Built Them, Those Who Endured Them, And Why They Always Fall by Timothy Parsons as the impetus for the album. Forge has shared that the concept album idea had been simmering for years, however the climate of the last few of years presented interesting parallels that fueled his creative headspace.
The album has thus far delivered two powerful preview tracks with “Call Me Little Sunshine” and the Halloween Kills anthem “Hunter’s Moon” showcasing the band's stylistic range.
Impera, the fifth full length album from Ghost arrives via Loma Vista Recordings on March 11th. Pre-order the album – HERE
