Ghost Essentials

Thanks to Ghost, satanic metal has never sounded so gloriously melodic. Blending touches of doom, psychedelia, and hard rock like watercolours, the cloaked Swedes paint odes to sacrilege featuring graceful harmonies and creeping fretwork. Their debut single, 2009's “Elizabeth,” set the stage with funereal axes and organs encased in shimmering onyx. Adding acoustic guitars to the mix, “Cirice” sounds like a thunderous anthem to an '80s horror flick. Even on the chugging “From the Pinnacle to the Pit” from 2015's Meliora, Ghost weave melodies as gorgeous as they are sinister.