Along with Opeth and Mastodon, Sweden's Ghost will be performing at the Diamond on April 18th - an act for which I'm rather amped. A musical blend of Blue Oyster Cult and Mercyful Fate/King Diamond, with unapologetically evil lyrics and just enough cheese in their theatrics, it'll be a hell of a set.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lvx-YFGn9E8

Seriously can't wait for this show, this lineup is my show of the year right now. Ghost's album was definitely one of the best metal albums of last year, amazingly heavy and evil without double bass and screaming. Glad Mastodon is closing the show here, really looking forward to seeing them again. Kinda hoping maybe they will do the Hunter in it's entirety as they did Crack the Skye last time I saw em. Opeth is pretty rad as well though I haven't given the last album a fair shot since he seems to be distancing the band from the death metal they do so well.

I agree about Ghost's album being one of the best in recent memory.

If you dig them, you'll probably dig The Devil's Blood. They'll be playing alongside Behemoth, Watain, In Solitude, Cannibal Corpse and several other metal bands just 10 days after the Ghost show.

I really wanted to catch Behemoth/Watain but not a big CC fan. Would go for those two alone but at this point there's like 10 bands on the bill. I can tell I'm getting old because back in the day I would've loved that, these days 4 seems like more than enough. Still pretty cool to see bands like Ghost and Behemoth playing OK though.

I'm going for The Devil's Blood and Behemoth mostly, and just making a day out of hearing the rest of the bands. I'm a lifelong Black Metal fan, but Watain really isn't my cup of tea. I've seen Behemoth a couple times. They actually played OKC back around 2004. If I remember correctly, they were touring with Goatwhore. Either way, I got drunk and accidentally told Nergal that they had peaked years ago (I really meant to say that I preferred their earlier style, but the cheap beer made it come out douchy). He was a good sport, very nice guy.

I'm like you, the idea of being there all day listening to 10 bands sounds rather tedious, but **** it. A stellar band comes to OKC, I'm not going to miss the opportunity to attend. At least I'm wise enough nowadays to know that earplugs are a must.

A couple of blurry pics from the show last night on my Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/54238291@N05/sets/72157629487862878/)

Ghost was indeed awesome. I think they got a pretty good reception and will hopefully be back some day to headline. Only bummer was that they didn't do "Stand By Him". Opeth on the other hand, was pretty much a snooze fest until the last two songs when they finally broke out the death metal. I can't say they aren't accomplished proficient musicians but most of that set was boring sleepy time music. I really think their strong point was the mixing of the slow pretty parts and the death metal, so when you cut the metal out, I start to lose interest. Didn't much care for their lighting effects either which mostly seemed to consist of shining blinding lights into the faces of the crowd.

That said, so glad Mastodon got to headline. The crowd was definitely into em after resting up during Opeth and it got pretty rowdy. They put on a great show. Was kinda surprised they didn't have videos playing during the set but the light show was much better. Setlist was awesome as well, happy to hear Crack The Skye, Blood & Thunder and the Sparrow.

Ghost was the definite highlight for me. I actually enjoyed the Opeth set all in all, which I didn't expect since their later material is rather boring. I agree that they're at their best when they throw in the nice, soft parts in with death metal - that's their signature sound (Blackwater Park is one of my favorites albums of theirs). I left during Mastodon. It's really not my type of metal, and it unfortunately failed to catch my interest.

Ghost is a headlining band. It's sad to see them as an opener with a 30 minute set, especially after they just finished a headlining tour, but this was better than nothing, for sure. Their performance was flawless. If they'd do an all Occult Rock tour with the likes of The Devil's Blood, Jex Thoth, Sabbath Assembly, or Blood Ceremony (again), it would be ideal.

Thanks for posting the photos. All my Ghost pics turned out blurred; I recorded a video, but the bass levels jarred my phone's microphone, rendering the video pretty much useless.