The Satanic Swedish metal juggernaut known as Ghost is streaming its brand new album Meliora in its entirety right now ahead of the official release this Friday (August 21, 2015).

Listen to the entire album here below.

Meliora is Ghost’s third full-length effort and finds them exploring a heavier side of their sonic palate than ever before. It is also the first to feature “new” singer Papa Emeritus III. The joke there is that it’s the same singer dressed as an evil Pope, but with each album he gets a new mask and the next sequential Roman numeral just like the succession of real Popes.

Last week I told you all about Meliora, the upcoming third album from Swedish occult rock ghouls Ghost (aka Ghost B.C. in the US for legal reasons) and gave you the first listen to the album’s lead single “Cirice.” Now the band has graced us with the official video for that superb track.

The clip finds the band invading a school talent show and possessing one creepy-eyed little girl who ends up going all Carrie on unappreciative audience members.

Check out the video here below. Meliora will be available worldwide on August 21, 2015.

Swedish metal juggernaut Ghost (known as Ghost B.C. in the U.S. due to legal issues) is ramping up for the release of their third full-length album titled Meliora in August and at midnight on Saturday night they debuted the album’s first single “Cirice” via their website.

For those unfamiliar with the band, Ghost are extremely divisive amongst the metal community. Metalheads either view their weirdo brand of ABBA meets metal as groundbreaking and brilliant or they hate them with a passion. One metalhead went as far as starting an online petition to break the band up (for the record, I’m firmly entrenched in the pro-Ghost camp). The band members dress in anonymous costumes with the majority of members taking on the personas of “nameless ghouls.”

Well, it was bound to happen… someone has made a X-mas parody of “Year Zero” by those Satanic Swedes Ghost B.C. The song, which features a chorus including the chant of “Hail Satan” has now been spoofed in the form of “Hail Santa.”

The track is by brothers Dan and Jack Wagoner and features lyrics entirely about the jolly old elf. Check it out here below. I’ve also included the original Ghost B.C. track below for those unfamiliar. “Year Zero” appears on the Ghost B.C. album Infestissumam.

File this under Haters Gonna Hater: An extreme non-fan of Ghost wants the group to break up and has started a petition at Change.org in hopes of getting enough people to join the cause.

In his statement, titled “Shut down the Swedish retro metal band Ghost,” petitioner Sven Armdacht claims that people just starting to get into metal listen to the Ghost thinking “they are the real deal” and that said incoming fans of the genre believe that “we should forget the real bands like Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden.” He also accuses Ghost of trying to “destroy real metal.”

He goes on and on complaining that Ghost is not a real metal band and that they are really more like Blue Oyster Cult than King Diamond and Mercyful Fate, the latter two of which they are often compared to. Check out the full petition here below.