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12 The <strong>Chronicle</strong> October 4 - 10, 20<strong>16</strong> chronicle.durhamcollege.ca Entertainment<br />
From the occult to the Grammys<br />
Lady Gaga<br />
gone twisted<br />
meets metal<br />
Tommy Morais<br />
The <strong>Chronicle</strong><br />
Heavy metal bands with a penchant<br />
for the occult and outrageous<br />
costumes don’t win awards or get<br />
musical recognition. Or so you’d<br />
think.<br />
Enter Sweden’s Ghost. The cultlike<br />
group’s leader and front man<br />
Papa Emeritus III looks like a fallen<br />
pope who underwent a severe exorcism.<br />
Backed by his horn-masked<br />
“nameless ghouls”, the band casts<br />
a sinister appearance, which is reflected<br />
in its music.<br />
The controversial group is eager<br />
to capture a new audience following<br />
a 20<strong>16</strong> Grammy Award win.<br />
Being one of the rare metal acts to<br />
win aGrammy exposes Ghost to a<br />
bigger demographic.<br />
“A nightmare has just turned<br />
into a dream,” said front man Papa<br />
Emeritus III holding the award at<br />
the 20<strong>16</strong> Grammy awards.<br />
Ghost’s Popestar extended play<br />
(EP), released just one day ahead<br />
of the band’s North American tour<br />
with no prior notice, is the next<br />
logical step for the band. The EP<br />
sees the macabre-flavoured outfit<br />
aim for mainstream radio airplay.<br />
With Popestar, the Swedes have<br />
completed their transition from<br />
darlings of the indie metal scene<br />
to that of a viable commercial and<br />
international act.<br />
Popestar seems tame for a band<br />
who pushes the visual and lyrical<br />
envelope. Ghost understands they<br />
need to tone down the controversial<br />
gimmicks if they hope to reach a<br />
larger audience. This also means<br />
forging an identity that will connect<br />
with the masses rather than<br />
one specific niche.<br />
With their new offering, Ghost<br />
meshes together elements of rock<br />
and pop in an unholy communion.<br />
Popestar is Lady Gaga meets metal<br />
gone twisted. It’s rock and it’s pop.<br />
It is Ghost and it isn’t.<br />
Comprising one original song<br />
and four covers by the likes of Echo<br />
& The Bunnymen and Eurythmics,<br />
Popestar makes the most of its 23<br />
minutes.<br />
“Square Hammer” is the lead<br />
single on which Popestar builds its<br />
foundation.<br />
The song blends elements of<br />
Ghost’s past with a more contemporary<br />
pop sound, effectively establishing<br />
them as a haunting presence<br />
in popular music.<br />
Cover albums tend to be riské affairs,<br />
but Ghost has the self-awareness<br />
necessary to make songs like<br />
the Eurythmics’ “Missionary<br />
Man” their own. Expect to hear<br />
unexpected twist on some popular<br />
staples.<br />
Throughout its eight-year tenure,<br />
Ghost has put tremendous effort<br />
Ghost’s new extended play blends elements of pop and metal in unholy communion.<br />
into building and cultivating a<br />
visual live show designed to throw<br />
parents into hysterics. Years spent<br />
on the road honing their craft and<br />
developing their act in front of Iron<br />
Maiden and Alice Cooper audiences<br />
has paid off.<br />
If occult-rock isn’t your thing,<br />
rest assured. Papa and the ghouls<br />
make increasingly accessible music<br />
with each succeeding release.<br />
They’re distancing themselves<br />
from scare tactics once worn with<br />
pride on their collective sleeves<br />
and Papa Emeritus III showcases<br />
a vocal range broader than that of<br />
his predecessors.<br />
Never has it been easier to embrace<br />
the world of occult-rock. Call<br />
Popestar an appetizer.<br />
Ghost will be performing at the<br />
Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Toronto<br />
on November 8-9. Popestar<br />
is available now.<br />
Close encounter of the native kind<br />
Barbara<br />
Howe<br />
Mystical<br />
stories with<br />
a sci-fi twist<br />
Imagine if your computer had a<br />
conscience, or an old battered toy<br />
robot sprang to life and initiated<br />
a suicide intervention. The belief<br />
all things are alive and everything<br />
on the planet has a spirit exists in<br />
many aboriginal cultures. This<br />
thread weaves through Drew<br />
Hayden Taylor’s new collection<br />
of short stories, ‘Take Us to Your<br />
Chief’.<br />
‘Take Us to Your Chief’ is the<br />
latest work by award-winning Ojibway<br />
novelist and playwright Drew<br />
Hayden Taylor, who was born in<br />
Curve Lake, Ontario, and has published<br />
around 30 books and over 70<br />
plays. It is a collection of nine science-fiction<br />
short stories told from<br />
an Aboriginal perspective and tries<br />
to bridge the gap between cultures<br />
using humour.<br />
Taylor has a knack for keeping<br />
the reader entertained by writing<br />
insightful witty observations of aboriginal<br />
life twinned with ironic<br />
and unexpected twists of futurism.<br />
The stories cover subjects such as<br />
hostile alien invasions, government<br />
conspiracy theories, stargazing<br />
stargazers, plus space exploration,<br />
time travel and the first gay First<br />
Nations superhero.<br />
While the writing is tongue-incheek,<br />
Taylor touches on some<br />
sobering issues Canadian First<br />
Nations’ communities face, many<br />
of which are ignored, or get scant<br />
coverage by the media.<br />
Subjects such as the poor water<br />
quality in many reservations, the<br />
high suicide rates in young aboriginal<br />
males, the disappearance of<br />
native women, the lopsided native<br />
prison population and drug and<br />
alcohol addictions in the aboriginal<br />
population are interspersed<br />
throughout. All are thought provoking<br />
issues worthy of dinner table<br />
discussions.<br />
In ‘Petropaths’, Taylor uses time<br />
travel to illustrate the importance<br />
of cultural heritage. It is the story<br />
of Duane, a troubled Anishinabe<br />
youth, who has spent more than<br />
one stint in jail. To help him rehabilitate,<br />
and to give him some<br />
focus, his community send him<br />
to uninhabited Thunderbird Island<br />
to “understand his place in<br />
the universe” by studying ancient<br />
petroglyphs. What happened next<br />
was not what either party expected.<br />
Connections to the arrival of<br />
the white man are found in the<br />
title story, ‘Take us to your Chief,’<br />
which compares the landing of an<br />
alien spaceship in Newfoundland<br />
to the first meeting of the Beothuk<br />
and Mi’kmaq chiefs with the Vikings<br />
centuries ago.<br />
Taylor’s writing is easy to read<br />
and would appeal to anyone from<br />
a teenager to a college student, or<br />
a college student’s grandmother.<br />
In a recent CBC interview, Taylor<br />
said he thinks people need to<br />
broaden their perspectives on Canadian<br />
literature. He pities anyone<br />
who has not.<br />
‘Take Us to Your Chief,’ is an<br />
entertaining read. The stories<br />
blend subtle undertones of serious<br />
social issues with 1950s style Sci-Fi<br />
story telling. The collection can<br />
be used as a jumping off point for<br />
discussions on the wider issues of<br />
aboriginals worldwide and their<br />
treatment by the dominant culture.<br />
The book is due to be published<br />
on Oct, 8 by Douglas and McIntyre.<br />
There is a book launch on<br />
Oct,<strong>16</strong> at 6.30pm at Bakka-Phoenix<br />
Books, 84, Harbord St., Toronto.<br />
Drew Hayden Taylor’s new book will be released Oct. 8.<br />
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