Meliora

The title is Latin for better things. This is Ghost's third album, released on 21 August 2015 and produced by Klas Ahlund. It won best hard rock or metal album at the 2015 Grammis Awards, and the lead single "Cirice" won the 2016 Grammy for best metal performance. Work began at the end of 2014. The futuristic theme started at a rehearsal about a month before the previous album's tour, when one of the band, trying out a new rig, got a spacious echoed sound out of a riff that came back science-fictional; the idea for the next record dates from that moment. Guitars had taken a back seat on Infestissumam, so this time riffs were the starting point, with four guitars each run through three amplifiers for twelve amps in all. The instruments were two Gibson SGs, one from the early 1980s and one from the 1960s, a 1962 Gibson Les Paul and a Fender Telecaster. The choice of producer was deliberate too. Ahlund was known for working with pop singers and had never produced a heavy metal band, which is part of why he was asked. The order here is the standard ten tracks. A special edition, Meliora Redux, followed in September 2016, and the player carries the deluxe edition, which adds "Square Hammer" among others.