Ghost - Hunter's Moon - Single [Review]

Swedish metal band Ghost finally released an original song following 2019's single Seven Inches of Satanic Panic (which featured the two songs "Kiss the Go-Goat" and "Mary on a Cross") a few months ago, pumping fans up for the band's upcoming fifth album on the horizon (although a release date has yet to be revealed). The song, titled "Hunter's Moon," was released to promote the Halloween Kills film so is most likely a standalone single that will not be on the album, but even if that does end up being the case, that's not to say that it won't be a bonus track on a deluxe edition or a Target exclusive edition or something like that. "Hunter's Moon" was definitely a grower for me. I wasn't immediately hooked and found it to be an average Ghost song upon my first (and maybe second) listen, but it quickly grew on me and even became one of my favorite songs of their catalogue thus far. It's so melodically and sonically powerful and has an '80s hair metal vibe to it, a vibe which reminds me a bit of Prequelle (especially songs like "See the Light" and "Dance Macabre"). I especially love the oscillating guitar which quite honestly steals the show, even away from frontman Tobias Forge (masquerading as Papa Emeritus IV)'s vocals, and another one of my favorite parts is Forge's guttural chanting of "Hunt! Hunt! Hunt!" Forge confirmed in an interview that the song was not written specifically for Halloween Kills but that he instantly thought of it when he was asked to write a song for the movie, and the lyrics definitely do work pretty perfectly for the movie. Tobias also stated in that aforementioned interview that the title refers to the hunter's moon seen in October (which is, of course, around Halloween), and the song seems to take the word hunt in multiple directions - a festive one, a somewhat sweet and romantic one, and even a sinister one. There are so many characters whom one could imagine the song's lyrics being from, including Laurie Strode, the town mobsters who are fanatically trying to hunt down and kill Michael Myers, and of course Michael Myers himself. Given that, as previously stated, the song is actually from Forge's unused back catalogue, I do definitely wonder how old that it actually is (especially given that there is also an alternate version of the song that plays in the end credits of the movie that is a very different version and sounds like it might even be an earlier recorded demo), but regardless, I cannot wait for a new Ghost album hopefully dropping this year!