Buttkickin' Halloween Songs: "Year Zero" - Ghost (2013)

Crestfallen kings and queens
Comforting in their faith
Unbeknownst to them
Is the presence of the wraith

Since fate of man is equal
To the fate of lice
As new dawn rises you shalt recognize
Now behold the Lord Of Flies

Hell Satan, Archangelo…

Well, it’s not like we weren’t going to go with a Ghost tune this year. We’ve done it a few times before and quite frankly, you could throw a dart at a list of Ghost tunes and come up with a worthy Buttkickin’ Halloween Song.

I had a bunch in the pipeline and just randomly chose Year Zero because of the 1968 horror classic Rosemary’s Baby and how delighted all of Satan’s acolytes were when they found out they successfully knocked up Mia Farrow with devil-spawn.

“To Year Zero!” they cried in triumph. Anno Domini, as it stood, was months away from not being a thing anymore.

As far as the song is concerned, it’s typical Ghost pop-rock-metal fun, especially when you don’t any of it seriously. Shock-rock fare, naturally, but the music itself balances well between catchy and spooky. You’ve got your Latin choir chanting many of Satan’s names as the rest of the band kicks in with a driving rock beat that propels the song forward in gleeful exaltation.

Meanwhile Pope Emeritus II (or whatever Tobias Forge was going by during that album) consecrates and celebrates the birth of the Anti-Christ as well as the imminent unmaking of the world, culminating with the final ascension of the Serpent Lord.

See, that’s the beauty of a song like Year Zero; it turns Halloween into a New Years Eve for the Damned, of sorts. Listen, if there’s going to be a universal unmaking, at least you get to watch the ball drop AND dress up like Zorro!

The ancient serpent deceiver
To masses standing in awe
He will ascend to the heavens
Above the stars of god

Hell Satan, Archangelo
Hell Satan, Welcome year zero
Hell Satan, Archangelo
Hell Satan, Welcome year zero