Released May 31, 2015 Length 6:02 Writer(s) A Ghoul Writer | Recorded January 2015 Label Loma Vista Recordings | |
 | ||
Genre Doom metal, progressive rock, psychedelic rock | ||
"He Is" is a song by Swedish heavy metal band Ghost. The fifth track from the group's third studio album Meliora, it was released as their first promotional single on May 31, 2015. The song reached number 64 on the Sverigetopplistan chart.
Contents
Background and release
The song "He Is" was written back in 2007. The band tried recording it for 2013's Infestissumam, but after trying to get it to "sound like Ghost" and adding and subtracting aspects, ultimately put it on the shelf. A band member said that he just did not know what to make of it, explaining that "When you're a rock band, it's always a little hard to play softly", "you've got to take your pulse down to be able to approach a different kind of energy level." Upon starting pre-production for Meliora they added "He Is" to the list and, after praise from producer Klas Åhlund, recorded it as it was.
A Nameless Ghoul told Loudwire that there are various degrees of personal meaning within the song, one of which is the lyrics. He explained that the original demo lyrics were "bogus" and did not have any "bite", but following the 2014 suicide of Selim Lemouchi, guitarist of The Devil's Blood who was friends with members of Ghost, the lyrics materialized.
Ghost performed an acoustic version of "He Is" at the Bandit Rock Awards on January 19, 2016 at the Hard Rock Cafe in Stockholm.
Lyric video
A lyric video for the song was made by Mattias Erik Johansson/Claudio Marino/Nicklas Lindahl. It was uploaded to the band's official Youtube channel on November 9, 2015.
Reception
Upon Meliora's release, "He Is" was quickly cited as a stand out track and became a fan favorite at concerts. PopMatters's Nathan Stevens wrote that it "could be mistaken for a worship song in a mega-church and that's not a demerit against the track. The chorus is massive and begs for a sing along." Sputnikmusic wrote that the track "showcases Ghost's keen attention to integrating doom-infused, progressive elements with glistening, pop-oriented sensibilities." They praised the harmonized guitars as "marvelous" and the "ethereal" vocals.
In an interview with one of the guitarists, Joe Bosso of MusicRadar cited the guitar solo as the musician's best. The Nameless Ghoul then explained the solo is not a tapping one, but a "tapping-like technique" and that it is one of many parts of the song that is exactly as it was on the demo.
In Rolling Stone's readers' poll of The 10 Best Songs of 2015, "He Is" was ranked fourth. Brittany Spanos wrote that with the song Ghost "hit a psychedelic note, going back to metal's folkier roots from the Sixties and Seventies."