GHOST's last album 'Impera' wins 2022 American Music Award for “Favorite Rock Album”
21-11-2022
GHOST has won its first-ever American Music Award in the newly debuted “Favorite Rock Album” category. The critically acclaimed, chart-topping “Impera” has edged out formidable competition from COLDPLAY, IMAGINE DRAGONS, Machine Gun Kelly and the RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS to win the vote.
The winners of the American Music Award are all voted by fans. Nominees in 37 categories were selected based on key fan interactions through Billboard charts, including streaming, album and song sales, radio airplay, and tour grosses.
These were tracked by Billboard and Luminate covering the eligibility period of September 24, 2021 to September 22, 2022.
Featuring the Rock Radio No. 1s “Call Me Little Sunshine” — recently nominated for a “Best Metal Performance” Grammy — and “Hunter’s Moon” (the end credits song from 2021’s No. 1 R-rated film “Halloween Kills”) as well as the currently climbing “Spillways”, “Impera” was released March 11, 2022 via Loma Vista Recordings. Hailed by Rolling Stone as “an escapist rock and roll album,” “Impera” “conquered rock, metal and the charts” (as reported by the Los Angeles Times),debuting at No. 1 in a sweep of the U.S. album charts, and entering the Billboard 200 at No. 2. Produced by Klas Åhlund and mixed by Andy Wallace, “Impera” sets the most current and topical GHOST subject matter to date against a hypnotic and darkly colorful melodic backdrop, resulting in a listen like no other — yet unmistakably, quintessentially GHOST. “Impera”‘s release has been supported by the “euphoric spectacle” (Rolling Stone) of the 70+ date “Imperatour” arena tour, during which the Wall Street Journal christened GHOST “the next generation of arena stars.”
The 2022 American Music Awards is taking place today (Sunday, November 20) at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, California.
“Impera” sold 70,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in its first week of release to land at position No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart. It marked the third top 10 album — and fifth top 40-charting set — for the Swedish act.
“Impera” landed at position No. 1 in Germany and Sweden, No. 2 in the U.K., Netherlands, Belgium and Norway, No. 3 in Australia, No. 5 in France and Ireland, and No. 20 in Italy.
Six of GHOST‘s albums have charted on the Billboard 200: “Infestissumam” (No. 28, 2013); “If You Have Ghost” EP (No. 87, 2013); “Meliora” (No. 8, 2015); “Popestar” EP (No. 16, 2016); “Prequelle” (No. 3, 2018); and “Impera” (No. 2, 2022). Nine GHOST songs have charted on the Mainstream Rock Airplay chart, with five reaching No. 1: “Square Hammer” in 2017; “Rats” in 2018; “Dance Macabre” in 2019; and “Hunter’s Moon” and “Call Me Little Sunshine” in 2022.
According to a press release, “Impera” “finds GHOST transported literally hundreds of years forward from the 14th century Europe Black Plague era” of its previous album, 2018’s “Prequelle”. “The result is the most ambitious and lyrically incisive entry in the GHOST canon: Over the course of ‘Impera”s 12-song cycle, empires rise and fall, would-be messiahs ply their hype (financial and spiritual alike), prophecies are foretold as the skies fill with celestial bodies divine and man-made… All in all, the most current and topical GHOST subject matter to date is set against a hypnotic and darkly colorful melodic backdrop making ‘Impera’ a listen like no other — yet unmistakably, quintessentially GHOST.”
“Impera” track listing:
01. Imperium
02. Kaisarion
03. Spillways
04. Call Me Little Sunshine
05. Hunter’s Moon
06. Watcher In The Sky
07. Dominion
08. Twenties
09. Darkness At The Heart Of My Love
10. Griftwood
11. Bite Of Passage
12. Respite On The Spital Fields
“Hunter’s Moon”, which was originally released in September, is also featured in the latest blockbuster installment of the legendary film franchise “Halloween Kills”. The “Halloween Kills” soundtrack arrived on October 15 via Sacred Bones, with the film hitting theaters (and Peacock) the same day as well.
Watch the previously released singles “Spillways”, “Twenties”, “Hunter’s Moon” and “Call Me Little Sunshine” below.
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