After simultaneously elevating and skewering the black metal scene with their riveting yet almost cartoonishly evil 2013 major-label debut,
Infestissumam, Ghost B.C. (the B.C. is silent everywhere else but the United States) turned their greasepaint and pontiff hat-adorned heads to less Lovecraftian fare with If You Have Ghost, a five-track EP that should lay to rest any notion that the Swedish occult rockers are goat blood-drinking
Burzum disciples. Consisting of one live cut ("Secular Haze") and four
Dave Grohl-produced covers, a fittingly opulent goth pop take on
Roky Erickson's "If You Have Ghosts," a surprisingly robust and muscular rendition of
ABBA's "I'm a Marionette," a forgettable electro-industrial reading of
Army of Lovers' "Crucified," and an even less effective, flat, and forcibly forlorn rendering of
Depeche Mode's "Waiting for the Night," it's a serviceable bit of self-generated fan fiction that's as slight as it is artistically obstinate. [If You Have Ghost was also released on LP.] ~ James Christopher Monger