Critic Reviews

• All that conceptualising is fine and dandy, but Impera wins on bolshiness, bravado and skyscraping songs alone. Ghost have turned in a modern metal classic with an arena rock heart.

  Rating: 90/100
  Metal Hammer

• Impera is undoubtedly a huge step up from Prequelle if not one of Ghost's best collections period.

  Rating: 90/100
  Metal Injection

• Impera is GHOST’s most accessible album to date, treading the fine line between greatness and perfection.

  Rating: 90/100
  Distorted Sound

• Impera is the most unabashed exercise in exultant pop/rock sheen Ghost has issued to date; it establishes an exquisite front in their own quest for global rock domination.

  Rating: 90/100
  AllMusic

• The result is one of the most spectacular and hook-filled heavy(ish) metal albums in recent memory, so even without the looming sense that Satan is watching, GHOST are still impossible to resist.

  Rating: 80/100
  Blabbermouth.net

• Impera’s greatest achievement ... is one so obvious you wonder why Ghost haven’t been mining it for much longer: namely power ballads.

  Rating: 80/100
  Kerrang!

• For lovers of Ghost’s previous output, Impera is a must-have; for everyone else, this is an album so brimming with hubris, uncontrolled boldness, and sky-scraping anthems that it simply can’t be ignored.

  Rating: 80/100
  Metal Sucks

• Stark social commentary and a procession of left-field collaborators make for a truly delicious pop-rock proposition.

  Rating: 80/100
  NME

• His knack for smart riffs and melodies, not to mention his constant itch for experimentation, have rightly made Ghost a leader in mainstream rock, a positive development the genre has sorely lacked for years.

  Rating: 80/100
  PopMatters

• As shiny theatrical melody rock designed to look deceptively dangerous on teenage bedroom walls goes, Impera takes Ghost several more ferula shuffles in the direction of their very own American Idiot.

  Rating: 70/100
  Classic Rock

• It's bittersweet to see the campy Satanic days firmly behind the band, but any old-school fan should still be proud to see what the band has achieved, and it's clear that Impera is the album Ghost needed to take their career to the next level.

  Rating: 70/100
  Exclaim!