In a new interview with Pablo of the Minneapolis, Minnesota radio station 93X, GHOST mastermind Tobias Forge discussed his theatrical and occasionally comedic stage presence, including his tendency to address the audience with a fake Italian accent. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I believe that part of my drive to entertain comes from… When I grew up, I had a 13-year older brother, and he had his group of friends, and there were people around. Often when he was home, he had friends and they had girlfriends and it was just an overall very teenagey vibe when I was little. And I remember feeling a great gratitude or great satisfaction when I got their attention. And when I got them laughing, when I said something funny, that was amazing. And I think that that’s the basic of, why do you want to entertain people? I guess it’s because you get recognized and you [become] center of attention, I guess.”
He continued: “I think a lot of people, especially… obviously, I’m not a comedian, professionally at least, but like comedians, I think that there’s this drive to constantly move everything forward. It becomes a little bit of a spasm that becomes a little bit of an obsession that you wanna constantly keep the vibe going. Sometimes you have other people there who can joke and everything becomes just a laugh fest. And sometimes someone is funny to the point where you need to outsmart that person. Or sometimes you can just enjoy someone being funnier than you. But it’s a constant mission to push energy forward and make people laugh and have fun and [keep] the momentum joyous all the time.”
GHOST‘s new album, “Skeletá”, will arrive on April 25 via Loma Vista Recordings. The LP’s first single, “Satanized”, was made available earlier in the month.
The “Satanized” music video introduces the new character who will be fronting GHOST for its 2025 touring cycle: Papa V Perpetua.
GHOST‘s sixth psalm, “Skeletá”, is its most unflinchingly introspective work to date. Where previous GHOST albums dealt largely with chronicling and/or observing outward facing subject matter — such as “Impera”‘s meditations on the rise and fall of empires and its predecessor “Prequelle”‘s evocations of the ravages of era-defining plagues — “Skeletᔑs lyrics render the distinct individual emotional vistas of each of its 10 songs in one-on-one fashion, at times as if in a dialogue with oneself in a mirror. The end result is a singular collection of timeless, universal sentiments, all filtered through a prism of a uniquely personal point of view.
GHOST has also launched an interactive element dubbed The Satanizer, a first-of-its-kind music video experience for fans who wish to be “Satanized.” Developed in partnership with Jason Zada (Elf Yourself),The Satanizer will morph its users into characters featured in the song’s melodramatic video. With a quick upload of your photo, The Satanizer will send out a personalized music video clip featuring the participant, who can in turn share via social media that they too have been “Satanized.”
Forge performed as a “new” Papa Emeritus on each of the band’s first three LPs, with each version of Papa replacing the one that came before it. Papa Emeritus III was retired in favor of Cardinal Copia before the release of 2018’s “Prequelle”. In March 2020, at final show of GHOST‘s “Prequelle” tour in Mexico City, Mexico, the band officially introduced Papa Emeritus IV, the character who fronted the act for its “Impera” (2022) album phase.
As previously reported, GHOST will embark on a world tour in 2025. The European leg of the trek will kick off on April 15 in Manchester, United Kingdom and conclude on May 24 in Oslo, Norway. The North American leg of GHOST‘s 2025 tour will launch on July 9 in Baltimore, Maryland and wrap up on August 16 in Houston, Texas.
The physical home video of GHOST‘s worldwide Top 10 box office smash feature film debut “Rite Here Rite Now” was made available on December 6, 2024.
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