In a new interview with Liberty Dunworth of NME, GHOST mastermind Tobias Forge was asked if there is an “end sight” that he can think of or a milestone that he could hit and think, ‘Okay, I’ve done everything I wanted to do with GHOST,’ or if it will always be a continuous journey for him. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “There might be an end of the storytelling, because it’s just simply not productive to sort of have this endless soap opera. If fans need the lore in order to like the band, then that’ll probably be over quite soon. If there is a way where the music and everything I’ve created is enough and that is enjoyable, I think I am as needy as anybody other artist in the sense that —what do you call it? — like statistical milestones that you wanna achieve, or, in this case, of course there are places that I wanna play, venues, things you want, another feather in your hat of having done that. I am very lucky that I’ve been able to achieve many of those things. But, of course, there are levels of success that you still wanna achieve.”
Forge continued: “For the last decade or so, there’s been this ongoing chatter in the music business, and especially in the rock business, that, ‘Oh, there’s no new bands coming,’ like, ‘Rock will die, rock is dead. No new bands can become big.’ And we, as well as a few others, are living proof that that is not true. I’m not saying that you can become a new AC/DC. You cannot become a new METALLICA. But I think we are living proof that you still can do it. There are other bands around, very much more recent, like SLEEP TOKEN, who’s obviously — they’re succeeding, so, obviously, you can become a bigger band. And then RAMMSTEIN for a long, long time — they’ve been a household name for many, many years, but in the greater scheme of rock, where there are levels, they were ‘just’ an arena band for a very long time. They sold out arenas all over the place and they were very well known for their big show, but they were playing arenas. If they were playing outdoors, there would be a festival. And then all of a sudden they decided to do this stadium tour. And all of a sudden they went from 10, 15 thousand every night to 55 thousand three nights in a row. Where did all of those people come from?”
Tobias added: “If you just wanna talk sheer achievements, I would love to make that journey. That would be fantastic, simply because I’m very interested in stage production, and where I started with stage production, where my fascination really exploded into obsessive fandom was in the ’80s when I saw specifically ROLLING STONES. First I saw ‘Let’s Spend The Night Together’. That outdoor production, it was cool — it wasn’t elaborate. But when I was eight years old, they released ‘Steel Wheels’. I was a huge fan at the point, and they did a tour called the ‘Steel Wheels’ tour through America. If you guys think that RAMMSTEIN‘s stage was cool, ‘Steel Wheels’ tour, that’s the absolute, the biggest behemoth of industrial staging I’ve ever, ever, ever seen. And that’s basically where I sort of set the standard. That is the pinnacle. Being able to build this giant thing that people come, and it just takes over a city. And ever since I started going to shows and going to see big shows, bands like ROLLING STONES in the ’90s, and METALLICA and all those things that I was coming through, I’ve always been obsessed with the idea of being that traffic-diverting turmoil that comes in and disrupts a city the way that they did. When METALLICA played in Stockholm Stadium in 1993, the show wasn’t there. The show started — I mean, we’re talking blocks, we’re talking miles away, because all over town METALLICA fans were sort of coming on the subways and trains and buses, walking, and the closer you got, every every bar was playing METALLICA music. And it was a beautiful day.”
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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