Scott's Spotlight #27-- Ghost

May 20, 2025

Scott's Spotlight #27-- Ghost

Originally posted to Facebook on April 3, 2025

Link to post:

https://www.facebook.com/share/18a9iDqJvW/

Welcome to Scott’s Spotlight (#scottsspotlight) issue #27. For more information about this series, please click here:

https://www.facebook.com/share/Gc2VkwHQWGLdeaDd/?mibextid=oFDknk

Well, this is going to be different, yet we are still in Scandinavia (lol). So, first of all, I admit that I am a bit late to the party on this one. In the spotlight this week is “Ghost.” This is not your typical rock band. Ghost is more of a stage show that is ever-changing, yet the same. Confused? I am a bit too, but I’ll try to unravel things as I proceed. When I decided to cover this “band”, I had no idea what I was getting into; that there is a whole cast of characters along the way–but I’ll get to that.

So, how did I come to start listening to Ghost? My lovely bride, Allison Rich, discovered them a few months back when some YouTube videos started popping up alongside some of the other bands she likes to listen to. Now, we had both been vaguely aware of Ghost for a few years but assumed (wrongly) that they were a death metal band or something similar based on their look and imagery. It turns out, however, that their music is often closer to 80s hard rock/”commercial” metal. The music is very melodic with a polished production.The more we listened and watched videos, the more we were intrigued, so I decided I would do this spotlight to find out more. As I mentioned earlier, boy is there more!

Ghost’s origin rests solely on the shoulders of Swedish musician Tobias Forge. In 2006, he came up with the riff that would become the song “Stand by Him.” He described it as “the most metal riff that ever existed,” (Tony Iommi might say “hold my beer” to that one, but anyway…), and that “it seemed to cry out for a Satanically-oriented lyric.” He reached out to his former bandmate Gustaf Lindström from the band Repugnant, to help him flesh out the song. By 2008, they had a couple of additional songs ready and recorded a 3-song demo. After listening to the recordings, Forge said “This definitely does not sound like two dudes that look like you and I". He decided that they should be an anonymous “Theater Band” and use their love of horror films and “the traditions of Scandinavian metal” as the foundation. Forge would perform in a character (initially “Papa Emeritus,” but that will evolve) and the band would be “Nameless Ghouls.” The Nameless Ghouls would be costumed to reflect the 5 traditional magical elements– Earth, Air, Fire, Water and Aether. It should be noted, however, that Forge initially offered the lead singer role to several other vocalists, who all turned him down, and thus became the lead vocalist by default. Tobias posted the songs on MySpace on March 12 of 2010, and within 2 days several record companies and management agencies contacted him to work with the band.

Let me take a moment here to talk about “Satanism” as it applies to Ghost. Tobias Forge and company are not LITERALLY “Satanists” who pray and make offerings to Satan or Lucifer or any other such dark entity. The image is more of a satire of the Catholic church and, even moreso, a metaphor for humanity and the atrocities we can bestow upon ourselves in the name of religion. Additionally, Forge says that it's an homage to 80s shock-rockers like Motley Crue and Twisted Sister and (Going back further) KISS. I can also see Alice Cooper, Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie, etc. So take it all with a grain–or even a pillar– of salt; it’s just entertainment and expression. Of course, the so-called “religious right” in the US detests them, so there’s that…

OK, back to the music!

In 2010, they signed with the independent label “Rise Above Records” and released their first single “Elizabeth” in June of that year, followed in October by their first full album titled “Opus Eponymous”. The album included the songs on the first demo (“Stand By Him’ “Death Knell” and “Prime Mover”) along with instrumental opening and closing tracks (which are slightly proggy) and the single “Elizabeth”. The album was an immediate success, appearing on the Swedish music charts and winning a “Grammi” award (the Swedish equivalent of the Grammys) the following year. The first Ghost concert was at the Hammer of Doom festival in Würzburg, Germany just days after the album was released. By 2011, they were opening for gothic metal band Paradise Lost, and would play many festivals. One of those, The Download Festival in the UK, singer Phil Anselmo (formerly of Pantera, then in a band called Down) wore a Ghost T-Shirt onstage during his set and invited 3 Ghost band members on stage with him to play one of Down’s songs. Later they would perform alongside Trivium, In Flames and other bands on the Defenders of the Faith III tour. They first toured the US on the “13 Dates of Doom” tour in January and February of 2012. Later that year they would tour with prog metal bands Opeth and Mastodon on the Heritage Hunter Tour in North America. In June of 2012 they were awarded as the “Breakout Band” by the UK magazine “Metal Hammer,” at their annual “Golden Gods Awards”.

In 2012, it appeared that Ghost had outgrown the independent label Rise Above, and signed with Loma Vista Recordings in association with Republic Records a division of the massive Universal Music Group (UMG). The first album under the deal was produced by Foo Fighters producer Nick Raskulinecz (who has also produced Rush on “Snakes and Arrows” and “Clockwork Angels” along with several other artists). They chose him to produce, because: "He’s good at working with a band without transforming the band into something else, rather than make them just flower as the band they are ... It turned out he didn’t want to change much at all, and that’s why he got the job." The album, titled “Infestissumam” was released in April 2013. For (unspecified) “legal reasons”, the album was released under the name “Ghost B.C.” According to one of the Nameless Ghouls, "B.C. is obviously a pun on 'Before Christ', but it's just an amendment. In our world, we're just gonna be called Ghost ... The B.C. is silent, and as soon as we can, it's gonna be taken away forever." The US release was delayed because they couldn’t find a company in the US who would print the CD label for the second disc in the deluxe edition of the album, as it was described as being “basically a 16th century illustration of an orgy.” They decided to use the standard disc’s label on both CDs in the US, while the other label appeared on European releases and on the US vinyl releases (apparently the vinyl manufacturers in the US didn’t have an issue printing the label, only CD makers). Also, as the album was recorded in Nashville, where Raskulinecz is based, they couldn’t find a choir willing to record the “satanic” lyrics for the album, and had to record those parts in Hollywood, where “people have no problem worshipping the Devil”. Notable tracks on the album include “Secular Haze” and “Year Zero”. To support the album, Ghost toured as headliners in North America, and the tour included the famous Coachella and Lollapalooza festivals. They would tour South America, opening for Iron Maiden and Slayer, including the 2013 Rock in Rio festival. They would open for Avenged Sevenfold and Deftones back in North America, and with Alice in Chains in the UK. The album would win various awards and honors. In November 2013, they released an EP of mostly cover songs (including ABBA’s “I’m a Marionette”) called “If You Have Ghost” produced by Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters (Grohl is rumored to have appeared live with Ghost on occasion as a Nameless Ghoul). In 2014, they continued to tour and play festivals, including a tour of Australia. During that touring cycle, Forge’s character of Papa Emeritus I was “fired” and Papa Emeritus II took over. (Papa in this sense is an Anti-Pope-like character.)

The third Ghost album would emerge in 2015, and as before, Papa Emeritus II was “fired”, and (you guessed it) Papa Emeritus III became the singer. Interestingly, they chose a “pop” producer/songwriter who is better known for working with the likes of Katy Perry, Kesha and Britney Spears to produce the album titled “Meliora” named Klas Åhlund. Because of the difficulties in finding choirs to sing on the previous album, they decided to acquire a Mellotron (and the proggers just got interested) to create choir sounds. I am listening to a track called “Spirit” from the album now and I have to say, I enjoy the mellotron on it. The lead single “Cirice” won a (US) Grammy in 2016 for “Best Metal Performance” The song “He Is” was also very successful. In September of 2016, they would release another EP, titled “Popestar” containing mostly cover songs and one original song called “Square Hammer,” and including a cover of Eurythmics “Missionary Man”. During the final performance of the “Popestar” tour on September 30, 2017, “Papa Emeritus III” was dragged offstage, and was soon replaced by “Papa Emeritus Zero” (later known as “Papa Nihil”). Later in December of that year, their first live album, called “Ceremony and Devotion” was released.

In 2017, four no-longer-Nameless Ghouls (Simon Söderberg, Mauro Rubino, Martin Hjertstedt, and Henrik Palm) who left in 2016, sued Forge (whose identity had not been publicly known until then) for royalties and live performance payments. However, the Swedish court that heard the case dismissed the charges after a 6 day trial, and ordered the plaintiffs to pay $146,000 to Forge in legal fees. For his part, Forge stated that, although it was not initially intended to be such, that Ghost was essentially a solo project of his, for which he pays “musicians-for-hire” to record and perform with him.

In 2018, They released a new single, titled “Rats”. In the video for the song, Papa Emeritus Zero, became “Papa Nihil” and played saxophone. The “new” lead vocalist was known as “Cardinal Copia” who is not considered to be part of the “Papa Emeritus” lineage. As Forge would explain:

"That's why we have a new guy," Forge explains. "The Cardinal is not the boss. He's just the toastmaster. A cardinal is junior to a pope figure. We still have Papa Emeritus [Zero, a.k.a. Papa Nihil] but he's passing on. He needs to teach the Cardinal to become a pope, to earn his skull paint."

A second single called “Dance Macabre” would also be released ahead of the album, which was titled “Prequelle”, and released on June 1. “Dance Macabre” is funny to me, as they consistently pronounce “be with you” as “be wit chu” like Lita Ford did on “Kiss Me Deadly” back in the 80s. I just found out that is a pun on “Bewitch” you, so that changes it from funny to kind of cool. They would do a short US tour, before going to Oslo, Norway to open for Guns’n’Roses. Ghost would tour the UK, then North America in 2018 as headliners. But then in 2019, they would open for Metallica. In September of 2019, Ghost released the EP/Single titled “Seven Inches of Satanic Panic,” which includes one of the most famous songs “Mary on a Cross” (which would later be certified platinum, with help from Tik-Tok-ers frequently using the song in videos). By the end of 2019, they would announce that- with the exception of one show in Mexico City in March of 2020, they would take the year off from touring (did they have some premonitions of what would happen in 2020?). The plan was to spend the year making the next album and release it in 2021, before going back on the road. In that final show of the “Prequelle” touring cycle in Mexico City, Cardinal Copia was Replaced with Papa Emeritus IV at the end of the show.

After many delays, both due to the Pandemic and wanting to wait until the end of the 2020 presidential election in the US, the next album was released in 2022, called “Imperia”. It is based on the theme of empires rising and falling. Before the album was released, they did a version of “Enter Sandman” as a single for Metallica’s “Blacklist” project, released on Sept. 10. 2021. Then on Sept. 30, the lead off single for “Imperia” was released– “Hunter’s Moon,” a different version of which was a part of the soundtrack for the slasher movie called “Halloween Kills.” In January of 2022, the second single from the album was released, called “Call Me Little Sunshine.” A third single called “Twenties” on March 2, just days before the album was released on March 11. It is the 4th single, “Spillways,” that seems to be the most popular after it was dropped in June of 2022. Another version of the song was released the following January, with Ghost fan Joe Elliot of Def Leppard singing. As had become a tradition, they released an EP of covers in May 2023 called “Phantomime” which contains amazing versions of Genesis’ “Jesus He Knows Me,” which Forge said was more relevant now than when it was first released in the early 90s, Iron Maiden’s “Phantom of the Opera, and Tina Turner’s “We Don’t Need Another Hero (Thunderdome)” . Apparently, a demo for a cover of Rush’s “Distant Early Warning,” was made but not finished for inclusion on this release. Also around this time, two compilations of earlier songs were released: “A Message From the Clergy,” in 2022, and “13 Commandments" in 2023.

On June 20, 2024, Ghost released a film called “Rite Here, Rite Now” which featured Papa Emeritus IV in the trailer.

At the time of this writing, the lead off single for the upcoming album has recently been released in February 2025. The album, called “Skeletá” is set to be released later this month (April 25, 2025). It has been revealed that Papa V Perpetua will be the new “frontman.” It also seems that there are numerous other characters in the world of Ghost. The article linked here will tell you more about them:

https://www.loudersound.com/features/the-ghost-family-tree

Many of the characters appear in a series of videos called “Chapters” on the official website of the band. I have watched only the first two, and they give a narrative of the band’s “mythology.” They are not to be taken too seriously, however.

https://ghost-official.com/#chapters

I hope that you have enjoyed this dive into the wonderfully weird world of Ghost. I believe they offer a twist on the typical rock band experience while honoring their influences and inspirations. If you like shock-rock in the tradition of Alice Cooper, KISS, Rob Zombie, etc, or theatrical 80s bands like Motley Crue and Twisted Sister, with a satirical message about religion and humanity, while still being highly entertaining, check them out in the Links for Listening.

Thanks for reading, and if you enjoy my content, please react, comment and share it with anyone you think might enjoy it!

I often say “Prog On!” here, but today I’ll just say “Rock On!”

Links for Listening:

From “Opus Eponymous”

“Stand By Him”

https://youtu.be/J9xFIU87b-o

“Genesis”

https://youtu.be/T7QBpRmGR4Q

From “Infestissumam”

“Secular Haze”

https://youtu.be/TN2GCjPh0Hw

“Year Zero”