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Feature

Ghost: "We've always got stick for not being heavy enough"

A lot has changed for Ghost since their last album, owing to the unmasking of their previously mysterious frontman, Tobias Forge. Their mission statement, however, is the same as ever - "I want it to be entertaining".

Published: 10:17 am, July 30, 2018 Words: Ali Shutler.

Tobias Forge has a short little shit list of people who aren't welcome to explore the world of Ghost. Since 2014's Grammy Award-winning ‘Meloria', the once nameless ghoul has been unmasked. Sure, it came via a lawsuit issued from people who used to play onstage with the band, rather than as part of the ever-growing tale that Ghost are writing, but really nothing much has changed. Ghost has always been about the suspension of disbelief. It's always been about playing make-believe. It's always been about exploring these masked worlds that reflect our own. It's always been for everyone. Their new album ‘Prequelle' takes that crack in the door and swings it wide open. Playful, pulsating and full of rainbow-bridged adventure, it's Ghost at their most welcoming. "There's been so much happening since the last record," Tobias admits, jetlagged and nursing a neck injury. "If I think about how things were when we left off in 2014, then yes that is a big gap. But I was surprised when we started this tour how little it took before it felt like I was home and back on track."



"If you want the film to just be a 90-minute shoot-out, you probably won't like this record" Tobias Forge

Ghost don't enjoy looking back. "I see the faults like, ‘Oh you thought that was good, you should have seen what the original plan was. It was so much cooler', but such is life." Instead, they're concerned with the now. Despite the success and the scale of what his band has already achieved, Tobias still had something to prove with their fourth album. "You always do. After the hard second record comes the hard third record. Then it's the crucial fourth record and the 'win or lose' fifth record. I don't know when you reach that plateau of untouchable. I don't think you ever do. I don't think I'd want to. "This band takes up so much time and is such a huge sacrifice for a lot of people, especially the ones very close to me, that sometimes you're exposed to the questions of, ‘When are you going to be done? When is this accomplished?' And I don't know. I don't think it ever will be done. You just try to do things as good as possible all the time. Sooner or later something will put a halt to it and hopefully, when it does, you've done it as well as you can."



That full-bodied commitment to doing things a certain way wails through ‘Prequelle'. The record, focused around the idea of annihilation, finds threads between The Black Death of the 1300's and today. The winking, grinning, rampage of ‘Rats' sings: "In times of turmoil, in times like these. Beliefs contagious, spreading disease," prods at today as much as it does The Middle Ages. "I was trying to shine light onto the idea that the turmoil of the black death is not something that was isolated just to death." There's also trauma in survival. "There are numerous extreme metal records that have touched on the subject of dark and evil times, specifically the plague, so I wanted this record to be about survival rather than annihilation. I haven't heard any records that are about that. I have plenty of records about the ordeal of death but not the survival aspect. The record is about perseverance. From a personal point of view, persevering is exactly what I've been doing for the last two years." Even on the cusp of the end of all things, which is where ‘Prequelle' finds itself teetering, there's defiance and resistance throughout. "I'd like to see myself as a fairly humorous person," Tobias offers, and so with Ghost, "I want it to be entertaining. I like a lot of different things but what I try to achieve writing a Ghost record is way more Pink Floyd than it is AC/DC, even though I am influenced by ‘Back in Black'."



"I'm not thinking about whether this band is heavy metal or not" Tobias Forge

He views it as cinema. "A good film isn't just a 90-minute car chase. If you want the film to just be a 90-minute shoot-out, you probably won't like this record. I want things to be very different; it's supposed to be a trip." Ghost records are put together like blockbusters. The songs are connected, the scenes have to flow. It has a beginning and an end. There are trial and redemption in every turn. "It's a lot of me throwing things back and forth for it all to fit. I knew that that the record was going to have a heavier, more close to home sort of sting, so it was also important to add a percentage of, I don't know if I dare to call it comic relief, but just moments to loosen it up a little." It's in the wonderous, beaming instrumental ‘Miasma' that the band smile with their whole face but across ‘Prequelle', there's a grin that can't be shifted.

