‘Blasphemous’: how metal band Ghost became the acceptable face of Satanism

Tobias Forge wants you to know that “Death metal has always been a very humanistic thing. When we’re talking about darkness, death, despair, it’s to express our discontent at the world. It’s our way to explain how s___ things are”. The 41-year-old mastermind behind Ghost has spent the last 12 years taking influences from the murky underground worlds of black metal and mixing it with radio friendly pop. The result is something that’s as much ABBA as it is Cradle Of Filth.

They’ve been touted as future Download Festival headliners, have supported Foo Fighters, Metallica and Iron Maiden in stadiums around the world and they’ll be supporting the release of fifth album Impera with a European arena headline tour of their own. Almost three million people listen to them every month on Spotify, with the band appealing to lifelong punks and metalheads while also acting as a glam introduction to the world of heavy music. In a scene full of legacy acts, Ghost are the sound of the future.

For the first half of their career though, no one even knew who was in Ghost. On stage the band were led by demonic anti-Pope character Papa Emeritus or one of his successors (one for every album) while the band was made up of a gaggle of “nameless ghouls” who also handled interviews. It was even rumoured that Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl was an occasional member of the gang.

Then in 2017 those nameless ghouls filed a lawsuit over unpaid profits, revealing Tobias Forge’s identity as the man in charge. The case was dismissed and fortunately, Forge took his unmasking in his stride. “I’ve read every classic rock biography of every band I’m a fan of [and] the same s___ takes place in every single one,” he said at the time.

Then, as if to prove there was more to the band than mystery, he wrote 2018’s brilliant, synth-driven Prequelle: a record of survival set in the mediaeval plague era. It went on to elevate the band even further and was nominated for the Best Rock Album at the 61st Grammys (their second Grammy award after winning Best Metal Performance in 2016).

“I am as much of an exhibitionist as anyone else who has ever put on a guitar and walked onstage but I like the idea of being able to step in and out of my celebrity,” says Forge, explaining the reason for Papa Emeritus. “If Bono comes to dinner, you’d expect a long spiel about Greenpeace. I don’t have to be that person, but I still get to play a rock star.”

Stadiums, award ceremonies and talk of stardom are a world away from where Forge started his musical career. Aged 15, he joined his first DIY punk band and spent the next few years experimenting with death metal and alternative rock in a variety of underground bands. “There’s a natural limiter on how successful you can become, playing extreme metal,” Forge tells me over Zoom, a day off from a US co-headline tour with Danish rock band Volbeat.

He formed Ghost in 2006 as a way to combine traditional rock (he’d grown up idolising The Doors, The Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd) his love of theatre (The Phantom Of The Opera and Cats have both been hugely influential, with Forge calling Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musicals “mind-blowing”) and the horror and darkness of death metal. The result is something flamboyant, dramatic and, he adds, “with a lot more visual elements than your average grunge band.”

“Without the music, we wouldn’t have gotten anywhere,” says Forge. “I know a lot of bands that look cool, but suck.” Ghost released spooky debut single Elizabeth in 2010 without any press photos “to let the music do the talking” and signed a deal soon after. Debut album Opus Eponymous followed later that year. While most other occult rock bands were happy to “stay on the carpet, as we say in Sweden” Forge wanted more. “My background might be in underground punk but I never wanted to limit us.”

Blending rock, prog and metal with Eurodisco and 1980s pop, as well as taking influence from the gothic worlds of Tim Burton’s Batman and Bram Stoker’s Dracula, new album Impera is about the self-destruction of society. Played out against the backdrop of Victorian England, it’s another leap forward for Forge – even if society appeared to be crumbling as he created it. “When I was writing Prequelle” says Forge, “the world was in a relatively stable place but I wasn’t in a good place mentally. For Impera, I was in a way better place but the world was in complete disarray.”

The album also sees the band engage with life more directly, a change in direction from Ghost’s early albums dealing in fantasy and escapism. Sure, the stories told on driving metal anthem Twenties (a rebellious call to arms against the disparity between social classes) and the wailing Driftwood (about religious hypocrisy) are set over a hundred years ago but their messages are relevant today.

Epic closing track Respite On The Spitalfields talks about the fear Jack The Ripper stirred in Victorian England, and how the fact he was never caught meant women were afraid to walk the streets of London after dark. Sound familiar? Throughout Impera Forge sings about the abuse of power.

“That abuse of power is the central mechanism that corrodes, but also builds societies,” Forge says. “We like to think we’re so enlightened in this modern world but right now, people believe in taking away other people’s rights, rather than the opposite. It’s all to do with control and money. Politicians are pro-life not because of their religious beliefs, but because if you have a baby, you’re going to stay in one place and buy s___ like a good little capitalist.”

That said, Impera is an optimistic record, all pomp and empowerment. From the wailing guitar riffs of opening track Kaiserion to the thundering reassurance of the anthemic Call Me Little Sunshine, Ghost’s fifth album is a constantly surprising, consistently brilliant listen that’ll appeal to both the mosh pit, and the theatre stalls.

“I believe in karma,” says Forge. “I believe that the bad empires, the ones that are actively trying to destroy the world, will fail. Especially if they’re based on some crazy person who is trying to go against the will of the people,” he adds, weeks before Putin mobilised.

Forge explains that “pop culture has always been a symbol for freedom”. MeToo and the Black Lives Matter movements were driven by protest songs and lyrics were often the source of snappy slogans painted on banners. Even the Ukrainian resistance to the Russian invasion has taken on Twisted Sister’s 1984 hit We're Not Gonna Take It as one of their unofficial anthems.

“The reason we don’t tour certain places of the world is that they would refuse us, because of what we sing about,” says Forge. Ghost has never played a show in China, and has also faced issues in America. Their second album Infestissumam was delayed because four different US manufacturers refused to print its “blasphemous” artwork – a 16th-century depiction of an orgy – while in 2018 a horrified Texan pastor led a protest outside their “devil-worshipping” show.

But Forge does not worship the devil, and has said that his views are more aligned with modern-day Satanism, which is centred around atheism, scientific scepticism and a passion for wildlife and nature. “I believe in pop culture, in freedom and in being kind. I believe in people having fun, and that they have the right to put their genitals into whomever consents. I believe that love is stronger than hate,” he says.

Backed by an eight-piece band, Forge will launch Impera with an arena tour of the UK and Europe. It’s set to be Ghost’s most ambitious run of shows yet – and that’s saying something. “Everything is about the live show. That’s where you’re making memories with people. I compare a lot of what we do, with what I’ve experienced as a fan of other bands. “

However, according to Forge, “everything we ever do is always a lesser version of what I intended it to be.” He’s been sketching out stage shows and plans for world domination since before Ghost had even released a song. “We’re still working off that to-do list.”

“From the outside, it might look like our success has happened overnight but it’s taken us years to get to where we are today,” Forge continues. “Compared to AC/DC though, we still feel like a new band. We’ve got plenty of improvements to make before it’s time to throw in the towel.”

Impera is out now; Ghost's arena tour begins on April 9 in Manchester