Ghost is the name of a devil worshipping ministry, that in order to spread its unholy gospels and, furthermore, trick mankind into believing the end is ultimately a good thing, have decided to use the ever so popular rock music medium as a way to achieve their ends.
Touring in support of Meliora, the band’s third studio album, the follow up to Infestissumam, GHOST recently won a 2016 Grammy for Best Metal Performance for Cirice. Ghost records and performs pop hymns that glorify and glamorize the disgusting and sacrilegious.
Ghost is easily recognizable because of its eccentric on-stage presence. Five of the group’s six members wear virtually identical, face-concealing costumes.
The most distinguishable member is the vocalist, who wears a prosthetic face with skull face paint, appearing as what can be described as a “demonic anti-Pope”. Each album cycle has brought about a change in the band’s appearance. The vocalist is always portrayed as the same archetype character, but has slight appearance changes and even personality traits are altered from former versions. The band members’ true identities are kept anonymous, as their actual names have not been publicly disclosed. The vocalist calls himself Papa Emeritus, and the musicians are referred to only as Nameless Ghouls.
Ghost’s Satanic theme has proven problematic for the group, especially in the United States. While recording Infestissumam inNashville, Tennessee, they were unable to find choral singers who would sing their lyrics, forcing them to record the parts in Hollywood. The group was unable to find a record manufacturer in the US to press the album because it featured artwork showing nudity, which resulted in a delay to the album’s release. When one interviewer suggested that the band’s music had become more “radio-friendly” and that they were being accepted into the US mainstream, a Nameless Ghoul replied that in the US their music was banned from major chain stores, most late-night television shows, and most commercial radio stations. He said, “So, yes, mainstream America is absolutely welcoming us with open legs.” During an interview with Loudwire in October 2015, a band member stated that as of 2015, the US had become more accepting of their music and imagery, further evidenced by their appearance as the main musical guests on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on October 30, 2015, during a Halloween themed episode. This was Ghost’s first live television appearance in the United States.
Standing motionless and anonymous beneath the painted faces, hoods and robes which their sect demand, the six nameless ghouls of Ghost deliver litanies of sexually pulsating heavy rock music and romantic lyrics, which glorify and glamorise the disgusting and sacrilegious, with the simple intention to communicate a message of pure evil via the most effective device they can find: Entertainment. This is Black Metal at it’s most original and deceiving; compositions such as “Ritual” and “Death Knell” majestically weave their melodic spell of evil through the senses until the listener finds themselves utterly possessed and open to any diabolical suggestion.
In May 2010 Ghost were contracted to a UK based gramophone company called Rise Above Ltd, who swore an oath stating that they will assist the group in the task of spreading their musical blasphemies through formats such as Compact Discs, Long Playing Vinyl Records and Digital Downloading.
The first full-length Ghost album ‘Opus Eponymous’, a daringly beautiful combination of satanic rock music with an almost unthinkable pop sensibility, is to be released on 18th October 2010. It is understood and agreed that Rise Above Ltd will invest heavily in areas such as magazine advertising and retail marketing and employ the services of music publicity specialists in order to expose the music of Ghost to the wider public. Specific attention will be paid to targeting people (research suggests these are most likely to be adolescents) who have a void in their life, perhaps caused by some form of emotional trauma or upset, that can be filled by the music and philosophies of Ghost. In time, these easily manipulated children will come to share the views and goals of the Ghost ministry and can prepare their own plans for the downfall of humanity….
Catch Ghost on Northern Invasion.
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http://northerninvasion.com/tickets.html
