The masks. The viral hits. The surprisingly sexy Papas. Ghost have achieved legendary status… but how? We flew to LA in search of answers from Tobias Forge himself
As the lights go up in Los Angeles’ Kia Forum, Papa Emeritus IV surveys the thousands of people in front of him and beams as widely as a man in a full-face mask can beam.
“Go home and fuck somebody!” says Ghost’s singer, his voice crackling with elation. “And if you can’t find somebody, go fuck yourself!”
This is the second of two consecutive nights the Swedish band have played in this 17,5000-capacity arena, bringing the US leg of their current Re-Imperatour tour to a close. Even by Ghost’s own standards, the Forum shows are outrageously entertaining: part joyously unholy communion, part retina-searing high-camp heavy metal revue, with Papa Emeritus as the snake-hipped MC. There are eight Nameless Ghouls up there with him, while the set is punctuated by various explosions, curtains of sparks, double-digit costume changes for Papa Emeritus and a cameo from a sax-playing Papa Nihil, the decrepit and quite possibly dead elder statesthing of the Ghost universe.
There have been surprises, too. There’s the smaller second stage at the far end of the arena where Papa and a strippeddown backing band perform an emotional version of If You Have Ghosts. And there’s the troupe of eight skeleton suit-clad dancers, unveiled for the first time at these two shows, who writhe and pirouette through Impera track Twenties – making its own high-kicking live debut at the Forum – and Dance Macabre from 2018’s Prequelle. On both nights, the dancers’ performance culminates with Papa being hoisted above their heads, like the strangest Strictly Come Dancing final ever.
Except anyone who isn’t here won’t have seen that, at least not yet. No filming is allowed at these shows. Fans are asked to place their mobile phones and smart watches in grey Yondr pouches that remain locked until the end of the gig. Warnings around the arena threaten that anyone caught surreptitiously filming or taking photos will be ejected.
Draconian? Sure. But there are two reasons for it. The first ties in with the sense that this chapter in Ghost’s career, which started with 2022’s blockbusting Impera album, is coming to an end, and with it Papa Emeritus IV’s time as the band’s frontman.
The second is no less exciting. Tonight’s gigs are reportedly being filmed, though for what is a mystery. It could be a video, it could be a concert film, it could be a full-fledged movie. No one is certain, and Tobias Forge – the man in the mask at the centre of it all – isn’t letting on.
t’s three days after the second and final Forum show when Hammer speaks to Tobias. He’s 25 minutes late to
