The sneering, catchy ’80s rock of “ Griftwood” was inspired by former Vice President Mike Pence and leaders who wield the Bible as a means to political power. “ Twenties” emerged as a frantic chronicle of greed and oppression, in the form of a “demagogue sect leader speaking down to his followers in utter contempt,” he says. He sketched out a melody for the album’s closer, a nearly seven-minute prog epic called “ Respite on the Spitalfields,” on the small electric piano in his daughter’s bedroom. Instead, Forge reunited with Swedish producer Klas Åhlund (Ghost’s collaborator on 2015’s “Meliora”), and he took his time composing new songs. was canceled as the coronavirus crisis dragged on. “Impera” was recorded last spring and summer, after the original plan to work with an American producer in the U.S. But artists like Mitski and Bruno Mars are asking fans to watch the show, not their phones. Music The great concert debate: Are cellphones ruining the live experience?īy now, it’s ubiquitous: the glow of cellphones held aloft at concerts. And that materialized in whatever music I was writing.” “But I always listened to a lot of other things. “In my adolescence, I was completely a death metal/black metal person in action and message,” he says. He’s not your typical high priest of metal. “We are, at the end of the day, an occult, pop, satanic sort of rock ’n’ roll band meant to entertain a group of people who are already down with that stuff.”Īny discussion with Forge quickly reveals him as a pop music obsessive, as he casually references Leonard Cohen, the Bangles and the primitive weirdness of the Shaggs. The music tends to be more engaging than depressed, despite the ominous religious imagery. “It is a routine topic - metalheads love to argue,” says Chichester with a laugh. As a result of that catchiness, Ghost has been controversial among certain extreme-metal tastemakers. later this year.įorge is able to find pop hooks even as he mines his own low expectations for mankind. The tour happened as scheduled, and Ghost will be back in the U.S. “The whole band had it at the same time, so we just had COVID rehearsals,” he says. Then the eight other touring members of the band tested positive, along with four crew members. The previous night’s concert in Orange County was the final stop of a co-headlining arena tour with the Danish band Volbeat designed as a prelude to the March 11 release of the band’s fifth album, “Impera.”ĭuring rehearsals ahead of the tour, Forge got “a very mild case” of the Omicron virus. He’s a thoughtful interview and quick with a joke, a family man with a wife and fraternal twins back in Stockholm. Offstage, Forge is less explosive, dressed in a treasured 1988 Candlemass tour T-shirt, his light auburn hair short and swept upward on top. Music After COVID and turmoil, a female-led indie label reemerges as a safe space for noisy womenįrom a rambling compound in Sunland-Tujunga, Cathy Pellow runs the heavy-rock label Sargent House, a haven for experimental musicians, many of whom are women.įorge, 41, is out of costume and sipping coffee at his West Hollywood hotel after a night of hard rock spectacle, with pyro eruptions and a big stage meant to convey threatening Gothic arches and stained glass.
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