Swedish Hard Rock Metal Ghost perform a ritual to their Ghouls with Scotland the Brave
OVO HYDRO GLASGOW – 13th April 2022
Words & Photography: Martin Bone
GRAMMY-winning Swedish theatrical rock outfit GHOST are back having last appeared at the Hydro in Glasgow in November 2019. their long-awaited return to Glasgow will be their first UK tour in three years with the release of their new album Impera reaching No 2 earlier this year.
Ghost kicked off a co-headlining 26-date U.S. arena tour with Volbeat on January 25th, before arriving in the UK & Europe this April & May, compelled to take their dark extravaganza to arenas everywhere. Branded the ‘IMPERATOUR,’ support across all UK & European shows will be provided by Uncle Acid & The Dead Beats and Twin Temple.
The fans are also known as Ghouls flocked in their numbers to watch Papa Emeritus IV, making his UK debut along with his Nameless Ghouls (and Ghoulettes!) joining the clergy Tobias Forge obscured his identity behind the character “Papa Emeritus”. The character, The Papa Emeritus Character has gone through five incarnations – I, II, III, Nihil, and IV. From the release of the 2018 album Prequelle and subsequent world tour, Forge portrayed a character known as “Cardinal Copia”, who is described as being unrelated to any of the Papa Emeritus characters and whose costume consists of either Cardinal vestments or a black or white tuxedo alongside a prosthetic mask with black eye makeup and the multi-colored eyes which had been present in each Papa character.
It was in March 2020, at the final show of A Pale Tour Named Death, Forge once again assumed the mantle of Papa Emeritus. Papa Emeritus IV, making his UK debut on this tour. Supporting bands for Ghost in Glasgow were Twin Temple and Acid and the Deadbeats.
There was a smell of incense within the arena, darkness allowing for a great atmosphere and giving you the feeling you had entered a church rather than a full capacity music venue in Glasgow.
Ghost is easily recognisable owing greatly to its eccentric on-stage presence. Seven of the group’s eight members, it’s Nameless Ghouls, Ghoulettes in virtually identical, face-concealing costumes. On this tour, they have a steam-punk style of headgear.
The Ghouls (fans ) were also dressed in their costumes, and face painted and having raised arms outreached in the air waving metal devil hands gestures, give out almighty cheers, As the Kabuki curtain erected around the entire stage shows a silhouette of a Nameless Ghoul start with the guitar riff for the first song ‘Kaisarion‘ begins, the curtain drops and the band then stepping forward to the front of the crowd, Papa Emeritus following behind. Papa shouted every so often as moved around the stage, with a backdrop of old and new Papa’s and now and then going behind the set and then saying aloud ‘GLASGOW’, SCOTLAND, to the delight of the crowd.
Ghost performed with the following setlist:-Kaisarion‘ , ‘Rats’ , ‘ From the Pinnacle to the Pit’, ‘Mary on a Cross’, ‘Devil Church‘,(with guitar duel ) with a battle between the guitarists with ‘Scotland The Brave’ winning the dual following on with, ‘Cirice’ , ‘Hunter’s Moon’, ‘Faith’, ‘Spillways’ , ‘Ritual’, ‘Call Me’ ‘Little Sunshine ‘(abriged), ‘Year Zero’, ‘Spöksonat ‘, ‘He Is’ , ‘Miasma’, ‘Mummy Dust’, ‘Kiss the Go-Goat’. Encore: ‘Enter Sandman‘ (Metallica cover) ,’Dance Macabre’ ,’Square Hammer‘, ‘Sorrow in the Wind’ (Emmylou Harris song).
One of the most spectacular performances seen to date a joy to watch and listen to and the band going from strength to strength and looking forward to the future for their next chapter in their journey.
The Tour continues as follows
APRIL
Fri 15 Birmingham, RWA Arena, UK
Sun 17 Rotterdam, RTM Stage Ahoy, HOLLAND
Mon 18 Paris, Accor Arena, FRANCE
Tue 19 Cologne, Lanxess Arena, GERMANY
Thu 21 Leipzig Quarterback Immobillen Arena, GERMANY
Fri 22 Frankfurt, Festhalle, GERMANY
Sun 24 Prague, Arena, CZECH REPUBLIC
Wed 27 Tampere, Nokia Arena, FINLAND
Fri 29 Stockhom, Avicii Arena, SWEDEN
Sat 30 NOR, Oslo, Spektrum, NORWAY
MAY
Sun 1 Malmo, Malmo Arena, SWEDEN
Tue 3 Brussels, Forest, BELGIUM
Thurs 5 Milan, Mediolanum Forum, ITALY
Sat 7 Barcelona, Olympic Arena Badalona, SPAIN
Sun 8 Madrid, Vistalegre Arena, SPAIN
Wed 11 Vienna, Stadthalle, AUSTRIA
Fri 13 Zurich, Hallenstadion, SWITZERLAND
Sun 15 Hannover ZAG Arena, GERMANY
Mon 16 Munich, Olympiahalle, GERMANY
Wed 18 Budapest, Arena, HUNGARY
Tickets are available now, for more information visit www.ghost-official.com
GHOST IMPERA NEW ALBUM WAS RELEASED ON MARCH 11TH ON LOMA VISTA RECORDINGS – Order / Stream the album Now
IMPERA finds Ghost transported hundreds of years forward from the 14th century Europe Black Plague era of its previous album, 2018’s Best Rock Album GRAMMY nominee Prequelle. The result is the most ambitious and lyrically incisive entry in the Ghost canon: Over the course of IMPERA’s 12-song cycle, empires rise and fall, would-be messiahs ply their hype (financial and spiritual alike), and prophecies are foretold as the skies fill with celestial bodies divine and man-made… All in all, the most current and topical Ghost subject matter to date is set against a hypnotic and darkly colorful melodic backdrop making IMPERA a listen like no other — yet unmistakably, quintessentially Ghost.
Produced by Klas Åhlund and mixed by Andy Wallace, IMPERA consists of the following 12 songs:
Imperium
Kaisarion
Spillways
Call Me Little Sunshine
Hunter’s Moon
Watcher In The Sky
Dominion
Twenties
Darkness At The Heart Of My Love
Grift Wood
Bite Of Passage
Respite On The Spital Fields
