Ghost and Metal Elitists: Transcending Genres

Being a Ghost fan means getting to hear the most creative and out-there ways to describe a metal band, and I've definitely got favorites. "Putting the ABBA in Black Sabbath." "Ghost is like Scooby Doo chase music but metal." So on and so forth. Considering the variety of the band's sound over the years, I don't blame people for thinking Ghost doesn't fit the mold of "satanic metal."

 

Truthfully, that's the greatest thing about them. With Ghost songs, the average listener can easily tell that metal is the foundation of their songs, but beyond that? Anything goes.

Tobias Forge, the band's frontman, has never backed down from musical diversity. In an article by The Rolling Stone, Forge described "Stand by Him," from Ghost's first album Opus Eponymous, as "a song that combined old new wave with adult-orientated rock and occultism and a little bit of West End." In general, Forge's songwriting process tends to start with anything that appeals to him. In an interview with The Lounge, he said his writing "can start with basically anything, from a drumbeat or a rhythm to a vocal line to just a melody to a riff." One of my favorite examples of this sort of spontaneity and musical diversity comes from their IMPERA album, a song called "Twenties." This song describes the aggressiveness of empires, how they disguise destructive greed and hatred through promises of prosperity. Of course, a song with such an aggressive theme needs the perfect aggressive instrumental behind it. In an interview with Zane Lowe, Forge described how he happened to stumble upon a Swedish music program with a Brazilian rapper performing in a favela:

 

It was like one of the most musically aggressive things I've ever seen, and I mean, I come from death metal, black metal…which is obviously sort of thriving on the idea of being violent and dangerous and all that…Immediately when I heard that it was like - of course I had heard the [reggaeton] rhythm before - but it was like, 'that sounds like a fun way to write an aggressive song that I have never really heard.'

In The Creative Act, A Way of Being, Rick Rubin notes that these sorts of creative experiences can only happen when The Source (of creativity) is tuned into through a kind of detached awareness. When we impose a lifetime's worth of societally crafted expectations on the world around us, we end up filtering out so much that we are left with very little with which to be creatively inspired. When we practice widening our awareness and letting more filter through, we open ourselves up to the creative energy that flows through everything. As Rick Rubin puts it, "Most of what we see in the world holds the potential to inspire astonishment if looked at from a less jaded perspective."

In Ghost's most recent album, Skeletá, the music continues to flourish beyond the boundaries of traditional metal, and it's probably their most significant departure from that framework yet. Every Ghost album has a sort of theme that can be attributed to it: IMPERA is about the rise and fall of empires, Prequelle deals with death and survival, and so on. Overall, pretty dark themes. With the hostility of IMPERA in particular, I, along with other Ghost fans, was expecting a turn towards a traditional, heavy sound. Skeletá is absolutely not that. Forge did not want to write an "Impera Two," as he puts it in The Rolling Stone article. He wanted "more of an introspective, healing record, a new record that shone a light on the innards of my mind."

Skeletá has a much brighter, optimistic sound because it is about humanity. Accordingly, Forge widened his awareness to the possibility of blending other genres, specifically pop, into Ghost's more rock-focused sound. As he told The Rolling Stone, "In the pop world, it’s different because there are no hard rules. The ensemble in pop doesn’t have to be drums, bass and two guitars." As surprising as this sound was to me when Skeletá was released, I grew to love the unpredictability from track to track. Furthermore, it made me appreciate the heavier songs that were on this album, such as "Lachryma," because each song was a new experience rather than the album as a whole.

As Rick Rubin puts it, "Art is confrontation." With Ghost, there is plenty of confrontation and disagreements to be found. One day, they'll have stadiums screaming about the rise of Satan with "Year Zero," and the next they'll perform "Mary on a Cross" (a TikTok favorite) under dazzling, colorful lights. Ghost's identity, in my opinion, is based on their shifting identity, from Papa to Papa, album to album, and genre to genre. At its core, though, Ghost is a satanic metal band, and that label can be more of a blessing than a curse. With genres, Rick Rubin notes that "as soon as you use a label to describe what you're working one, there's a temptation to conform to its rules." Forge, as well as any Ghost fan with eyes or ears, is well aware of the metal elitists who rave about Ghost's nonconformity. In one particularly funny moment with Metal Hammer, Forge talked about how the song "De Profundis Borealis" was intended to sound like a black metal song, before he quickly cuts himself off and says, "I know it’s not a black metal song, so you don’t have to fucking get going" (emphasis added).

At the end of the day, I'm still going to tell people that Ghost is a satanic metal band if they ask what genre they fall under. Even when they stray from that label, I don't care, because as Rick Rubin put it, "the most innovative ideas come from those who master the rules to such a degree that they can see past them."

Tobias Forge's Interview with The Rolling Stone: https://www.rollingstone.co.uk/music/news/ghost-interview-tobias-forge-skeleta-48893/

Tobias Forge's Interview with The Lounge: https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/tobias_forge_details_ghost_songwriting_process_explains_how_early_pink_floyd_really_fucked_up_his_music_writing.html

Tobias Forge for Metal Hammer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIXHSDrrEBU

Tobias Forge for Apple Music (with Zane Lowe): https://youtu.be/pkaovFj710o?si=837vhPU_wsHplpL9