Ghost: Sweden's Theatre Kids Who Conquered Metal

Tue, 17 Jan 2023 09:00:00 +0000

A band spent almost a decade refusing to say their own names, then a Swedish court made them do it anyway. That is the strange spine of Ghost, the Linköping act that dressed heavy metal up in cathedral robes and pop hooks and rode the disguise all the way to the Grammy stage.

For years the pitch sounded like a student prank that got out of hand. One singer in the paint and mitre of a Satanic anti-pope, calling himself Papa Emeritus. Behind him a rank of Nameless Ghouls in identical masks and chrome, credited to nobody, interviewed only in silhouette. It should have been a novelty that burned out inside a tour cycle. Instead Ghost turned into one of the biggest metal bands Sweden has ever exported, and the story of how they did it is more interesting than the costumes suggest.

Theatrical Metal on vo.rs

Ghost: Sweden's Theatre Kids Who Conquered Metal