GHOST Plays Special Hometown Show, Unveils PAPA EMERITUS II (Video)

Mysterious Swedish buzz band GHOST played a special concert last night (Saturday, December 15) in its hometown of Linköping at Cupolen during which it premiered a brand new song, “Secular Haze”, as well as its cover version of ABBA‘s “I’m A Marionette”. In addition, a switch was made during the show where the band’s lead vocalist, Papa Emeritus I, was apparently “replaced” by Papa Emeritus II, with both characters played by GHOST‘s real-life frontman, Tobias Forge of REPUGNANT andSUBVISION fame. Professionally filmed video footage of the “Secular Haze” track (featuring the singer “switch”), as well as fan-filmed video clips of the rest of the concert, can be seen below.

GHOST is putting the finishing touches its next studio album, due out in 2013 on Loma Vista Recordings, the new record label founded by Tom Whalley in partnership with Republic Records, a division of Universal Music Group. Papa Emeritus and his Nameless Ghouls have summoned Nashville-based Grammy Award-winning Nick Raskulinecz (DEATH ANGEL, DEFTONES, FOO FIGHTERS, RUSH) to produce this offering.

The band’s debut album, “Opus Eponymous”, was released in late 2010 in Europe and in early 2011 in North America via Rise Above Records.

In an early 2012 interview with Full Metal Jackie‘s nationally syndicated radio show, one of the “Nameless Ghouls” from GHOST was asked why he thinks his band has garnered support from such high-profile musicians asJames Hetfield (METALLICA) and Phil Anselmo (DOWN, PANTERA). “We like to think [it’s because of] our playfulness in terms of not — I almost said think[ing] too much — obviously, we think, but we feel a lot and we try not to limit ourselves to genre,” he said. “Even though we’re a hard-rocking band, we try to mix everything from death metal elements to new-wave choruses. And I think that sort of resonates to… I wouldn’t say only an older generation [because] we have a lot of new, younger fans, but I think that anybody who is older than 35 might have a stroke of nostalgia or whatever.”

On the topic of whether he can foresee a day when the members ofGHOST won’t be anonymous anymore, he said, “I think there is a difference between being anonymous and unmasked. Where SLIPKNOTactually wear masks still, while KISS during their unmasked days didn’t. Obviously, it’s a thing of the times. What we’re trying to do, it’s very hard to maintain. If the actual goal was to not be known, we try to maintain that, but in the long run we can’t really expect that to be something everlasting. Most of our fans are actually quite keen on not knowing, which works to our favor, but I think there is a difference between people knowing who is behind the mask or being unmasked. We can’t really see ourselves going up on stage and afterwards just dropping the masks saying, ‘Oh, it’s me, it’s me, actually. Can you see?’ No, no, no… We don’t want that. We don’t want to spoil it. That’s the whole reason why we are anonymous and we try not to show ourselves. We try to eliminate, not the human aspects, but the humane aspects, if you want. We want to putPapa Emeritus in the limelight. He’s supposed to be the living character, even though rigor mortis has basically set in in his poor old body. But that’s the face of the band. He’s the person, everybody else are just puppets.”