Swedish occult metallers GHOST have released the official music video for “Lachryma”, the second single from their upcoming sixth album, “Skeletá”. Check it out below.
Arriving in tandem with a lucid nightmare of a video featuring Papa V Perpetua‘s first full performance as newly anti-christened frontman, “Lachryma” is quite possibly the most emblematic example to date of GHOST‘s signature balance of dark lyrical foreboding and irresistible melodic uplift. Following closely on the hooves of first “Skeletá” single “Satanized” — dubbed a “catchy goth-rock epic” by Vice and hailed by Brooklyn Vegan as “the band’s trademark occult rock sounding as equally eerie and triumphant as ever” — “Lachryma” supplants the demonic hooks of its predecessor with a purple haze of sonic flourishes that accomplish something even more insidious: a bonafide modern day rock anthem about weeping.
“Skeletá” will arrive on April 25 via Loma Vista Recordings.
GHOST mastermind Tobias Forge told Metal Hammer about “Lachryma”: “It opens with more of a riffage. And I guess now comes off as somewhat of a ‘typical’ GHOST mash-up, where it’s heavy on one end and met with a big, bombastic chorus. That’s a song about self-deceit.”
In a recent interview with Brent Porche of Philadelphia’s 93.3 WMMR radio station, Forge stated about “Skeletá”: “It is a record that is introspective to a further degree, I guess, than especially the previous record [2022’s ‘Impera’]. Just to be clear, I do believe that most artists usually create a new record based on where they were on the previous one — not as a counter-reaction, but usually there’s something that you wish to achieve that you maybe didn’t on the previous[ one] or you wanna change something or just fill your… At the end of the day, what you’re doing is basically you’re filling your repertoire with hopefully songs that you didn’t have before. But thematically, I usually have some sort of thematic guideline when I write, first and foremost for myself in order to make sense of what the new record is so it’s not too whimsically just about everything at the same time. But where ‘Impera’ was very much not only extroverted, but exteriorly reflecting on bigger society, social issues, and also, as the title implies, imperial structure and its ultimate demise, it didn’t feel very productive to continue down that and make an ‘Impera 2’, talking about the continual demise of… I was more attracted to the idea of this this record that was more shining a light in inside and making a record about healing aspects of being essentially a human being in whatever structural design, because at the end of the day, most humans are surprisingly alike and display the same abilities to sentiments. And these sentiments are usually quite basic. And that idea was attractive to me — making a record that had a song about hope, had a song about hate, had a song about love, acceptance and all these things.”
Last month, Forge told Meltdown of Detroit’s WRIF radio station about “Satanized”, which came out in early March: “Yeah, it’s a fun video and it’s a upbeat, fun track. It’s a song about being in love and how that can potentially be mistaken as demonic possession, but in reality this song has nothing to do with demonic possession.”
Asked why he picked “Satanized” to be the first single from “Skeletá”, Tobias said: “It’s funny because as I was making the record, I didn’t really put much like regard into trying to write… Of course, as a songwriter, you always try to write as good songs as possible, but there wasn’t a whole lot of, like, ‘Oh, I’m gonna write a hit song.’ So I was more interested in sort of making a bunch of songs that I was gonna put cohesively into an understandable and entertaining album. And wise with experience over the years where I’ve delivered records to the people that work with me, and I’m, like, ‘This is the song. This is the single. This is the hit.’ And more than often, it ends up being, like, ‘Oh, no. We believe in that song instead.’ Okay. So finally I’ve sort of given up a little bit on that. So I just sort of gave the record and I’m, like, ‘You guys choose what you wanna do.’ And then I’m sort of holding my thumb a little, crossing my fingers, hoping that that maybe they they’ll hear what I hear. And to my big surprise, they came back with ‘Satanized’. And I was, like, ‘I couldn’t be happier. I have a really funny video idea for that one. I never thought that you would go for that one,’ simply because it’s like…”
He continued: “To me, I am a huge fan of ’70s music. That’s a very simplified way of saying that, but I’m a big fan of SCORPIONS from the ’80s, but also the SCORPIONS from the ’70s, which sometimes, I guess, a certain age group might not be aware that that SCORPIONS was a band in the ’70s, and they released several records. Those records are a little bit different from the ’80s records, when they sort of became a ’80s hit rock band. And ‘Satanized’ definitely had more of a SCORPIONS ’77 stomp that I really liked about the track. And somehow, therefore, I guess, I wasn’t like putting that as a hit-single fan favorite, or a favorite that way. I thought I was gonna work my magic to make that song a big song, the same way that we did with ‘Mary On A Cross’ once upon a time, when that was regarded as this ‘B’ track that was just for fun. And I was, like, ‘I think that that song is actually quite good. We’re gonna play it every show we’re playing.’ And it took years before it became what that became.”
Tue Apr 15 – Manchester, UK – AO Arena
Wed Apr 16 – Glasgow, UK – OVO Hydro
Sat Apr 19 – London, UK – The O2
Sun Apr 20 – Birmingham, UK – Utilita Arena
Tue Apr 22 – Antwerp, BE – Sportpaleis
Wed Apr 23 – Frankfurt, DE – Festhalle Frankfurt
Thu Apr 24 – Munich, DE – Olympiahalle
Sat Apr 26 – Lyon, FR – LDLC Arena
Sun Apr 27 – Toulouse, FR – Zenith Toulouse Metropole
Tue Apr 29 – Lisbon, PT – MEO Arena
Wed Apr 30 – Madrid, ES – Palacio Vistalegre
Sat May 3 – Zurich, CH – AG Hallenstadion
Sun May 4 – Milan, IT – Unipol Forum
Wed May 7 – Berlin, DE – Uber Arena
Thu May 8 – Amsterdam, NL – Ziggo Dome
Sat May 10 – Lodz, PL – Atlas Arena
Sun May 11 – Prague, CZ – O2 Arena
Tue May 13 – Paris, FR – Accor Arena
Wed May 14 – Oberhausen, DE – Rudolph Weber Arena
Thu May 15 – Hannover, DE – ZAG Arena
Sat May 17 – Copenhagen, DK – Royal Arena
Tue May 20 – Tampere, FI – Nokia Arena
Thu May 22 – Linköping, SE – Saab Arena
Fri May 23 – Sandviken, SE – Göransson Arena
Sat May 24 – Oslo, NO – Oslo Spektrum
Wed Jul 09 – Baltimore, MD – CFG Bank Arena
Fri Jul 11 – Atlanta, GA – State Farm Arena
Sat Jul 12 – Tampa, FL – Amalie Arena
Sun Jul 13 – Miami, FL – Kaseya Center
Tue Jul 15 – Raleigh, NC – PNC Arena
Thu Jul 17 – Cleveland, OH – Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse
Fri Jul 18 – Pittsburgh, PA – PPG Paints Arena
Sat Jul 19 – Philadelphia, PA – Wells Fargo Center
Mon Jul 21 – Boston, MA – TD Garden
Tue Jul 22 – New York, NY – Madison Square Garden
Thu Jul 24 – Detroit, MI – Little Caesars Arena
Fri Jul 25 – Louisville, KY – KFC Yum! Center
Sat Jul 26 – Nashville, TN – Bridgestone Arena
Mon Jul 28 – Grand Rapids, MI – Van Andel Arena
Tue Jul 29 – Milwaukee, WI – Fiserv Forum
Wed Jul 30 – St. Louis, MO – Enterprise Center
Fri Aug 01 – Rosemont, IL – Allstate Arena
Sat Aug 02 – Saint Paul, MN – Xcel Energy Center
Sun Aug 03 – Omaha, NE – CHI Health Center
Tue Aug 05 – Kansas City, MO – T-Mobile Center
Thu Aug 07 – Denver, CO – Ball Arena
Sat Aug 09 – Las Vegas, NV – MGM Grand Garden Arena
Sun Aug 10 – San Diego, CA – Viejas Arena
Mon Aug 11 – Phoenix, AZ – Footprint Center
Thu Aug 14 – Austin, TX – Moody Center ATX
Fri Aug 15 – Fort Worth, TX – Dickies Arena
Sat Aug 16 – Houston, TX – Toyota Center
Wed Sep 24 – Mexico City, MX – Palacio de los Deportes
Circling back to the fact that his record company seemingly had the same vision for “Satanized” as he did in terms of the song’s potential, Forge said: “I was overwhelmed and overjoyed with the synchronicity, because I have done that mistake before where I have conceived a record, conceived a track, have an idea for a video for a track, and then the powers that be want another kickoff. And then that leads to a discussion, and then more than often, the reasoning as to why you go with another track might be perfectly understandable, but all of a sudden my idea is just not worth the piece of paper it’s written on, because it simply doesn’t work if it’s not in a… Sometimes the crux of being conceptual, sometimes your ideas are simply too conceptual and too based on presentation and stars aligning. But in this case, we ended up with fluency, which was cool.”
“Satanized” was described in a press release as “an avalanche of infectious hooks and harmonies is buoyed by a hypnotic shuffle, as the narrator succumbs to dark forces within and without, helplessly acknowledging their own blasphemy and heresy as it inexorably consumes them.” By the time the song’s opening lines “There is something inside me and they don’t know if there is a cure” have moved from the inner monologue of the possessed to the ears of the hapless listener, it will already be too late: You will have been “Satanized”.
The “Satanized” music video introduces the new character who will be fronting GHOST for its 2025 touring cycle: Papa V Perpetua.
GHOST‘s sixth psalm, “Skeletá”, is its most unflinchingly introspective work to date. Where previous GHOST albums dealt largely with chronicling and/or observing outward facing subject matter — such as “Impera”‘s meditations on the rise and fall of empires and its predecessor “Prequelle”‘s evocations of the ravages of era-defining plagues — “Skeletᔑs lyrics render the distinct individual emotional vistas of each of its 10 songs in one-on-one fashion, at times as if in a dialogue with oneself in a mirror. The end result is a singular collection of timeless, universal sentiments, all filtered through a prism of a uniquely personal point of view.
GHOST has also launched an interactive element dubbed The Satanizer, a first-of-its-kind music video experience for fans who wish to be “Satanized.” Developed in partnership with Jason Zada (Elf Yourself),The Satanizer will morph its users into characters featured in the song’s melodramatic video. With a quick upload of your photo, The Satanizer will send out a personalized music video clip featuring the participant, who can in turn share via social media that they too have been “Satanized.”
Forge performed as a “new” Papa Emeritus on each of the band’s first three LPs, with each version of Papa replacing the one that came before it. Papa Emeritus III was retired in favor of Cardinal Copia before the release of 2018’s “Prequelle”. In March 2020, at final show of GHOST‘s “Prequelle” tour in Mexico City, Mexico, the band officially introduced Papa Emeritus IV, the character who fronted the act for its “Impera” (2022) album phase.