Ghost’s Tobias Forge Reveals Concept Behind Next Album
Ghost have been working on new music and while "Hunters Moon" recently appeared tied in to the soundtrack of the movie Halloween Kills, more music is expected to follow next year. And thanks to a new Tobias Forge chat with KLAQ, fans have some new insight on what to expect, with the singer revealing the conceptual inspiration for the album.
Forge explains (as heard in the player below and transcribed by Blabbermouth), "The album that I have been working on, I came up with that concept years ago. We played in Seattle in 2013, 2014 — something like that — we played at Showbox At The Market. I remember that day I came up with the idea for this record, this upcoming record. Because I got a book called 'The Rule of Empires.' So, basically, I wanted to make a record about the rise and ultimately the unescapable fails and falls of empires."
He continues, "An idea like that can take — at least me — quite far. So once you get that idea of, like, 'Oh, now I know what the pile is gonna look like. I know now what not to put in there.' And it was the same thing with Prequelle; it was gonna be about the great death, a medieval, primordial threat of annihilation which was, I guess I wouldn't say carnal but maybe a tiny tad more spiritual and philosophical death, with the ever presence of actual termination, whereas this record about the empires was gonna be a little bit more practical, I guess; a little bit more, I don't wanna say political. So it wasn't really hard to be inspired by the last couple of years."
The book that Forge references is actually titled "The Rule of Empires: Those Who Built Them, Those Who Endured Them, and Why They Always Fall." In the book, author Timothy Parsons surveys imperial regimes from Rome's rule in ancient Britain to Spain's in Peru, Britain's in India and Kenya, and Nazi Germany's occupation of France, taking an analytical view of each regime.
The next Ghost album is expected in 2022, and the band appears to be putting things in motion to support it, recently revealing an early 2022 co-headline tour with Volbeat and special guests Twin Temple.