Ghost are spending 2017 getting to work. Now that they've won a Grammy and toured the world, they are ready to settle down and record a new album.
In a new interview with Metal Wani, it's believed that the Nameless Ghoul is actually frontman Tobias Forge in disguise. The ghoul was not shy explaining the band's vision for the next record, hoping to go for a more darker sound:
"The ideas for the new record will be quote-unquote darker, because it's thematically set in a different… in a darker setting. Meliora was supposed to reflect some sort of utopia/dystopia in the modern society, whereas this new one is gonna be a little bit more apocalyptic, a little bit more back to the medieval times, which, obviously, is associated with darkness. "
He continued: "Obviously, in metal, in extreme metal, you have a myriad of records that are thematically in the Middle Ages, but the idea for this new album is to combine… So where [other] records [covering similar lyrical themes are] drowned and surrounded and drenched in death, it's gonna be a record about survival. So that constantly working with those polar, sort of, elements is also a difference, I guess, between… If you find a black metal record that is about the Plague and the death, you will have only death — everything is just black and everything just ends black. Whereas one of my driving forces writing a record like that is to write a record about the survival of that and the prosperity."
"It's gonna be a darker record. Is it gonna be all through and through heavier? I don't know, obviously. But we do have melody and we do have songs that are not so heavy. From my point of view, from where I'm sitting, knowing a little bit of the material coming in, it's gonna be both. It's gonna have everything from heavy, crushing metal to big, ballady anthems."
Forge added that he is still writing the band's new album, and they are hoping to begin recording in August when all of Ghost's touring commitments are over.
Blabbermouth, who transcribed the interview, touched on a rumor that at the end of the band's last tour, Forge fired all the other members of the band. Seeing as though they all perform under masks, and their identities are secret, most fans would likely not notice the change, even though there was some hoopla last year when the band added a female bassist.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the story, is Forge, under the guise of being A Nameless Ghoul, essentially confirmed there are changes, but noted that it shouldn't impact the band's sound, in the same way Queens of the Stone Age's sound remains consistent despite lineup changes because of founding frontman Josh Homme.
"From a practical point of view, you're interested in, on the one hand preserving the sound, or the elements that make up the sound, and you still wanna progress," he said. "I think one of the secrets behind our preserving ability is the fact that we don't necessarily have to have the same six people in the room to make that sound, which helps.
"It's always a blessing and a curse when you have some of these classic bands over the course of rock and roll history, where in order for them to sound like that exact band, you need those four individuals, and if one is missing, it does not sound like that," he continued. "And, fortunately, we don't have that problem. Because performing GHOST and recording GHOST has never really been the same thing. So that we can preserve our sound; we don't have to rely on… if some people come and go, which is good.Queens of the Stone Age is the same thing. Everything goes through Josh's [Homme] hands, and therefore it sounds like Queens of the Stone Age, regardless of who he brings in and out of the band, which is, I guess, a similar situation."
Here's the full interview audio. I'm excited to hear what Ghost have up their sleeves.
[youtube]https://youtu.be/GoOCKXQdtR0[/youtube]
Here are our interviews with Ghost throughout the years:
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPRa5SEO3v0[/youtube]
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bryBqKYovnY[/youtube]
