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UNCOVERED: Papa emeritus | History Defined

By hiding their faces, metal bands maximise the emotional punch of their music

In 2024, along with 20,000 others, I attended a sold-out metal show in Manchester. Unlike most concerts at the Co-op Live Arena, however, none of us in the packed-out venue knew who we were actually seeing. The band was Sleep Token – a masked and anonymous collective formed in London…

The Conversation

“People were partying like there was no tomorrow because they were gonna die. It captures that joyous nocturnal life”: Ghost’s Tobias Forge wanted a song to match Queen. Instead, he wrote the greatest plague-inspired metal banger of the last 20 years

The story of Ghost‘s classic 2018 single Dance Macabre

Metal Hammer

Watch Tobias Forge break down the story behind each of Ghost's iconic frontmen –including every Papa Emeritus, Cardinal Copia and every character leading up to Papa V Perpetua

Ghost mainman Tobias Forge gives inside scoop on aesthetic of the Papas, Cardinals and Nameless Ghouls of the Ghost clergy

Metal Hammer

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“Our favourite bands didn’t chicken out on their third record. That’s not how Master Of Puppets or Number Of The Beast got made”: How Ghost teamed up with Katy Perry’s producer to kick things to the next level with Meliora

Ghost’s third album Meliora found them going darker and poppier than ever before – and the result pointed towards what was to follow

Metal Hammer

Ghost’s 2025 tour will be a “phone-free experience”

Ghost famously banned phones from their L.A. concerts last year, and it seems the practice is here to stay

Metal Hammer

Ghost announce six-month 2025 world tour with UK, Europe, US, Mexico dates

Something wicked this way comes, as Papa Emeritus and his ghouls announce their return to the road

Metal Hammer

“In a world of dunces, everything bad is blamed on the devil. Yet it’s the Church who promote a lot of things that are genuinely bad for mankind”: how Ghost kicked things to the next level with Infestissumam

In this classic 2013 interview, Ghost mainman Tobias Forge talks ambition, success and Satan

Metal Hammer

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“As all popes do, they have their reign and then we continue forward”: What happened the night Ghost’s Papa Emeritus I passed the torch to Papa II onstage

Though we all expect Ghost to change singers between albums nowadays, the ascension of Papa Emeritus II was unprecedented at the time

Metal Hammer

"There have been pivotal moments, like playing with Metallica or Iron Maiden for the first time, where you go, ‘I can’t believe this is happening.’" We went to LA to see Ghost's world takeover reach yet another new peak

From setting the stage for Sleep Token to making metal sexy again, Tobias Forge takes us inside the final days of Impera

Metal Hammer

Watch Ghost play their first-ever show in 2010 and see just how far the Satanic Swedes have come

This footage of Tobias Forge’s devil church playing at the 2010 Hammer Of Doom festival proves they were arena-ready from the start

Metal Hammer

Ghost: the definitive guide to every member of their crazy universe

From Papa Emeritus I to IV to Papa V Perpetua, Papa Nihil, Sister Imperator and beyond, here's everything you need to know about Ghost's colourful cast of characters

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