Ghost is about to have an interesting 2024. Though what it'll entail, we largely have no idea.
Ghost posted their New Year's greeting to fans on their Instagram, promising "lots to come" this year and thanking fans for their patience through their recent silence. What we know so far is that Papa Emeritus IV is very likely getting the axe at some point this year. Emeritus IV told Ghost fans at an October 5 show at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre in Brisbane that time on stage was his last, calling the show his "finale."
Then in an interview with Metal Hammer, Ghost mastermind Tobias Forge said he's got "a few songs" in the works for Ghost's sixth album before explaining his creative process through a cooking metaphor.
"I like to compare what I'm doing to being a chef," said Forge. "A chef with a few different interests and specialities. So you might start a few different restaurants – an Italian one, a Greek one, an Asian Fusion one. But what they all have in common is the seasoning and the decor and the interior design… the secret sauce. With me, each record, each new cycle, is a new restaurant, but I don't have to sit with an empty paper and come up with something new every time because the secret sauce is the same. If it comes from my notebook, it will sound like Ghost."
Ghost also has some sort of movie in the works, which so far we only know includes the band's two shows at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles, CA from earlier this year. "We were essentially shooting a film," said Forge. "And we used two nights of crowds as extras… It's going to be a film with a concert element. So a lot of what you experienced [at the two LA shows] is going to be part of this project."
So let's review – Papa Emeritus IV is about to go six feet under, there's maybe some new music coming, and there's some sort of live-album-meets-movie thing afoot. Sounds like a big year to us, but what else does Ghost have up their sleeve?
