Before Ghost, vocalist Tobias Forge was fronting Swedish death metal band Repugnant. So would he ever go back to that style of music? In an interview with Loudwire, Forge reveals that the short answer to that question isn't exactly "no." Forge said he'd love to revisit death metal at some point considering he's still a huge fan, but clarifies that he's not sure how he'd go about doing so.
"I love that stuff. I listen to it a lot. I'm still obsessing over it from a collecting point of view. That's very much where my adolescent heart is. I grew up with a lot of music, but my adolescence was completely immersed and completely swamped with that impression.
"I still get the same kick out of things that I liked as a — not even a teenager; as an 11-year-, 12-year-old, when I really started listening to that and when death metal was this really dangerous animal that you can just go to this one store to find. And I'm still sort of chasing that.
"I have my safe spot inside where all that is, and, of course, it's materialized in a lot of physical things that I'm collecting. But I still feel that sort of urge to, in some way or form, partake in it. But I don't know in what form it will materialize.
Forge later added that he recognizes there was a time and place in his young life for being in a death metal band, but still – it could be worth a shot to try and tackle once again.
"I think that there's another conflict… Since I never really did it professionally… Or let's be real — I never did it professionally; it was very unprofessional in every way. That is not exactly what I wanna do. I don't wanna have sort of messed up rehearsals where we end up drinking instead and you end up coming to a show with a plastic bag and a broken pedal and you have to borrow cords from other bands and then you end up playing a really drunk show in front of 20 friends. Which is fun as fuck, but as a grown-up…
"It's kind of like in 'Comfortably Numb' where he sings, 'That child is gone. I can't feel that way.' I can't paraphrase what he's singing in that, but he says it in such a great way where you know it's there, but it will never feel the same. You can never be revirginized [laughs] for real. But I live on hope. So I think that there will be a time for that rockage too. But it will not necessarily be the way it was."
We should also take a moment to recognize how insane Repugnant's lineup was throughout their career. Outside Forge, Repugnant had members of In Solitude, Tribulation, Witchery, General Surgery, and even Dismember throughout their career. Repugnant put out a handful of demos and splits between 1998 and 2004, and released their posthumous debut album (and currently only full-length) Epitome of Darkness in 2006.
