GHOST: Followup To "Meliora" Will Be Heavier

One of the Nameless Ghouls from Swedish occult rockersGhostwas interviewed on the October 31 edition […]
November 3, 2016

One of the Nameless Ghouls from Swedish occult rockersGhostwas interviewed on the October 31 edition of"Whiplash", theKLOSradio show hosted byFull Metal Jackie. You can now listen to the chat using the widget below. A few excerpts follow.

On the lyrical and musical themes that will be covered onGhost's upcoming follow-up to 2015's"Meliora"album, tentatively due in the fall of 2017:

"Let's just say that it's a continuation of"Meliora", but it's sort of a response, where! I've used the word 'pre-acopalyptic' on"Meliora". It's sort of the height of civilization; it's symbolism for! Just look at the cover. It's, like, skyrisers and everything; you don't even see the ground. It's all covered and built material. And, obviously, there has to an end to that. So there will be a call and response. And the next album will be the response to that. So if there was an absence of a God, there might be a return of a deity, which usually comes in horrible form. So it will be a darker album."

On whether he has had a vision of where he wanted each album to go from the beginning or if he is doing it as he goes along:
"Both. A little of both. I mean, in the beginning, it was a little shooting from the hip. I mean, just making the songs for the first album was! I had no idea where it was going, but then, as it materialized from nothing to something in the sense that all of a sudden we were a touring band and, 'Wow, this is a job, apparently,' then obviously you quickly need to reassess. And I think that there were! Even though I'm still proud of the first album, I guess there were a few things on there that had I known beforehand, lyrically, some of the things that were said in there, was gonna be resulting in material that you were gonna play potentially for the rest of your life, it might have looked different. But that's why I'm glad that we never knew. The album came out of a purity and naïveté that, obviously, you cannot fake. But then "Infestissumam" was starting to shape up your writing a little. And with 'Meliora', it was definitely more of a! There was a point. There was way more! This is basically what I wanna describe, or the mindset I wanna have people put in."

On The Evolution OfGhost's Sound:

"Being the main songwriter, I tend to wanna write songs that will complete our live show. So it's almost like a double perspective, where on one hand you have to write a record, an album, or a collection of songs, downloadable and in a certain order, that will be compelling and tell sort of a story. But 'Square Hammer' [from the latest EP, 'Popestar'] is definitely an example of, I guess, myself and us as a band, you pick up on the vibes needing a straighter song, basically. Ever since we started touring six years ago, we've always opened up with the opening track of the album. And every album has started with this weird, [sped-up] waltz prog number, which is great. It's fun, it's cool, but you wanna run to the hills in there as well. And that's why I guess when the embryo of 'Square Hammer' came up, which was just that [opening] riff. And that's how it started; I basically hummed that into my phone. I think I still have the file somewhere."

OnGhostMembers Staying Anonymous:

"I don't think it's funny at all; it's just a nuisance. From a practical point of view, of course it would be more convenient to just be a normal band and you can just put a fly on the wall, as they say, and just let it happen and just be yourself. Everything nowadays is about content. Content means online chatter about clips, news, a picture - anything that creates 'likes' and comments. If we were a so-called 'normal' band, we can just create twenty posts a day, just filming what we just ate and how it looked when it came out and 'We're here now,' and 'We're doing this,' and all of this sort of unnerving hysteric things that most people do. From a personal point of view, I'm very happy that we're not - or at least I am not personally - doing that. I have noFacebook, I don't haveTwitter, I don't haveInstagram. I have an oldHotmailaddress. I managed to sort of dodge the whole social-media thing, which I'm happy that I'm not! Obviously I live in a world where that surrounds me, so I know what's going on, but I don't follow it."

On Social Media:

"I think that there's definitely a backside to the world of social media. I think some people that didn't have a social life before probably might have had magical things happening to their lives, which I fully bless and condone. Absolutely, if you were a sad person before and now you have a social scene, absolutely fantastic. Information to the people - right, great, fantastic. But I know so many people that are so unhappy because of it. It ruins a lot of things. So for the majority of the people that used to have a somewhat working life situation in the past, I don't think we know yet the downside of this. We think of conveniences as something that helps us, but the more conveniences that we allow for in our lives, the less purpose we have as persons. You know,Uberis great, butUberwill suck ifGoogleis gonna make self-running cars withUberin it. And that's just one example of how we dive headfirst into conveniences that end up biting us in the ass."

"Popestar"was released on September 16 byLoma Vista Recordingsand is available online and in record stores on CD, vinyl, and digital. The surprise five-track offering also contains covers of selections byEcho & The Bunnymen,Simian Mobile Disco,EurythmicsandImperiet."Popestar"was recorded byPapa Emeritus IIIand his Nameless Ghouls in Linköping, Sweden and produced byTom Dalgety(Pixies, Royal Blood, Opeth).

Additionally,Ghostreleased a deluxe version of"Meliora", their acclaimed 2015Grammy Award-winning album."Meliora Deluxe"contains the"Popestar"EP as a bonus disc (CD or LP or digital).

The arrival of the"Popestar"EP coincided with the launch of the band's 41-city U.S. headlining"Popestar"tour, which kicked off on September 16.

Ghost is known for its eccentric performances and is composed of six members easily recognized for their satanic attires. Five men who call themselves as Nameless Ghouls play the instruments while the lead vocalist is known asPapa Emeritus. The Nameless Ghouls who are wearing identical devil masks and costumes represent the five instrumentalities or elements (fire, water, air, earth and aether or quintessence) while their leaderPapa Emeritusrepresents the group's anti-pope symbol.

"Whiplash"airs every Monday night from 10:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. on the Los Angeles radio station95.5 KLOS. The show can be heard on theKLOSweb site at955klos.comor you can listen in on theKLOSchannel oniHeartRadio.Full Metal Jackiealso hosts a nationally syndicated radio program, which can be heard all over the country.

To see a full list of stations carryingFull Metal Jackie's show and when it airs, go toFullMetalJackieRadio.com.

Source:
Blabbermouth.net News
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