Last Wednesday afternoon, thousands of Ghost’s fans braced the cold, eagerly awaiting to enter the arena. Fans were decked out in black outfits adorned with feathers, crosses, Ghost’s signature skull face paint, and even some dressed in Papal regalia.
The Swedish Rock Band brought their current tour “Imperatour” to promote their fifth studio album, ‘Impera’. The band consists of the lead singer Tobias Forge, who performs under the persona “Papa Emeritus IV,” and several masked musicians known as Nameless Ghouls. The setlist, consisting of 16 songs and a 3-song encore, featured a selection from all of the band’s albums.
Preceding Ghost’s setlist were taped recordings of the Jan Johansson composition “Klara stjärnor”, Gregorio Allegri’s “Miserere mei, Deus”, and Ghost’s own “Imperium”. For their opening number “Kaisarion”, the obscuring curtain drops to reveal the band amongst smoke, pyrotechnic displays and coloured flashing lights.
The complex and detailed set was outfitted with multiple arches, and pillars donning Ghost’s signature Grucifix (the cross of St. Peter surrounded by the letter “G”), digital stain glass windows (which changed throughout the show), and several small, elevated platforms, each was occupied by a Nameless Ghoul and their instrument. Forge underwent multiple costume changes during the show, rocking different coloured variations of his Papal regalia and multiple sparkly coloured suit jackets. The Ghouls were dressed identically in black outfits and sported steampunk inspired masks.
Unfortunately, due to production issues which delayed the completion of the complex stage setup, the support act Southeast Desert Metal did not have time to perform.
The second song on the setlist, immediately inspired the audience into a frenzy, with those in the mosh banging their arms and chanting the song title “RATS”, at the top of their lungs.
The band members are energetic performers and are very playful in their interactions with the audience and each other. During ‘Ritual’, one of the guitarists was overemphatically enjoying his solo, before another Ghoul goes over and playfully motions to him to calm down. Everyone on the stage put on an entertaining performance and were acting very comically with one another. The performer’s interactions with each other (who were clearly having a good time), had an almost contagious effect on the audience who couldn’t help but join in the fun.
During the song “Miasma”, the ‘deceased’ character Papa Nihil was wheeled out onto stage and electrified “back to life” to perform a saxophone solo during the number.
“Mary on a Cross” was my highlight of the night. Forge introduced the number by asking the audience to sing along with him; “do you want to sing a song my dad used to sing?”. During the chorus, Forge empathetically asked the audience to “sing it!”. It was a beautiful moment to hear thousands in the crowd, singing these words together.
Forge concludes the set with a thoughtful message, encouraging the audience to rejoice in the wonderful evening spent together, and the value of appreciating what you have before it’s gone. Shortly after the conclusion of the song, the band re-emerged, persuaded by the stomps and cheers of the crowd, and promising only to deliver the 3-song encore, if the crowd “[rocks] really hard”, and rock they did. The finale included more costume changes, multiple confetti cannons, and ‘heart stopping’ pyro-explosions.
With thanks to Destroy All Lines & Dallas Does PR for the access.
Review by Bella Italiano. Photos by Vidic Images
