If You Have Ghosts (You Have Everything)

That's a title of the song originally written and performed by Roky Erickson. But I'd like to focus on the band who covered it and its performance became even more famous. And of top of that it's called Ghost. According to Wikipedia, the one and only credible source, the band was formed in 2008 in Sweden and includes 7 (holy number) nameless ghouls who are responsible for all the instrumental part during live shows. Moreover, they change their costumes and masks every album they release. The same rules apply to the leader of the group - Tobias Forge who happened to have 5 incarnations meanwhile. He has performed as Papa Emeritus, Papa Emeritus II, Papa Emeritus III, Cardinal Copia and recently as Papa Emeritus IV. A revealing of the new persona usually comes with strong emotions among fans. I had a chance to participate in Ghost's concert last year for the very first time and witnessed the incarnation of Cardinal Copia, which was an amazing experience. The choice of the disguise and such elements as stage decor and even accent is always meticulous. You can have an impression that Papa and the rest of the ghouls were growing up as so-called "theatre kids" which is genuinely visible at the scene. 

And now a few words about their music genre, which is actually non-existent. Like many other bands nowadays, Ghost is undefinable in terms of genre. However, they keep their vibe refreshing and even admitted being influenced by ABBA. I mean, c'mon, who wouldn't be? But generally speaking, they can be placed somewhere between heavy metal and rock with all these little details of stoner and alternative metal. In fact, theirs songs are a tribute to the devil himself. They don't hide their flair for occult motives and evoke some famous historical figures as Elizabeth Bathory or simply, they sing about demons, apocalypses and ghouls. They even have been exposing fake prophets like Tony Alamo (e.g. "He Is"). In reality, the leader confessed to be an atheist and one of the goals of the band is to mock a concept of religion. 

Last but not least, there's a fun fact about Tobias Forge, who hasn't revealed his true name for years. He preferred to stay anonymous, even when the band gained an enormous fame and was nominated for Grammys. What's interesting, Nergal from Behemoth posted a picture of himself with Tobias without a mask in social media, which made a quite a lot of fuss. The post has disappeared briefly after it was published. But then, Tobias came out as a human being sometime later in 2018.

Here's an introduction of Cardinal Copia in the 2nd chapter of a whole story for the last Ghost's album, Prequelle. Just to show you a glimpse of this band's excellent (well, at least for me) sense of humour.

And some of my fave songs of them. You need to admit that there's something comforting in words: Don't you forget about dying / Don't you forget about your friend death / Don't you forget that you will die - Pro Memoria

There's impossible to choose their best songs, but you can always search it, if you became interested in this kind of music.