ghost
20:04 Tuesday, 3 May 2022
I'd say that Judas Priest vocalist Rob Halford is way, way high on the list of people you want to be praising your music in metal. In an interview with Chaoszine, interviewer Arto Mäenpää brings up that he had just recently seen Ghost at The Nokia Arena in Tampere, at which point Halford praises Ghost mastermind Tobias Forge for being a great talent and fantastic performer. Halford also admits he's been a fan of Forge's work for a while, and adds that Ghost's records are "wonderful."
"I'm so happy for Tobias to see his ambition and his dreams become so real. He's worked really hard to make Ghost into this worldwide experience, you know? The guy's a great talent, fantastic performer on stage, songwriting… the records are wonderful. You know, I've been following his career since way back."
It's hard to argue with Ghost's very apparent popularity these days. The band's new album Impera debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart with 70,000 equivalent album units sold, and did equally well across the world. Def Leppard vocalist Joe Elliott also recently praised the record, saying it's one of the few loaded onto his Apple Watch.
"It's been my go-to album for the last couple of weeks. I've got it downloaded onto my Apple Watch so I can march away and listen to it. I've only got a few albums on there, and Ghost are one of them.
"I like the fact that they've got a big intro for the album. It reminds of the beginning of Master Of Puppets, weirdly. It starts off with these flamenco-like guitars, then it gets all heavy and duelling, kind of like Thin Lizzy. It's obviously done as a walk-on for the gigs."
Elliott also mentioned that he feels Impera is "like a whole new genre of music" and called it "absolutely stunning."