Ghost’s Tobias Forge recently spoke about Iron Maiden, the band he is heavily influenced by. He explained what he thought when Bruce Dickinson left the band and returned after a couple of years.
Tobias Forge is the iconic singer Papa Emeritus in the band Ghost consisting of Nameless Ghouls as band members. The theme of Ghost is as original as it comes; with their anonymous members and theatrical performances, they highly contributed to the heavy metal genre since their formation in 2006. Tobias Forge’s identity was uncovered in 2017, and he started to give candid interviews about himself.
In a recent interview, Forge talked about one of his inspirations that he listened to as a teenager. He spoke of the Bruce Dickinson eras of Iron Maiden, which was formed in 1975 with the lead vocalist Paul Di’Anno. Dickinson replaced Di’Anno in 1982. In 1993, Dickinson left due to turmoil with the band and accusations of him underperforming. Blaze Bayley replaced him, but Bruce returned in 1999 and was ready to rock the world once again.
Forge wasn’t a famous heavy metal singer back then, but he was a close follower of Iron Maiden. According to him, he was a big fan of the band until Dickinson left. His fan spirit didn’t continue with Blaze Bayley because he was careful about which records he should invest in. He was amazed when Dickinson returned. The album ‘Brave New World’ was well-constructed, making Dickinson’s return ‘triumphant.’
Here is what Forge said about Dickinson:
“The 90s was a little bit medieval for a lot of the 80s (metal) bands, and I must say that after Bruce (Dickinson) left (in 1993), I wasn’t a giant fan of the Blaze Bayley years. In the 90s, this was before the internet; this was before accessibility; that way, you had to invest in your records, and you had to invest time into anything that you liked.
In 1995, when they made the first record with Blaze, I was so buried in death/black metal stuff, and I was so busy exploring what happened in 1985 that I didn’t have time for following that. So, of course, I was amazed when Bruce came back into the band and they made this triumphant return. I must say that ‘Brave New World,’ the comeback record with Bruce, was and still is an unbelievably well-constructed record… That record is actually really good from start to finish. Unbelievable.
It’s incredible that a band 20 years into their professional career was able to still add songs to their already existing and mind-blowingly great repertoire. I think that ‘Blood Brothers’ is a song that they are still playing at most of their shows, but they could easily play ten songs from that record.”
Iron Maiden is the pioneer of the new wave of British heavy metal movement, and their themes have been a worldwide known phenomenon. Their lyrics are about history, literature, war, mythology, society, and religion. They do not refrain from criticizing and have given art to the world aside from music.
