GHOST's First Song Was Written "Almost As A Joke"

Before Ghost was touring the world and winning Grammy awards, band mastermind Tobias Forge was sitting around writing "Stand By Him" as a jokey kind of experiment. In an interview with Metal Hammer, Forge explained that he originally demoed the song at a friend's house and decided he'd only start Ghost if he could come up with similar material.

"Ghost started with a song, 'Stand By Him', which ultimately came out on our first record. I wrote it spontaneously, as an experiment – almost a joke, if you will, in 2006. When I recorded it the first time, I had no equipment in my home, so I had to go to a friend's house.

"We did this very rough demo. He said it was great. He'd been in Subvision, Repugnant and Crashdïet with me, but we'd stopped playing together. He was like, 'Can we form a new band?' and I was like, 'This song is the only thing I have. If I can come up with two more songs and there's a pattern, then of course.' But they needed to be as playful and spontaneous, and sure enough they were."

Funnily enough, Ghost released their debut cassette demo in 2009 featuring "Prime Mover", "Death Knell", and "Ritual"; and then a 7" in 2010 featuring "Elizabeth" and "Death Knell". "Stand By Him" wouldn't surface until Ghost's debut album Opus Eponymous in 2010.