In a recent interview with Rolling Stone UK, Tobias Forge, the mastermind behind Ghost, pulled back the curtain on the deeper, often misunderstood roots of his musical identity.
Before he donned the robes and crafted Ghost’s theatrical vision, Forge was entrenched in the underground metal scene, fronting the death metal band Repugnant. His connection to that world, he explains, runs deeper than just performance — it’s actually where his artistic identity was forged.
"I grew up in a very musical home or music-loving home, so I've always had a wide range of influence, and my taste has always been relatively voluptuous, and I like a lot of music," he shared (via Blabbermouth). "But as an adolescent, and when I started playing in bands and where my pop cultural sort of belonging is, is in the extreme metal community. That's where a lot of my aesthetics come from."
For Forge, Ghost’s dramatic presentation might seem "exotic" to outsiders, but for those raised in the same scene he came from, it’s familiar territory.
"I think that some people who are unaware or not interested in what metal is, and especially in the death metal and black metal world, even though they might not be interested in Ghost, I think that Ghost might come off as a little bit more exotic and strange than it actually is for someone who comes from my scene, where a lot of these aesthetic attributes and themes and visuals is very much part of the mainframe of what we're doing," he explained.
He also reflected on the evolution of the metal community, emphasizing how the genre has matured without losing its inclusiveness or vitality.
"The community itself has undergone a quite cool — I don't know what to call it — an expansion since… Depending from where you count, but if hard rock really started with Black Sabbath and Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin, and on a daily basis, new bands are being formed and on a daily basis, or at least on a weekly basis, every Friday there are new records coming out in this genre. It is a hugely non-ageist genre where you have everything from senior citizens to little kids who like heavy metal music, so it's a very friendly community."
Still, Forge doesn’t shy away from addressing the criticisms often aimed at metal’s darker, more juvenile edge.
"And at points, of course, when it's been sort of youth-driven, as opposed to now, but in the '80s I think it was a little bit more youth-heavy, where youth was calling the shots, or young bands were calling the shots, the adolescent vibe might have — I wouldn't say 'tainted it', because I love that stuff, but I understand from an outside point of view it might come off as a little bit too immature at points. But that's part of it. If you don't like blood, don't go to see boxing games. And if you don't like metal, don't go to a metal show, if you don't like what it means."
