Here’s a Photo of Ghost’s Papa Emeritus Unmasked and with No Makeup On

Last summer Behemoth frontman Nergal posted a selfie with Ghost frontman Tobias Forge (aka Papa Emeritus) that was promptly deleted from his Facebook account, but not before it was screen-capped and made the rounds of the metalsphere.

Now it seems as if Prong’s Tommy Victor has made the same mistake. Prong are currently out with Danzig and Superjoint Ritual (among others) on the Blackest of the Black Tour, which intersected with Ghost’s current headline run in New Orleans just a day apart from one another. Epic hangs ensued, and Victor posted a photo to Prong’s Twitter account which was soon wiped clean. Here’s the screen cap, with Forge, shirtless, in the middle:

Everyone pretty much already knew that Papa Emeritus = Tobias Forge (formerly of Repugnant, Crashdiet, Magna Carta Cartel and Subvision), but now there’s little doubt. Either way, it’s really fucking impressive that they’ve been able to keep the anonymity gimmick going as long as they have. And you know what? I don’t think it even matters that the game is up. Ghost have established their imagery — and knack for writing great songs — so firmly that I don’t think anyone really cares at this point whether their frontman’s identity is known or not. They’ll still be Papa Emeritus and the Nameless Ghouls. And I’ll bet the vast majority of their fanbase still has no idea.

So, welcome to the club, Tobias! Douchey MS bloggers and double-Jews Vince Neilstein and Axl Rosenberg have real identities, too, and no one has tackled us in public… yet.