New Ghost Album to Feature Opeth Guitarist

Great news for fans of Swedish metal that’s highly influenced by ’70s proto-metal: Ghost’s forthcoming album, Impera, will feature longtime Opeth guitarist Fredrik Åkesson.

Ghost mastermind Tobias “Papa Emeritus” Forge revealed the news as part of a new interview with Full Metal Jackie:

Your creative process is often to collaborate on songwriting then, in the studio, perform much of it yourself. What’s the benefit to working at both ends of that creative spectrum?

It enables me to have something similar to a perspective slightly objective that way because I’m a little bit of a jack of all trades when it comes to actual playing. I’m an able drummer, a bass player, an able guitar player, but I’m not a virtuoso.

This time around, I actually had another guitar player coming in, mounting the massive work of actually redoing everything. I’ve played guitar all my life, but, unlike most guitar players who are in successful bands, they play as they tour. I am doing a whole slew of other things, so, it almost feels like every time I saw start writing again, and demoing and doing pre-production, I quickly have to go up to par again.

On, tour for example, I mostly play drums, actually, in a rehearsal room in the back that we usually do as a warm up. Part of my daily exercises, I play drums for an hour, but I tend to forget to play guitar. When making this record, the demos dictates what to play — you can always figure that out and there’s always ways to redo, undo and piece things together.

But when it came to actually performing, I had a friend of mine, Fredrik Åkesson, the guitar player from Opeth. He’s the sort of person who plays five hours every day. He’s so amazingly talented. He can play circles around anything that I put on tape and he can do it with flair.

Åkesson joined Opeth in 2007, and has played on all of their albums since Watershed. Lest you still doubt his bona fides, he’s also been a live member of Arch Enemy and Tiamat. There’s no reason to believe his work on Impera will be anything less than stellar.

Impera comes out on March 11 via Loma Vista Recordings; pre-order here. You can check out the first single, “Call Me Little Sunshine,” here. 

Ghost + Volbeat U.S. co-headline tour dates:

Jan. 25 – Reno, NV – Reno Events Center [tickets]
Jan. 27 – Seattle, WA – Climate Pledge Arena [tickets]
Jan. 28 – Nampa, ID – Ford Idaho Center Arena [tickets]
Jan. 29 – Portland, OR – Veterans Memorial Coliseum [tickets]
Jan. 31 – West Valley City, UT – Maverik Center [tickets]
Feb. 02 – Denver, CO – Ball Arena [tickets]
Feb. 04 – Lincoln, NE – Pinnacle Bank Arena [tickets]
Feb. 05 – Minneapolis, MN – Target Center [tickets]
Feb. 07 – Columbus, OH – Nationwide Arena [tickets]
Feb. 08 – Hershey, PA – GIANT Center [tickets]
Feb. 10 – Newark, NJ – Prudential Center [tickets]
Feb. 11 – Worcester, MA – DCU Center [tickets]
Feb. 12 – Camden, NJ – BB&T Pavilion [tickets]
Feb. 14 – Pittsburgh, PA – Petersen Events Center [tickets]
Feb. 15 – Toledo, OH – Huntington Center [tickets]
Feb. 16 – Grand Rapids, MI – Van Andel Arena [tickets]
Feb. 18 – Chicago, IL – Allstate Arena [tickets]
Feb. 19 – Cincinnati, OH – Heritage Bank Center [tickets]
Feb. 20 – Milwaukee, WI – Fiserv Forum [tickets]
Feb. 21 – St. Louis, MO – Chaifetz Arena [tickets]
Feb. 23 – Independence, MO – Cable Dahmer Arena [tickets]
Feb. 25 – Houston, TX – Smart Financial Centre at Sugar Land [tickets]
Feb. 26 – Dallas, TX – Fair Park Coliseum [tickets]
Feb. 28 – El Paso, TX – Don Haskins Center [tickets]
Mar. 01 – Phoenix, AZ – Footprint Center [tickets]
Mar. 03 – Anaheim, CA – Honda Center [tickets]

Europe and U.K. tour dates with Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats and Twin Temple:

04/09 Manchester, UK – Arena
04/11 London, UK -O2 Arena
04/13 Glasgow, UK -Hydro
04/15 Birmingham, UK -RWA Arena
04/17 Rotterdam, NET – RTM Stage Ahoy
04/18 Paris, FRA – Accor Arena
04/19 Cologne, GER – Lanxess Arena
04/21 Leipzig, GER – Quarterback Immobillen Arena
04/22 Frankfurt, GER – Festhalle
04/24 Prague, CZE – Arena
04/27 Tampere, FIN – Nokia Arena
04/29 Stockholm, SWE – Avicii Arena
04/30 Oslo, NOR – Spektrum
05/01 Malmo, SWE – Malmo Arena
05/03 Brussels, BEL – Forest
05/05 Milan, ITA – Mediolanum Forum
05/07 Barcelona, SPA – Olympic Arena Badalona
05/08 Madrid, SPA – Vistalegre Arena
05/11 Vienna, AUT – Stadthalle
05/13 Zurich, SWI – Hallenstadion
05/15 Hannover, GER – ZAG Arena
05/16 Munich, GER – Olympiahalle
05/18 Budapest, HUN – Arena