Tobias Forge Says Ghost Has Misfits, Rush, and Motörhead Covers Ready for a Future Release

April 10th, 2023 at 10:45am
Hesher Keenan

Over the weekend, Swedish rock outfit Ghost announced release date of their next EP of cover songs Phantomime and dropped a hilariously blasphemous music video for their version of Genesis’ “Jesus He Knows Me” on Easter Sunday. And while the band is certainly no stranger to putting out covers, mastermind Tobias Forge said in a recent interview that this likely won’t be their last batch, either.

While speaking with NME, Forge said he’d begun drawing up a “cover album” while working on Impera.

“Originally, the idea was to have 10 songs on this covers record, because I wanted to make a complete record and that LP was going to basically mirror Impera somehow.
“Originally the selection was a little bit more eclectic. Look, I’m not going into great detail about them, because we might use some of them at a later point. But it was basically like a piano version of a Motörhead song. There was [also] a Misfits song that was really cool and a U2 track. We recorded it all. In fact, we did a really finished demo of Rush’s ‘Distant Early Warning’, and then after Impera, I was just like, ‘I want to do a rock EP. A pure rock EP.’”

The decision to ultimately not put out that covers record came after he said the work on Impera left him feeling drained and “fried,” leading him to decide on an EP rather than a full LP.

“I thought I’ll sort of take away some of the more experimental stuff, and just focus on the rock songs — the ones that are energetic. The ones that don’t go into any excursions, as in not a piano-led Motörhead track. There were even instrumental covers; like proper instrumentals. But I just wanted to basically make a new recording that was as opposed to Impera as could be — quick and fairly simple.”

While we won’t know which Misfits song they did until they release it — if they release it — we’ll just have to live with Phantomime, which will feature covers of songs by Genesis, The Stranglers, Iron Maiden, Television, and Tina Turner. As mentioned before, we’ve already heard “Jesus He Loves Me” over the weekend and we’re sure to hear one or two more tracks before the EP’s May 18 release.