GHOST Working On 'Lavished And Divine' New Album

David E. Gehlke of recently conducted an interview with one of the "Nameless Ghouls" from the mysterious Swedish buzz band GHOST. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below. The whole aspect of the band being anonymous is crucial to what GHOST is about. Does it wear you out having to go to all of these lengths to conceal your identity?

The Nameless Ghoul: Yes and no. On a day-to-day basis when we are home, it can be slightly irritating at times when you have to justify what you are doing. Some of us in the band have experienced people telling us we have to quit our jobs. It's hard to justify quitting your job because you're pursuing a musical career, but nobody knows what band you're in [laughs]. So it gives you an enormous loser tag right in your forehead and you have to say that with the loser tag, and you just fight it [laughs]. That's one of the weird perks to being in this band. There's a lot of people in your immediate surrounding that you don't share a lot of information with. Being away for months at a time, obviously that's weird when people don't' know what you're doing. On the positive side, you can be released of a lot the negative aspect of being semi-famous or recognized. Some things we are missing out on, but I'm glad to not be a part of that. I prefer being my own individual and doing things with my friends. Fortunately, I'm doing this with a lot of my friends and whenever we choose to step outside of the bubble, we can easily do so. We don't need to be entertainers or members of the band; nobody expects us to jump onstage the bar. Nobody knows…we could pass as roadies and it would be perfect. Living in the age of the Internet, it's really easy to get information on just about anyone. Are you worried about information being leaked on you guys?

The Nameless Ghoul: As long as we don't state publicly who we might be, we really don't see it as a huge problem. We're not on a worldwide "above-the-radar" basis. We're still virtually unknown as a band, much different than in a Paris Hilton sort of way [laughs]. As long as we don't have that as an attraction, there's really not much [reason] in this group to unfold our true identities. Like a public statement would have to rely on us coming out, and as long as we don't do that, we can keep on… not even denying, but not even commenting on rumors or what people say. What's the status on the follow-up to [GHOST's debut album] "Opus Eponymous"?

The Nameless Ghoul: Most of the material has been written already. Throughout the production and writing, we've been using the word "divine" a lot. Whereas with the first album, the sound was slightly "wooden," we want the new album to be stone and golden in terms of being lavished and divine. So we are trying to paint an even more solemn religion and there's all sorts of dramatic steps forward. The first album is about the arrival of the anti-Christ, about a coming darkness. The new album will about a current darkness, the presence of the devil, how it relates to divinity and how it's futile you grasp whatever is divine. Considering how successful "Opus Eponymous" was, are you prepared for what should be some extremely high expectations for this album?

The Nameless Ghoul: I can't honestly say, but I think our sort of relaxed distance from what we're doing professionally might show that we're pretty well fit for survival. You never know. We are humans as well and we're trying to make a record that's supposed to be better than something a lot of people like, of course there's some pressure. You deliberately have to try to want to remember why you are doing this in the first place. With the first album, no one had any clue about us. So I think we'll manage to do it; I think the new album will hopefully as confronting and polarizing as the first one. If it's not, then it will be a waste of everyone's time if we try to do 10 more "Rituals".

Read the entire interview from

Video footage of GHOST's November 30, 2011 concert at 013 in Tilburg, Holland can be viewed below.


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