Ghost

Ghost is still on the upswing. No reason to fix what's not broken. In Atlanta they've progressed from playing a small club, to a small concert hall, to a small arena, and now to a larger NBA/NHL sized arena in which they will play in July.

Kiss taking off the makeup gave new life to the band and it helped that Lick It Up was also a good album. They lost steam again with some weak releases later in the 80's and thus did the reunion and put the makeup back on.
 
Just for the record, I don't think they will do away with the shtick completely, just that it will become less prominent.
I also don't see the big connection between the music and the image, especially on the latest album, which is already moving for the Alice-Cooperish songwriting trend with some horror/Saytaan-themed window dressing. (IMHO)

And the comparison with Kiss is merely because Knick mentioned it and explicitly as a failure gesture, I agree those are very different situations.

It's useless to guess, we'll see.
 
Mosh said:
Wait a second. Is Tobias really considering dropping the Ghost gimmick? Because if he is, then they are cooked imo.

I didn't realize the context when I replied to Judas in the Kiss thread. Kiss unmasking worked because the band basically became a non-entity and they transformed into something that allowed them to get media attention. With that being said, it stopped the bleeding but eventually they did need to reunite the original four and put the makeup back on. Basically, taking the makeup off was a last ditch play to save a sinking ship, and it would be insane for Ghost to do something similar at this stage in their career.

The thing about Kiss also is that with a few exceptions, their music wasn't really tied to the stage antics/personas. Ghost's visual stick extends to the way they write songs as well, not to mention the nameless ghoul thing and the Papa Emeritus persona being the "star" of the show. It's much closer to Alice Cooper in that way where Kiss had the four characters/personalities but Alice Cooper is mainly centered around the Alice character. As far as I know, Alice never stops being Alice on stage, whereas there is a clear distinction between Gene Simmons of Gene Simmons Family Jewels and Gene Simmons the demon.

The other thing to keep in mind is that by the time Kiss unmasked, they were already down two members, so the mystique of the four personalities was pretty much gone. Peter Criss was out there doing solo albums and appearing in interviews, Ace disappeared from the public eye for a minute but he was inevitably going to return. You could argue that by the time of Lick It Up, Kiss had evolved anyway into something that didn't necessitate the makeup.

If Ghost went a similar route as Kiss, they become a different band imo.
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For reference, the speculation regarding this is coming from an interview recently where TF said:

'I think that there might be an end to the storytelling because it’s not productive to have this endless soap opera. If fans need the lore in order to like the band, then that element will probably be over quite soon.'

To me this seems to be more in reference to the chapter videos and characters that exist outside of the live shows, rather than the band on stage becoming Tobias Forge + assorted musicians rather than Papa + the Ghouls.
 
I've been a Ghost fan since the first album, and I've honestly never looked at, or know anything, about the lore of the band.

I think the gimmick was dead anyway as soon as Tobias Forge became known.

Also, for swedes, is the name pronounced Foria?
 
Since you brought up the language - one thing that annoys me to no end, much like with many of their brethren, especially of the "satanic" variety, is the bad Latin. I know it sounds like nitpicking, but it makes the bands look amateurish and it's something that could be easily prevented. I admit that it doesn't sound as stupid as Symphony X's "Oculus Ex Inferni" ("Eye out of the dead") or whatever "Divus Pennae Ex Tragoedia" is supposed to mean - or even Mayhem's De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas or (lol) Ordo ad Chao, here it usually at least makes some sense, but still.

The very first track on the very first album - "Deus Culpa" is simply wrong, it could be "Dei Culpa" (God's mistake) or even "Deus Culparum" (God of Mistakes), but not this.

I particularily noticed it with the last Forgincarnation, "Papa (m) Perpetua (f)" and no, it doesn't imply any gender-bending, it's merely a lingusitic nonsense - it should be "Papa Perpetuus", if anything.
 
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