Ghost’s Papa Emeritus II Has Been Unmasked

Swedish metal group Ghost have done a reasonable job of hiding the identity of its frontman, Papa Emeritus II. At least, until now.

Speculation that Swedish musician Tobias Forge is the man behind Papa’s mask was bolstered by a now-deleted social media post over the weekend, and now one of the group’s nameless ghouls has seemingly confirmed the info in a recent interview.

As Consequence Of Sound reports, Behemoth frontman Nergal Darski recently captioned a now-deleted Instagram image (below) of him and a makeup-free Forge with the caption, “If you have ghosts… You have everything,” a reference to Ghost’s Roky Erickson cover If You Have Ghosts.

Blabbermouth have noted that one of Ghost’s “nameless ghouls” has since commented on the photo, in an interview with Jägermeister (below), saying that whilst the band try to keep their identities secret, it can be a hassle to maintain anonymity.

“We keep our identities as secret as we possibly can, of course, but at some point it’s bound to happen, some things that are not really optimal for us, of course,” the ghoul said.

“But the identity part is always gonna be, for as long as can take it, it’s gonna be a hassle in many ways, and I think we have managed to keep it below the radar, for the most part, at least.”

Aside from singing for Magna Carta Cartel, Forge has also played with Repugnant and Subvision. Earlier this year it was rumoured that Ghost would soon replace Papa Emeritus II with a new frontman.

The nameless ghoul also told Jägermeister that Ghost are working on material for their next studio album, which will follow their 2013 album Infestissumam and Dave Grohl-produced covers EP If You Have Ghosts.

“Obviously, we have plans for pretty much everything,” the ghoul said, before noting that the album centres around the band’s time with Grohl.

“[The album] centres, obviously, around the session with Dave Grohl and the time we spent with him at Studio 606. And we did a lot of different stuff there for us, whereas the next step is gonna be back to full-on, more traditional-type Ghost stuff.”

Ghost set aside some time to perform in Music Feeds Studio when they were in town for Big Day Out earlier this year. Despite Papa appearing to remove his mask during the band’s performance, many noted that it seemed he was wearing another mask to again conceal his real identity. Check out Year Zero from that session below.

Image: Blabbermouth

Image: Blabbermouth

Watch: A “nameless ghoul” of Ghost is interviewed at Sonisphere 2014

Watch: Ghost – Year Zero (Live at Music Feeds Studio)

http://youtu.be/CPCdOtOxdyM

Papa Emeritus II Performs At Music Feeds Studio

Papa Emeritus II Performs At Music Feeds Studio

Gallery: Ghost – Big Day Out 2014, Gold Coast 19/01/14

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