When it came time to discuss Ghost’s fourth album, Prequelle, and its relationship to Meliora, Tobias Forge described it as “the hangover” to its predecessor.
While Meliora had been a godless album, although one set in what he described as a “Utopian, Star Trek future”, Prequelle would deal with God visiting his wrath upon mankind in a despicable form. That album had been lavish in sound and the scope of its vision, not to mention the swelled number of personnel involved – Prequelle would be a more streamlined affair, musically and logistically, with much of it made by Tobias and producer Tom Dalgety.
This was important, not just as an artistic response to what had come before, but because there was something else occupying the thoughts of Ghost’s mastermind.
In April 2017, former band members Simon Söderberg, Henrik Palm, Martin Hjertstedt and Mauro Rubino filed a lawsuit, accusing Tobias of cheating them out of their rightful share of monies, thereby revealing his identity as Papa Emeritus.
Tobias had been unmasked before, courtesy of Behemoth frontman Nergal. At the FortaRock Festival in 2014 where Behemoth and Ghost both performed, Nergal posted a snap of him with Tobias accompanied by the caption, “If you have ghosts… you have everything,” a reference to the Roky Erickson song covered on their 2013 EP. Given that this was three years before Tobias was revealed as the man behind Papa, it caused some panic. And while the picture was quickly deleted, the cat was out of the bag for some.
This time, however, this glimpse behind Ghost’s altar was messier. Thankfully, the case was dismissed after a six-day trial, with the four men ordered to pay Tobias’ legal fees, which amounted to around two million Swedish krona ($225,000).
“It was a bit of an aikido move, where you let the enemy do most of the tripping,” Tobias later told us. “Let them wear themselves down by moving too much. I was not the one screaming ‘Look at me!’ during that time. I was like, ‘Okay, now use the spotlight – use it to show what you’re worth.’ Throughout that period, I was very busy making a new record.”
That new record was Prequelle.
Before Prequelle, however, there was the Popestar EP. And before Tom Dalgety’s work on both, there had been his unsuccessful try-out for Meliora.
“I actually did a mix on [Meliora’s first single] Cirice,” recalls Tom, a fan of Ghost since hearing the demo of Elizabeth on Myspace in 2010, and who’d worked on records by Killing Joke, Opeth, Pixies and Royal Blood.
“I didn’t get the [Meliora] gig, which, at the time, I was fucking gutted about. But I lost out to Andy Wallace, who’s one of my heroes, so I’m at peace with that. I guess I wasn’t a complete flop, though, because they got in touch about the EP that became Popestar.”
Unlike Ghost’s 2013 EP, this time around there was a brand-new song, Square Hammer, which would become a fan favourite, argued by many as the band’s best.
“Tobias felt he wanted a really instant, impactful song for opening shows because the opening track on the first few records was generally atmospheric and a slow burn,” reveals Tom. “He really wanted something that smacked you in the face straight away.”