A new, great-looking Papa (Papa V Perpetua)? Check. Impeccable chops? Check. Jesus present in the room? Check. Great visuals? Check. Earworms galore? Check. Fantastic crowd? Check. Everyone capturing Ghost on their phones? Erm, no.
Ghost
The O2 – 19 April 2025
Words: Bogdan Bele
Photography: Ryan Chang
As you walk from the tube station towards The O2, thousands of people, a lot of them in makeup and outfits mirroring Ghost’s various eras, greet you. They are all in a great mood, and some of them are in massive queues at the merchandise lines. This is by far one of the friendliest crowds you will come across.
As showtime draws near, I make my way to the designated entrance, expecting things to take a while and that is because I’m not sure how the “phone thing” will go.
As MetalTalk reported, this Ghost tour is a phone-free one. More on how that was on the inside of The O2 arena later. Suffice to say the process was very quick. Your phone is put into a (quite large) pouch, which you take with you. And that’s it. Should you need to use it, you leave the performance space and get it unlocked.
As I get to my seat, I see the huge stage completely covered in a black curtain. While I wonder what might lie behind that, I notice that everyone in the (full to the brink) arena keeps cheering. However, there does not seem to be anything on stage prompting that.
And then I see it. As is apt on Easter Saturday, Jesus himself [or someone dressed as him, let’s not get caught up in the details], is in one of the stands. He is working the crowd and everyone is taking part.
Ghost do not have an opening act tonight, but he (or should I write He?) manages to keep everyone entertained and laughing. We are off to a great start.
It is 8:30, and as the atmospheric music stops, Ghost are straight into the new track, Peacefield. It is just as catchy as the pair of singles that the band has already released from the imminent album Skeleta. I especially liked the use of keyboards and its classic rock sound.
Since this is the Skeleta tour, the band goes straight into Lachryma, the second single from the upcoming release. By this point, you have a whole arena singing every lyric with Papa Perpetua V, a.k.a. Tobias Forge, his voice supported by impeccable backing vocals.
Ghost are the perfect marriage of image and music, and it would be hard to think of one without thinking of the other. Most recently, Forge hinted at an end to the storytelling side of Ghost. Would that also mean kissing most of the makeup goodbye (pun intended)? Only time will tell on that one.
What is certain is that the image is alive and well. Our Papa has several costume changes tonight, and the new mask and its variations seem to suit him perfectly. This includes the shiny variant he sports for Cirice, as well as an outfit very similar to what you can see on the new album cover.
The show continues, moving on from new tracks and into some of what we can already call Ghost classics. We get to hear great versions of Spirit, From The Pinnacle To The Pit, and, as a surprise, Majesty, unearthed after a long time.
There is also a reminder of the spectacular cinema extravaganza last year, with the new track from it. It is The Future Is A Foreign Land, of course, with its lyrics so fitting for the times we live in – “if it all burns down.”
Forge says before it that even if things are a bit heated at the moment, it will all eventually be well. By 2034, as the song’s adapted lyrics say.
Devil Church and Cirice sound extraordinary, and you cannot help but compliment all the Ghouls on stage tonight. The playing is nothing short of perfect. The sound is very good as well, with the guitars taking a rightful centre-stage place.
We arrive at the only song from the previous opus Impera that we are getting tonight, and that’s Darkness At The Heart Of My Love. I find myself looking at the vast The O2 arena, singing in unison, like they do for the whole show, and, for lack of better wording, simply being there.
At various slower points in the set, you can even see a few lighters. It is a feeling that is hard to describe, but one that I would personally like repeated as much as possible. A show of this magnitude, with everyone truly present, is certainly a joy to behold.
It is all designed to visually complement the music – the backdrops change several times with the help of a massive LED screen. I will not ruin too much of the surprise for you if you plan on seeing them on this tour, but you will find enough symbols in there to keep you interested. The traditional cathedral backdrop makes an appearance as well if you were wondering.
Even the screens on the side of the stage are used very smartly. The whole band, and particularly the frontman, interacts with the cameras, capturing images for them. This, no doubt, benefits those further from the stage. Pyrotechnics are also used on occasion but not abused.
However, one of the most striking parts of the set is the immense Grucifix lighting rig at the top, capable of moving to spectacular effect. It somehow reminds me of Motörhead’s Bomber rig.
Coming back to the music, though, the show has two more songs from the new record. The first is Satanized. This first single from the new record is absolutely fantastic live, with the whole arena yelling “Blasphemy! Heresy!” at the top of their lungs. The surprise is a premiere of Umbra, a fabulously catchy ’80s-inspired track, with blue neon and pink light effects to go with. Hell, it even has cowbell on it.
The evening could not end without some absolutely-have-to-play-this tracks in the Ghost songbook. An epic Year Zero is followed, after the intro of Spöksonat, by the even more so He Is.
That is the end of the solemn moment, as everyone gets to shake everything they have to Rats and Kiss The Go-Goat. Mummy Dust, with Papa Dollars shot from confetti cannons into the crowd, and Monstrance Clock, end the regular set. Before the latter, Forge takes the opportunity to thank the crowd in London, a place where Ghost feels at home. Ever since their first show at The Underworld in Camden, 15 years prior.
The band come back on stage for an encore, before which the frontman asks the crowd whether they think Ghost are predictable enough to do that. Once the crowd and frontman agree that, indeed, they are, everyone joins in for Mary On A Cross. This is followed by Dance Macabre and the whole arena dancing. Where else do you see so many Metalheads do that? Square Hammer is the most fitting ending to the show one could ask for.
And, just like that, two hours have flown by. After Ghost’s epic show at The O2, someone was saying to me that it would be interesting to see how long they can keep improving. It is hard to tell, but it is hard to imagine seeing a more spectacular show this year.
The only possible conclusion is that the Devil still has the best music.
