Ghost: Record weeks at No. 1 and Tobias Forge on lack of ingenuity

Ghost has had an eventful couple of weeks with a solid 7 week hold on the Billboard charts and a recent interview Forge had with a radio station.

Ghost has been around since their debut with Opus Eponymous in 2010. Even though the tracks on that album (and especially their next release, Infestissumam, if it’s any indication from my Ghost best of list) were amazing, it has taken until 2018 for their popularity to quickly zoom right off the charts and directly into space.

Since the release of their first single, “Rats“, and then their subsequent album, Prequelle, Ghost is everywhere. And with a recent interview with Tobias Forge on a radio station and news from Billboard showing that “Rats” is the longest running Rock song at number one in 2018, looks like they aren’t going anywhere any time soon.

Image courtesy of Ghost and YouTube

While their number 1 spot was just this week overtaken by Halestorm’s “Uncomfortable”, out of the 19 weeks that “Rats” has sat on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock chart, it held steady at number one for seven of those weeks. A seven week top chart hold is the longest the rock genre has seen on Billboard yet in 2018.

It looks like Tobias Forge and the other genius minds of Ghost were correct to make the large arena song, “Rats”, their first album single from the recently released Prequelle. It took 12 weeks, but “Rats” climbed its way up and it remains at number 2.

According to Billboard, the last time Ghost was at a number 1 spot on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock list was back in 2017 with their other large arena song, “Square Hamme”, which held its position for 2 weeks. “Cirice” and “Pinnacle to the Pit” have also appeared on the top chart with position 4 and 5 respectively.

Photo courtesy of D.D Crowley

Top charts weren’t the only thing pulling Ghost into the spotlight in the last few weeks. According to Blabbermouth, recently Ghost frontman, Tobias Forge was doing a radio interview with Atlantic rock radio station, Rock 100.5, and shared some opinions on the rock scene showing a lack of ingenuity.

"“If you don’t want to be known, if you don’t want to make it, don’t play. That’s the easiest way not to do it. I’m not necessarily critical of every band — I think there’s plenty of good bands out there. Across the board, not pointing fingers at specific bands at all — and this has been a problem for many years — I think that the problem is especially in current rock climate, 10, 15, 20 years maybe, is that there seems to be a lack of ingenuity. A lot of bands don’t want to be part of something that isn’t sort of current.”"

He also commented on the band’s theme and how people see it and possibly misconstrue it.

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"“Once I got their attention, it’s better to say something valuable rather than repeating the ingredients for a magic potion, or whatever. I think that from the second record, especially, and onward, I think it’s important to keep in mind that the music got a little bit nuanced. I was very adamant about not repeating ‘Opus Eponymous’, which would have been a very safe and very sellout way to keep whatever momentum there was on that record, but I was always very adamant about us moving forward, and I was always very adamant about there being [a] double meaning to the lyrics. Even though it’s very occult-oriented, and if you asked a God-fearing preacher somewhere on a field, obviously he or she would deem whatever I’m saying as being deeply, deeply devil-worshiping and heinous and blasphemous. It all depends on your point of view, I guess, or your standpoint, or where you’re from, or your intelligence, maybe.”"

You can read more of the transcribed interview by Blabbermouth here.

Next. 25 of the best Ghost songs. dark

With the Rats on the Road tour just ended and the Pale Tour Named Death starting in just a few short weeks, keep checking back with 1428 Elm for more Ghost news.

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