GHOST's PAPA EMERITUS III 'Unmasked' In New Photo?

PRONG mainman and DANZIG guitarist Tommy Victor has tweeted a photo (see below) of several metal legends hanging out together in New Orleans earlier this week, including Glenn Danzig, Philip Anselmo (PANTERA, DOWN, SUPERJOINT),Sean Yseult (WHITE ZOMBIE) and what appears to be GHOST frontman Papa Emeritus III — believed to be Swedish musician Tobias Forge of MAGNA CARTA CARTEL, REPUGNANT and SUBVISION — without his trademark makeup.

GHOST performs under complete anonymity, with only Papa Emeritus III having a distinct identity.

Speaking to Jägermeister at the Sonisphere festival in the U.K., one of the Nameless Ghouls from GHOST said about previous Papa Emeritus photo leaks: "We don't really know what to say about that except for 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. 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."

A Nameless Ghoul admitted to RollingStone.com: "You know, we thought we were going to be completely outed and everything was going to be over basically one week after the first record came out. We're as baffled as anyone that it hasn't happened yet. I have no idea how we've done it."

Regarding GHOST's decision to keep their identities under wraps, the Nameless Ghoul said: "The reason for us doing this band the way we chose to do it was so that there would not be any focus on us as individuals. But as we have grown, we understand that there is, anyway."

GHOST's third album, "Meliora", entered The Billboard 200 chart at position No. 8 with first-week sales of just over 29,000 units — nearly all from pure album sales. The set follows the No. 28-peaking "Infestissumam", which was released in 2013 and has sold almost 70,000 copes in the U.S. to date.

The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week based on multi-metric consumption, which includes traditional album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA).

"Meliora" was released on August 21 via Loma Vista Recordings. The CD was helmed by Klas Åhlund, a prolific songwriter, producer and guitarist who is also a member of the Swedish rock band TEDDYBEARS, and was mixed by Andy Wallace (SLAYER, NIRVANA, SEPULTURA, LINKIN PARK, GUNS N' ROSES).