TOBIAS FORGE Says Special Skills Are Required To Play In GHOST As One Of The Nameless Ghouls

Tobias Forge, who fronts GHOST as a character known as Cardinal Copia, has told the Albuquerque Journal that it takes versatile musical talent to play with the band as one of the Nameless Ghouls. "You need to have certain metal chops," said Forge, who has written almost all of the group's music. "If you are a guitar player in this band, it's very old school, it's very much old rock style. I am an old-school guitar player. I'm not an '80s-'90s sort of shredder who plays a million notes a minute. I am way more '60s-'70s kind of style, and I write very '60s-'70s. If you come in like a typical modern drummer who is used to playing only with tricks and double kick and, like, big, big, big, fast roles but you can't play a swinging shuffle, then you can't play in GHOST whatsoever. You need to have spent your time from playing Top 40 pop rock in order to know how to play a song like 'Ritual', a song like 'Absolution' or 'Idolatrine'. You need to know your classic drumming and your classic guitar. You can't have people in the band who's like only metal, either, but if you don't know metal, you can't play GHOST anyway because there are elements in my guitar playing that are very, very, very based on me having played death metal, like '80s death metal, so you would have to play a SLAYER riff as well. You need to be sort of equally familiar with Jimi Hendrix and DEEP PURPLE as you are with the more extreme forms of metal, generally. So it's not for everyone."

Since the musicians in GHOST wear masks and are only identified as Nameless Ghouls, personnel changes in the group over its eight-year existence have gone unannounced.

Four former members of GHOST sued Forge in April 2017, accusing the singer of cheating them out of their rightful share of the profits from the band's album releases and world tours. The case was dismissed last month, with the four musicians — who have reportedly spent around $320,000 in legal fees — ordered to pay Forge's legal costs as well. They have since announced plans to appeal the ruling.

GHOST recently kicked off a massive North American fall tour, which will wrap on December 15 in Brooklyn, New York.

GHOST's latest album, "Prequelle", debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and features the chart-topping rock single "Rats".