Ghostin Tobias Forge: ”Haluan olla sitä mitä Metallica oli 80-luvulla”

Ruotsalainen okkultista rockia soittava Ghost on viimeisten vuosien aikana noussut yhdeksi tunnetuimmista modernin rockin yhtyeistä. Yhtyeen laulaja Tobias Forge on tuoreessa AL.comin haastattelussa pohtinut yhtyeen rakettimaisen suosion kasvun syitä aikana, jolloin rap ja pop musiikki ovat kaikista suurimmassa suosiossa. Forge on haastattelussa sanonut yhtyeen suosion kätkevän sisälleen lukuisia erilaisia asioita mutta paljastaa samassa, että hän pyrkinyt bändinsä kanssa olemaan sitä mitä Metallica oli 80-luvulla ”…And Justice For All” -albumin kiertueella tai mitä Iron Maiden oli ”Powerslave” -albuminsa aikaan. Forge kertoi kunnioituksestaan Metallicaa ja Iron Maidenia kohtaan seuraavaa:

I think there are various reasons. And it all combined in alignment, sort of created the sum our career. But I think our sound and our way of not writing the same record every time, but still having a signature DNA in it has helped. I think it has helped we have consistently tried to bring a show to the people. It defies logic for a lot of bands, I think, to try to expand beyond their means.

But that was aided by the fact that I was the only one that invested and everybody else was paid. [Laughs] If we had people voting on everything, it would not have happened this way. Because I was so determined that, yeah, I want to be what Metallica was in the’ 80s, on the “…And Justice For All” tour. That sort of band or like “Powerslave” with Iron Maiden. That sort of f—ing theater and playing arenas.

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And I’ve always been very, very influenced by Pink Floyd and Rolling Stones. As much as I’m a sucker and grew up listening to really obscure, very extreme death-metal, I also have a huge alignment and childhood love with big-ass arena rock.

And in this day and age, especially when rock isn’t the flavor of the day, I think it has behooved us that we’ve sort of moved against the pack. When we were debutantes, it was still that like emo-core going on, and we stood out like a sore thumb.

Somehow, we were lucky enough people started embracing us as well, even though we weren’t part of any major music movement. Maybe there was a murmur about an underground occult-rock thing going on at the time. But that was at such a low level that wouldn’t have affected people in general.

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But then a lot of kudos and credit I must give to (Guns N’ Roses bassist) Duff McKagan, (Metallica’s) James Hetfield, Phil Anselmo, Jerry Cantrell from Alice in Chains and Dave Grohl, of course. All those guys took us on tours. They lifted up the band Ghost, onto their stages and put us in front of a lot of people. Without that, this wouldn’t have happened.

Forge kertoo haastattelussa myös rakastavansa yli kaiken yhtyeitä kuten The Rolling Stones tai Pink Floyd joten hän kertoo yhtyeen saavan paljon vaikutteita myös arena rockin suunnalta.