Ghost announce new album ‘Skeletá’ and share first single ‘Satanized’

GHOST has confirmed the release of its feverishly awaited new album: SKELETÁ, the GRAMMY-winning Swedish theatrical rock icons’ first full length offering of new material since 2022’s international #1 charting IMPERA, will manifest April 25 via Loma Vista Recordings.

SKELETÁ’s impending arrival is heralded by anthemic first single “Satanized,” and its unsettling new video featuring a first glimpse of GHOST‘s newly anointed ringleader Papa V Perpetua—whose ascension was foreshadowed by the recent V is Coming! campaign, which culminated in the recent Sin City conclave that saw him crowned. “A demonic possession unlike any before” has never sounded so sweet as it does here — An avalanche of infectious hooks and harmonies is buoyed by a hypnotic shuffle, as the narrator succumbs to dark forces within and without, helplessly acknowledging their own blasphemy and heresy as it inexorably consumes them. By the time the song’s opening lines “There is something inside me and they don’t know if there is a cure” have moved from the inner monologue of the possessed to the ears of the hapless listener, it will already be too late: You will have been “Satanized.”

The announcement also marks the debut of The Satanizer, a first of its kind music video experience for fans who wish to be “Satanized.” Developed in partnership with Jason Zada (Elf Yourself), The Satanizer will morph its users into characters featured in the song’s melodramatic video. With a quick upload of their photo, The Satanizer will send out a personalized music video clip featuring the participant, who can in turn share via social media that they too have been “Satanized.”

Additionally, chart-topping podcast MORBID will dedicate a special bonus episode to GHOST this Friday, March 7, featuring an exclusive interview with Tobias Forge. Join Tobias and hosts Ash and Alaina for this one of a kind first deep dive into all things SKELETÁ, special guests and so much more.

The genesis of SKELETÁ is rooted in the wake of a world-spanning years-long touring campaign in support of IMPERA—a period that saw IMPERA top album charts  the world over and winning an American Music Award and an iHeart Radio Music Award, as well as the band earning its first RIAA-certified platinum single (“Mary on a Cross”) and presiding over the highest grossing hard rock cinema event in North American history (its feature film debut RITE HERE RITE NOW). As this sustained maelstrom ultimately wound down, GHOST mastermind Tobias Forge’s next uncharted creative direction would prove to be an inward journey. This deeply introspective turn in Forge’s creative process would ultimately result in SKELETÁ:  a collection of 10 new songs originating from and cutting as close to the bone as (in)humanly possible.

GHOST’s sixth psalm, SKELETÁ, is its most unflinchingly introspective work to date. Where previous GHOST albums dealt largely with chronicling and/or observing outward facing subject matter—such as IMPERA’s meditations on the rise and fall of empires and its predecessor Prequelle’s evocations of the ravages of era-defining plagues—SKELETA’s lyrics render the distinct individual emotional vistas of each of its 10 songs in one-on-one fashion, at times as if in a dialogue with oneself in a mirror. The end result is a singular collection of timeless, universal sentiments, all filtered through a prism of a uniquely personal point of view.

Pre-order here.

TRACKLIST:
1. Peacefield
2. Lachryma
3. Satanized
4. Guiding Lights
5. De Profundis Borealis
6. Cenotaph
7. Missilia Amori
8. Marks Of The Evil One
9. Umbra
10. Excelsis

SKELETÁ will be brought to life over the course of GHOST’s impending SKELETOUR WORLD TOUR 2025. The most ambitious incarnation of the GHOST live ritual to date, SKELETOUR WORLD TOUR 2025 recently revealed a first wave of more than 55 dates—including a historic first-ever headlining show at New York’s hallowed Madison Square Garden—with more to be announced. With tickets already selling at a brisk pace, the SKELETOUR WORLD TOUR 2025 ritual experience promises to expand the GHOST community to attract its largest and most diverse audiences to date. From lifelong disciples to the curious uninitiated first-timers to the outcasts and others who find solace in the ritual, all are welcome to escape the travails of daily life and to become one with the phantasmagoric spectacle that moved THE LOS ANGELES TIMES to rave “As far as live acts go, they’re one of the best in the business” and THE WALL STREET JOURNAL to anoint the band as “the next generation of arena stars.”

As GHOST continues to strengthen its bond with the world-spanning legion of kindred souls that commune with the band and each other at its vaunted live rituals, it’s no exaggeration to describe GHOST — and the uniquely intense connection formed with the faithful who find refuge in the personae, lore and world Forge has created — as a singular global phenomenon.