Ghost’s “Skeleta”: the recent and successful album

The album cover of Ghost’s “Skeleta.” Loma Vista Recordings

The band Ghost released “Skeleta” on April 25. Several midnight sales happened around the world for this upcoming album which is the most recent one in the band’s discography.

Ghost, meanwhile, has commenced their tour in European countries.

“Skeleta“ is the introduction of Ghost’s lead singer and creator of the band Tobias Forge’s new character, Papa V Perpetua. While it can be interpreted that some songs in the album share themes of this new frontman, it also has its themes and stories that Forge wanted to touch upon.

In “Peacefield,” the first song of the album, we enter with a haunting choir that is typical of Ghost’s many church related themes. This is also another revolutionary song reminiscent of “The Future Is A Foreign Land.” We are going through an era of worldwide strife, and Ghost is no stranger to this fact. Forge has high hopes for the children of the future to make things right.

Forge told Rolling Stone he wanted to start with a lighter theme before going into the darker subjects which really shows with lyrics such as “your love, bright as the starlight.”

“Lachryma,” track number two, is the perfect song of heartbreak. The words that relate to freeing yourself from toxicity are very powerful. The mention of a vampire in the beginning also perfectly fits Papa V Perpetua’s aesthetics, who was featured in Rolling Stone and the music video for the song wearing a costume with skeletal bat wings. Also, a vampire can be a metaphor for one who drains another person of their livelihood or power. The title for “Lachryma” itself relates to the song as it is Latin for ‘tears’ and the chorus talks about being “done crying.”

The guitar solo at the beginning of track number three “Satanized” is fantastic. This was the first song released to introduce Papa V Perpetua and definitely signals the change in the story for Ghost’s lore that has come into the air. It contains more of the religious imagery of one losing themselves to some kind of cosmic force. Forge said it’s a song about love. People seek some kind of spiritual outlet, often to try and find love for themselves, which could be seen in this song. 

“Guiding Lights,” track number four, is not as emotional to me as it has been to many fans, but I still appreciate the themes of soul searching. What was interesting to me is that Forge revealed to Swedish Rock Magazine that it was originally meant to be in season two of “Arcane” on Netflix. Now that fact makes it far more impactful to me. It’s very calming.

The following two tracks, “De Profundis Borealis” and “Cenotaph,” I didn’t quite vibe with as much as the other songs so I will talk about them both here. They are both very representative of the dark energy that Forge likes to bring to his music with very vivid lyrics.

“Missilia Amori” could be said to be similar to “Lachryma” with its themes of getting over some kind of toxic relationship. However there is clearly an underlying meaning to a sexual reference with the name “Love Rockets” that many fans have joked about.

“Marks of the Evil One” is just a fun song with a very catchy beat. There are lyrics that share imagery of the four horsemen of the apocalypse and even refer back to the music video in “The Future is a Foreign Land” where each of the ghouls wears a patch with the symbols from each rider. “It’s just abracadabra, some hocus-pocus sham” is such a fun line from the song and signals the transition to more upbeat themes. I think this one is definitely among my favorites in the album for the fierceness in the chorus and the many memes that have been made out of it.

I need to listen to “Umbra” more because my friend likes it. It has a lot of church imagery and is another love song, according to Forge.

“Excelsius” references something Papa Emeritus IV once said in concert about reaching the end of the rainbow. It’s a wonderful closer to this album and one of my favorite songs. The instrumentals are nice and soothing. “This is the end of the avenue; I’m afraid of eternity too” just shows how Papa V may also fear for the future.

I am soon going to see this ritual in concert, so I look forward to seeing some of these songs live. I highly recommend getting “Skeleta,” especially on vinyl, for its unique design.

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