Ghost’s Tobias Forge isn’t done with death metal: “I still feel that urge to partake in it”

Tobias Forge has discussed his death metal past in a brand new interview, as well as answer the question of whether he’d write any death metal songs for Ghost. The frontman and Ghost mastermind, who previously played in Swedish death metallers Repugnant, was chatting to Loudwire when the subject of his love for extreme metal was brought up. Asked if he’d ever write death metal for Ghost, Forge answers (as transcribed by Blabbermouth):

“No, I don’t think so….it’s kind of like making a timepiece film where if it’s about Vikings, you can’t wear a Casio digital watch. And I think there are elements in music that just might become that sort of digital watch or a Transformer toy that just comes in and just screws up the picture…I would rather entertain writing death metal with everything that comes with that. He adds: “But playing a straight death metal beat would just feel strange, I think, in that [Ghost] setting.”

When asked if he’s still tempted to pursue death metal outside of Ghost, Forge responds: “All the time. I love that stuff. I listen to it a lot. I’m still obsessing over it from a collecting point of view. That’s very much where my adolescent heart is. I grew up with a lot of music, but my adolescence was completely immersed and completely swamped with that impression.

“I still get the same kick out of things that I liked as a — not even a teenager; as an 11-year-, 12-year-old, when I really started listening to that and when death metal was this really dangerous animal that you can just go to this one store to find,” he notes. “And I’m still sort of chasing that. I have my safe spot inside where all that is, and, of course, it’s materialised in a lot of physical things that I’m collecting. But I still feel that sort of urge to, in some way or form, partake in it. But I don’t know in what form it will materialise.”

Ghost’s new (and decidedly un-death metally) album, Impera, was released earlier this year. They hit Europe for a bunch of tour dates next year, including a stop off at the massive four-day Download festival.

Source: loudersound.com