GHOST: Skeletour World Tour 2025

Child, Take Your Dark Memories

Like Seeds, And Plant Them Far From Here

 

It’s virtually impossible to overstate how far GHOST has come since manifesting from the imagination of Tobias Forge in the early 21st century. Over the course of the nearly 20 years since its inception in Linköping, Sweden, GHOST has become so much more than Scandinavia's foremost theatrical rock export. The achievements and accolades amassed by the GHOST discography include nearly 10 billion streams, five GRAMMY nominations (including a 2016 Best Metal Performance win for “Cirice”), an RIAA-certified platinum single (“Mary on a Cross”), an American Music Award and an iHeart Radio Music Award (both Rock Album wins for 2022’s international #1 charting IMPERA). GHOST’s ambitions have only risen with the exponential growth of its profile, recently resulting in the highest grossing hard rock cinema event in North American history (the band’s feature film debut RITE HERE RITE NOW). 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.

There Is Something Inside Me

And They Don’t Know If There Is A Cure

 

Having spent the better part of the last few years enrapturing GHOST’s passionately devoted and ever-growing following throughout multiple legs of touring—a stretch of time spanning from before IMPERA’s March 2022 release through the U.S. finale that took place September 11-12, 2023 at Los Angeles’ Kia Forum (as documented in the aforementioned box office smash RITE HERE RITE NOW)—the 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.

And The Road That

Leads To Nowhere Is Long

 

Produced by Gene Walker and mixed by Andy Wallace and Dan Malsch, 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—SKELETÁ'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. However, SKELETÁ is so much more than the sum of its tracklist. Its songs form a thematic arc that begins with the ascendant and anthemic “Peacefield,” then delves into progressively darker spiritual territory by way of the bittersweet melodies of “Lachryma,” demonically hooky first single “Satanized” and soul-searching epic ballad “Guiding Lights.”

Where Ever I Go

You’re Always There

Riding Next To Me

 

SKELETÁ’s second half charts a trajectory through this darkness, back to the unbridled optimism of its opening salvo. Beacons along the way include “Cenotaph” with its notion of existence transcending the physical grave, while the ominous portents of “Marks Of The Evil One” are hailed with a deceptively joyous “There! There!” refrain, and “Umbra” takes a decidedly carnal turn. “Excelsis” concludes the journey in divine fashion, its deceptively mournful intonations actually conveying a promise of eternal life—cementing the song cycle’s overarching theme of reassurance that all dark ages, mourning periods and the like eventually come to an end.

Come With Me

To The Rainbow’s End

 

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, the tour 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 live 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.”

SKELETA is released April 25, 2025 via Loma Vista Recordings.