Some two years after closing the chapter on Prequelle, the clergy have set March 11th as the beginning of the band’s new era.
The long wait now has an end date. Though it has been two years since the world was introduced to Papa Emeritus IV during Ghost’s final show of the Prequelle-era, March 11th will mark the official arrival of the latest iteration of the enigmatic rock entity.
The band’s fifth entry into their sweeping catalog is title Impera and conceptually sees Ghost immersed into a world hundreds of years ahead of the Black Plague-era European world of Prequelle. The 12-track collection details an expansive narrative that centers on the rise and eventual fall of empires in a body of work that is being referred to as the band’s “the most current and topical” to date.
Recently, Ghost architect Tobias Forge referenced the book, The Rule Of Empires: Those Who Built Them, Those Who Endured Them, And Why They Always Fall by Timothy Parsons as the catalyst for the album’s idea. Speaking with rock radio station KLAQ, Forge detailed how the concept album idea had been simmering for years but how the climate of the last couple of years and the book offered some compelling parallels that prompted him to finally execute it.
“The album that I have been working on, I came up with that concept years ago. We played in Seattle in 2013, 2014 — something like that — we played at Showbox At The Market. I remember that day I came up with the idea for this record, this upcoming record. Because I got a book called ‘The Rule Of Empires’.
So, basically, I wanted to make a record about the rise and ultimately the unescapable fails and falls of empires. And an idea like that can take — at least me — quite far. So once you get that idea of, like, ‘Oh, now I know what the pile is gonna look like. I know now what not to put in there.’ And it was the same thing with Prequelle; it was gonna be about the great death, a medieval, primordial threat of annihilation which was, I guess I wouldn’t say carnal but maybe a tiny tad more spiritual and philosophical death, with the ever presence of actual termination, whereas this record about the empires was gonna be a little bit more practical, I guess; a little bit more, I don’t wanna say political. So it wasn’t really hard to be inspired by the last couple of years.”
The introduction of the album comes packaged with a second single from the collection with the reveal of “Call Me Little Sunshine”. Accompanied by an ominously stylized visual from director Matt Mahurin and starring Ruby Modine, the single offers a masterful counter to the heft of the band’s first offering “Hunter’s Moon” which was showcased on the Halloween Kills soundtrack late last year.
The announcement comes as Ghost are set to kick off their North American co-headlining run with Volbeat and special guests Twin Temple on January 25th. Tickets, dates and venues for the tour can be found below.
Impera, the fifth full length album from Ghost arrives via Loma Vista Recordings on March 11th. Pre-order the album – HERE
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