Ghost have returned with another single from their forthcoming EP Phantomime, a cover of Iron Maiden's Phantom Of The Opera.
It follows on from last month's release, which saw them tackle Genesis' Jesus He Knows Me. The 1991 TV evangelists-slating classic was shared on Easter Sunday alongside a Alex Ross Perry-directed NSFW video, which featured a fictional vicar known as Father Jim DeFroque indulge in a hedonistic lifestyle unbeknownst to his church-going 'flock'.
The Phantomime EP is set for release on May 18, and will see the occult party rockers offering takes on Television's See No Evil, The Stranglers' Hanging Around and Tina Turner's We Don't Need Another Hero (Thunderdome), alongside the aforementioned Iron Maiden and Genesis covers.
Previously, Ghost have covered songs such as The Beatles' Here Comes The Sun, Abba's I'm A Marionette, Depeche Mode's Waiting For The Night and Metallica's Enter Sandman. However, the Phantomime EP will serve as their first ever official collection of covers.
Speaking of the project, frontman Tobias Forge told NME back in April that it could “cast a glimpse as to where I want to go with the band now”.
He added: “That doesn’t mean that all of a sudden we’re going to sound like Television! It just means that there are practical things in there that have inspired me to record this EP in a slightly different way than I have done previously.”
Although the covers chosen for the EP may seem somewhat "dated", the frontman notes how the political shift in the West back to “Mediaeval times” is what swayed his creative choices.
“All that stuff, it felt dated a few years ago" he explains. "Whereas now, everything that we’re singing about on this song, everything that this song is about is actually right back up beside what I’m writing about in my own material.
“What I’m writing about is a completely contemporary commentary on basically a movement within the free Western world who wants to flatten the Earth. This movement wants to regress the world, and just completely turn the clock back to Mediaeval times. I don’t know what that’s about, it’s just stupidity!”
Listen to Ghost's cover of Phantom Of The Opera below:
Phantomine tracklist:
1. See No Evil (Television)
2. Jesus He Knows Me (Genesis)
3. Hanging Around (The Stranglers)
4. Phantom of the Opera (Iron Maiden)
5. We Don’t Need Another Hero (Thunderdome) (Tina Turner)
