“Ozzy Osbourne opened with I Don’t Know in front of 80,000 people, who went nuts. If you ever want to play bigger places, you need to have records that sound like you’re playing in big places”: The story of Rats and Ghost’s ascent to arenas

Tobias Forge performing onstage as Cardinal Copia with Ghost in 2018.

From 2010 to 2016, Ghost’s career was pretty much the ideal for a metal band. With debut album Opus Eponymous, they found underground goodwill; with Infestissumam, they courted mainstream controversy; then, with Meliora, they won the masses over, playing late-night TV shows and earning a Grammy Award. The single Square Hammer pushed things even further when it topped the US Mainstream Rock chart. No one could dispute it: Sweden’s masked devil church had become metal’s next big thing.

The road from there should have been simple, but instead Ghost hit one of the biggest bumps in their history. Every member except their Pope-aping frontman stepped down in 2016, and the following April, four of them sued their former cohort over allegedly unpaid royalties. The band continued with a new lineup, touring with Iron Maiden and headlining UK festival Bloodstock, but 2017 has since been described as their annus horribilis. Singer/founder Tobias Forge was no longer anonymous, and the inner workings of one of heavy music’s most mysterious forces were laid bare.