Ghost released their sixth album, «Skeletá», on April 25, 2025 via Loma Vista Recordings — and Blabbermouth rated it 8/10, describing it as «aggressively fun and packed with huge songs». It was the band’s first #1 album on the Billboard 200.
Country: Sweden
Genre: Hard Rock / Arena Rock
For fans of: Blue Öyster Cult, Journey, Van Halen
The listen
With Papa V Perpetua at the helm, Ghost lean into macabre AOR more than ever: «Skeletá» is unapologetic in its radio ambitions and contains some of the biggest, sugariest melodic hooks of their history. Tobias Forge has clearly been listening to Van Halen, with a couple of ballads that will bring tears and a dizzying abundance of Journey-school harmonies.
«Peacefield» opens with a lone choir singer and builds into grandeur full of choral vocals — before a Van Halen riff kicks in. It is perhaps Ghost’s boldest opening statement: pompous, intricate and deliberately over the top, mimicking the simplicity of 80s mainstream rock with absolute precision. «Satanized» and «Lachryma» kept building the hype before release.
The album is the band’s most introspective — an ongoing reckoning with guilt, identity, faith and failure — but also their most accessible. Ghost aren’t metal and no longer care to apologize for it: «Skeletá» is a fearless statement that Forge never settled for cult status — and the songs confirm it in the most impressive way.
See also
Nightwish – Yesterwynde · Gojira – L’Enfant Sauvage
