Latest news with #Skeletá
Yahoo
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
We've ranked every Ghost album from worst to best
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Formed by Tobias Forge in 2008 in Linköping, Sweden, Ghost have charted a meteoric trajectory from the tiny clubs of their homeland to the arenas and festival stages of the world, counting the likes of James Hetfield, Dave Grohl and Duff McKagan among their devoted followers - not to mention the millions of converts they continue to leave in their wake. Visually captivating, the Swedes appear as a spooky, blasphemous horde, with a ghoulish anti-Pope as a frontman, leading a pack of anonymous musicians shrouded by dark robes, masks and other nightmare-inducing garb. Every album cycle brings with it a drastic makeover, including a 'new' frontman - the most recent of which, Papa V Perpetua, took the reigns for 2025's bombastic Skeletá. Of course, their success would be nothing without the music, an absurdly-catchy blast of 70s hard rock, 80s metal and ample doses of pop, prog and even show tunes. As the band evolves, their tunes seemingly get all the more glittery and over the top - and the cult just will not stop growing. That said, here's our official ranking of every single Ghost album released thus far, in reverse order of greatness. A cruel, but understandable consequence of a breakout debut — like 2010's Opus Eponymous, for example — is the corrosive deluge of expectations that await the sophomore effort. Ghost found themselves in this very situation with the release of Infestissumam. At times campy (the ABBA cover, I'm A Marionette) and other times fiendishly heavy (Per Aspera Ad Inferi), their second album leveraged the band's burgeoning notoriety in an effective, if calculating way. The front half of Infestissumam absolutely smokes, from the soaring choral harmonies of the title track straight through to the blood-pumping sacrilege of Year Zero. The latter half however, fails to keep pace. The final few tracks are not without their own seditious charms but they collectively lack the kind of ginormous hooks or arena-sized choruses that incite the raising of lighters, the dusting of speed limits or the feverish pounding of chests - that is, until the magnificent Monstrance Clock wraps things up. A fine album, by any estimation, but one that captures Ghost reconciling their first real dose of fame with somewhat mixed results. We're already at the point where it's becoming difficult to separate Ghost records in terms of sheer quality, such has been the consistency of Tobias Forge's output over the years. While Skeletá still ploughed its own path - most of all through a uniquely existential new bent of lyrical focus from Forge - it very much feels like an album joyously waltzing around the same, glittery, 80s dancefloor that Impera and, to a lesser extent, Prequelle gaily strutted on. In that sense, it perhaps falls just a little short of its predecessors - there's nothing quite on the level of a Call Me Little Sunshine, a Rats or a Darkness At The Heart Of My Love here - but it's still absolutely stacked with killer cuts, not least the awe-inspiring opening triple-hit of Peacefield, Lachryma and Satanized, all of which already sit snugly within Ghost's upper tier of all-time bangers. It's undoubtedly the album's best run, but there are some other big highs: Cenotaph sneaks a beautiful emotional punch under it's Quo-aping boogie-riffs; Marks Of The Evil One is an urgent slice of dramatic arena metal; Umbra manages to cram a woozie space-prog break into its otherwise instantaneous synth-rock. All in all, a damn good album, only slightly overshadowed by the sky-high bar Tobias has set for himself. Produced by the Midas-fingered pop maestro Klas Åhlund (Madonna, Usher, Katy Perry), Ghost's magnificent third album revealed aspirations that extended far beyond their metal fanbase, straight into the bloody, beating heart of the mainstream. Witness mega-addictive, instantly-hummable tracks like Cirice and From The Pinnacle To The Pit. Whereas Blue Oyster Cult and Mercyful Fate had offered the most well-lit reference points on the first two albums, Meliora celebrates the brutal potency of the Almighty Riff, courtesy of bangers like Mummy Dust and the unabashedly AC/DC-esque Absolution. Far more than a rehash of the first two albums, Meliora discloses its vast depth in the velvety Laurel Canyon harmonies of He Is, in its baroque organ passages (Spirit), and in the anti-religious bombast of classical choirs (Deus In Absentia). Masterfully balancing its sharp siege of power riffs with softer moments of genuine melodic splendour, Meliora never feels scattered. Meant to be enjoyed at neighbour-bothering levels. The album that started it all. By the late-Noughties, a handful of retro outfits had struck commercial gold by reverting to the oldest trick in the retro rock songbook - sound exactly like Led Zeppelin (see Wolfmother, Graveyard, etc.). It was something of a revelation, then, when Ghost smashed their way into the thick of the fray with elegant, melodic compositions, radiating with warm production and showcasing Forge's feathery vocal harmonies. Where was all the noisy, overdriven Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden worship? They were there, of course, but stitched deep within more obvious references such as Blue Öyster Cult, Mercyful Fate and Pentagram, as well as with less-conspicuous influences like Uriah Heep, Demon and the Devil's Blood. As the funereal organ passages of opener Deus Culpa give way to the unholy wail of guitars and keyboards in Con Clavi Con Dio, you know you're in for a literal Hell of a ride. Tracks like Ritual and Stand By Him combine surging, hard rock riffing with spacious choruses big enough to knock satellites out of orbit. There's not a bad track on the album. Opus offered a convincing demonstration that Ghost could not merely conjure a unique sound but they could effectively employ it in a broad range of styles, from the heaviness of tracks like Satan Prayer or Elizabeth to the smooth instrumental purr of Deus Culpa and Genesis. Unsurprisingly, with its overt Satanism and galloping riffs, the album's earliest adopters hailed from the metal community, which is no small feat, considering that Opus is not a pure metal album by any stretch. In fact, one of Opus' highest achievements is that it inspired diehard metalheads to expand their sonic horizons; to look beyond genres, beyond blastbeats and beyond metal's beer-stained, leather-and-studded tropes and to appreciate catchy, mainstream rock at its finest. In 2019, in the midst of Prequelle's album cycle, Forge stated that its successor had already been conceived and that it would be a darker and heavier effort altogether. Yet, at first blush, Impera feels like Prequelle's younger sibling – a bit livelier and more colourful and in some ways more extreme, yet very much a sonic pairing. Bursting with juicy glam metal hooks, Impera uncorks one banger after another. From the siege of power chords and the piercing opening wail of Kaisarion to the towering gothic grandeur of Hunter's Moon, Impera bottles all of the energy and theatricality of an 80s stadium show. Informed by Andrew Lloyd Weber as much as Def Leppard, Forge once again partnered with Klas Åhlund to synthesise his grandiose vision into an ambitious and cunningly-catchy affair. You want pure pop? Spillways, with its breezy chorus and blinding fretwork will do you nicely. If it's balladry ye seek, Darkness At The Heart Of My Love unfolds with a memorable, lighter-waving, arms-around-your-mate chorus that you'll still be humming days after you've last heard the song. Doggedly fresh and genuinely affecting, Impera is an instant classic. Ghost's fourth album remains their greatest show of force – a relentlessly ambitious outing that synthesised Ghost's trademark sound with Forge's grand, theatrical vision, exemplified by the lush choral pageantry of Pro Memoria and closer Life Eternal. Further underscoring the Broadway vibes were the instrumentals – the dreamy Helvetesfonster and Miasma, a proggy space rock voyage, building to an exhilarating crescendo that manages to include both an unambiguous Michael Jackson reference and a goddamned saxophone solo. We'd be forced to draw Spinal Tap comparisons if the band didn't pull these off so utterly convincingly. Prequelle also reaffirmed Forge's enduring love affair with the polished album rock of the early-80s in the guise of full-tilt anthems like Rats and Witch Image. Swedish to the core, he also boasts a preternatural gift for writing sugary pop classics, none catchier than the dancefloor-packing Dance Macabre. Prequelle is both an extension of all that fuelled Ghost's rapid ascent and a bold step forward. The whole thing could have backfired, alienating potential new fans with its unvarnished Luciferian imagery, while repelling existing fans with its heavy pop and showtune undercurrents. Instead, it dazzled them all. Debuting at number three on the Billboard charts, Prequelle united critics and fans in frothy acclaim, attracted legions of new followers and it has easily stood the test of time, destined to enjoy, dare we say, 'Life Eternal.'
Los Angeles Times
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
With 'Even In Arcadia,' has Sleep Token cracked the code for metal in the streaming era?
The bestselling album in America last week came from an experimental British metal band that hides its members' faces behind cloaks and cybersigil masks. They call their anonymous frontperson 'Vessel' and backing band by roman numerals. They profess to be emissaries of a deity called 'Sleep,' and title songs like 'The Night Does Not Belong to God.' They don't do interviews and seem to loathe fame. Despite all that cryptic lore (or perhaps because of it), Sleep Token's RCA Records debut 'Even In Arcadia' crushed the Billboard 200 this month, breaking genre streaming records en route to become the bestselling hard-rock album since Metallica in 2023. 'We knew coming in that we had something pretty big, based on the incredible engagement and live dates,' said RCA Records' chief operating officer John Fleckenstein. But 'Arcadia's' chart-topping debut 'went way beyond even those expectations. This is so much bigger than even we realized.' They've had company atop that chart recently. The veteran Swedish hard-rock group Ghost — also evilly masked and grimly aliased — claimed its first No. 1 LP with 'Skeletá' in May too. Both bands got there after years building devoted, insular fandoms, while also serving as entry points into the genre for newcomers. Is it a coincidence that these bands hit No. 1 in the same month? Or is there something chaotic in American culture that's craving brutal, escapist and lore-driven rock again? 'Metal has been around for a long time, the scene is very vibrant and loyal and it's never gone anywhere,' Fleckenstein sad. 'But the metal world has been centered around album sales and physical purchases. With Sleep Token, we're seeing what we don't ever see — streaming numbers from fans acting like pop consumers.' 'I wouldn't be surprised if we started seeing some babies named Vessel in a year,' Fleckenstein said, laughing. 'That's the kind of fan investment here.' The last time two metal-aligned acts hit the top of the Billboard 200 chart in the same year was in 2019, when Slipknot and Tool each earned a third No. 1 album. Both of those acts are veteran bestsellers and have headlined festivals for decades. The fact that Sleep Token and Ghost arrived with their first Billboard 200 bestsellers in 2025 suggests that there's a changing of the guard in the genre, where still-rising acts can hit chart milestones last seen in the nu-metal wave of the late '90s and early 2000s. First up in May was Ghost's 'Skeletá,' the sixth album from the band led by singer Papa V Perpetua (a.k.a. founder Tobias Forge), with a backing band of Nameless Ghouls. The band's satanic imagery is campy; its sound is indebted to '80s chuggers like Judas Priest and Pentagram, like on its recent single 'Satanized.' The band, signed to L.A. indie label Loma Vista, released its first album in 2010 and hit No. 2 on the Billboard 200 with 2022's 'Impera.' The band won a Grammy for metal performance in 2023 after four nominations. 'We are, at the end of the day, an occult, pop, satanic sort of rock 'n' roll band meant to entertain a group of people who are already down with that stuff,' Forge told The Times in 2022. 'This is the world that you hide in after school. And now there's someone coming in there trying to … evolve? It's disruptive.' 'Skeletá' topped the chart with 86,000 units in its first week. With 89% of that figure coming from sales, rather than than streams, they proved that a Swiftian array of physical media could triumph — they offered 15 vinyl variants of the album. It was the first hard-rock album to score a band's first Billboard 200 win since 2015. Sleep Token's 'Even In Arcadia' reclaimed the spot for metal two weeks later. The London-based band is still officially anonymous (though the band members' identities are widely debated online). Its enormous, melancholy and melodic sound pulls from electronic music, jazz, hip-hop and ambient, landing between the dazed crunch of Deftones and growl of Meshuggah, sharing Gen Z's genre-agnostic outlook. The band's neo-pagan masks, gilded broadswords and necrotic body paint make them look more evil than they sound (they've covered Whitney Houston's 'I Wanna Dance With Somebody'). But they parlayed their goth-opera imagery into a ravenous fandom, coming out of the pandemic to sell out arenas and major festival dates around the world. The band first hit the album chart with 2023's 'Take Me Back to Eden,' and the Hot 100 debut in March with 'Emergence.' They currently have all 10 songs from 'Arcadia' on the latter chart, with 'Caramel' cresting at 34. 'Arcadia' topped the Billboard 200 with 127,000 units, but the mix of sales and streaming suggested a different dynamic than the album-buying metal audience. The band sold 73,500 albums in its opening week, including 47,000 vinyl LPs — the most of any hard rock band in the modern era. But it also hit 53,000 streaming equivalent albums (nearly 69 million on-demand official streams) in its first week — the most for any hard rock album, ever. 'What we're seeing are superfans who are not just passionate, they're streaming the album eight, nine, 10 times, which looks more like the ways people stream the biggest pop stars,' Fleckenstein said. He called the timing right after Ghost's chart-topping album 'coincidental,' but said that 'seeing fans be so adventurous, getting a taste for this music, it wouldn't surprise me if you see other experimental and courageous acts like them.' He attributes Sleep Token's chart performance to the ferocious online community the band built by being absolutely opaque about its identity, but ever more intricate in its aesthetic. The band's Reddit page, 166,000 members strong, is a daily torrent of fan tattoos of the band's logo, Vessel cosplay outfits and memes of Sleep Token lyrics dropped into scenes of 'Twilight.' Vessel's lyrics seem disquieted by the attention, though. On 'Caramel,' they lament, 'This stage is a prison / Too young to get bitter over it all,' and on 'Damocles,' they drolly admit, 'Well I know I should be touring / I know these chords are boring / But I can't always be killing the game.' That mix of emotional candor and personal distance feels enticing in an overexposed TikTok era. 'We are all living in world where very few things aren't disclosed, and I have to think that there's some level of exhaustion with that,' Fleckenstein said. 'Sleep Token really opens up possibilities for an alternate world, that allows people to create something bigger in the separation. The idea of privacy, true freedom of creative thought, maybe this all is part of a reaction tipping towards that.' On the ground, L.A. record store owners say they're seeing these big acts turn the curious into genre lifers. Sergio Amalfitano's independent record store Midnight Hour in San Fernando specializes in punk, metal and others harsh genres. 'Metal and adjacent heavy genres in general are having a huge moment currently,' Amalfitano said. 'Sleep Token and Ghost are mainstays here in the store. They seem to draw in the older metal fans as well as the new wave of fans. These are the entry level bands for a whole generation, opening up the genre to an influx of supporters.' Amalfitano wouldn't be surprised to see more metal and hard-rock bands make similar climbs up the album charts soon. With modern hard-rock acts like Turnstile, Spiritbox, Poppy and Knocked Loose earning Grammy nominations, and metal bands like 200 Stab Wounds and Sanguisugabogg injecting young energy to classic heavy styles, they're speaking to a broader discontent within society through harsh, relevant sounds. 'These bands definitely have a crossover appeal, but at the same time, also a very rabid fan base,' Amalfitano said. 'I was in Mexico City when the new Ghost record came out and the lines were massive. There's a very big appeal all over the world, and it's not just a U.S. phenomenon.' It's likely no coincidence that this wave is coming amidst a right-wing revanchist American government, though. 'A conservative wave in society tends to lead to a counter-wave of expression,' Amalfitano said. 'When it was the satanic panic, there was glam, heavy and black metal. There's always a response to mainstream politics, and music is the pendulum swing in effect.' While Ghost doesn't have an L.A. date on the books for its 2025 arena tour yet, Sleep Token will play the Forum in September. Fleckenstein said the band has just begun to catch up to the huge demand for an appropriately-scaled live show in the U.S. 'What hasn't happened yet is bringing fans together in person,' Fleckenstein said. 'They're leaning into the album in a parasocial way, and what we're excited about is the impact when fans are in a room with other fans.' It remains to be seen how long this moment will sustain, though. Morgan Wallen, a Billboard 200 chart fixture, has since reclaimed the top slot. RCA still sees plenty of room for Sleep Token and its ilk to win freshly curious audiences, and conjure even more metal acts up the charts. 'Our job is just getting people to go down the rabbit hole,' he said. 'There will be a lot of new fans that grow up on Sleep Token, and I'd love to see this usher in a new wave. It's a paradigm change stretching the boundaries of what metal and pop can be. I don't think there's a stage big enough to contain what they have in their brains.'
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Conductor Williams Talks Going From Underground King to the Mainstream's Favorite ‘Real Rap' Producer
Conductor, we have a problem! Conductor! If you haven't heard that saying while listening to rap music, then you need to diversify your listening habits — because Kansas City's Conductor Williams has quickly become one of the latest underground acts to crossover into the mainstream, as rap music continues to fight for its soul the more it dominates the charts. He's been at this beatmaking thing since the mid 2000s, when he worked with New York-based rappers like Outasight and Fresh Daily around 2008. However, Williams didn't really begin to find his groove until he decided to reinvent himself in 2016 after falling on hard times. 'It was just a moment where everything changed,' he said. 'So, maybe I needed to change too.' More from Billboard Ghost Earns First No. 1 Album on Billboard 200 With 'Skeletá' Fans Choose Maroon 5 and LISA's 'Priceless' as This Week's Favorite New Music Sabrina Carpenter and Quinta Brunson Deliver Musical Ode to 'Shorties' on 'SNL': Watch Fast forward a couple years and Griselda Records founder Westside Gunn is in his Instagram DMs asking him to take a video down about a beat he made because he wanted to use it for his upcoming album Pray for Paris which then began his swift ascension into becoming one of the most in-demand producers in the game today. He's made beats for the likes of Drake, J. Cole, and Joey Bada$$, who have all reached out to him when they feel like they want to rap a certain way and reach a certain audience. And while they haven't worked together yet directly, Tyler, the Creator helped him win a Grammy when he used one of his beats on his song 'Sir Baudelaire.' Conductor is now planning on producing full-length projects with guys like Rome Streetz, just as he did with the impressive Boldy James record Across the Tracks and wants to put out more instrumental tapes. We caught up with Williams and talked about a wide array of topics, ranging from how he got his start, his process, and the moment when he started to climb out of the shadows of the underground, among other things. Check out our talk below. You smoke a lot of cigars. What's your favorite brand? This is a Joya de [Nicaragu.] This is a classic joint. I suppose the story goes that President Nixon made these the office favorite during this term, or something like that. But this is just a staple, and more than anything, it's just a moment for me to stay still. If not, I'd be trying to do all kind of s–t but once I light one up, I got 40 minutes. So, it's kind of meditative and enjoyable in that way. What were you doing before you started producing, like as a day job? I worked for a railway and my father did it too, and my uncle. I did that, but I went to university too, and I got out of university and then got a job with the old man doing that. Were you alway interested in production? Yeah, I was making beats in college and just fascinated with the process in college. Before college, I just loved music, you know, I'm saying playing little shows and colleges and stuff like that, house parties. But the love for actually making the instrumentals day come until maybe my last year of college was when I was like I'm gonna start cooking and see how good I can get. And I did that locally. And I did it to a place where I kind of like, I wouldn't say I had outgrown Kansas City hip-hop, but I got to a place where I kind of worked with everyone, and it was kind of boring, and I was like, working a full time job, so I decided to attack the Internet. And that was actually the best gift, was me deciding to use the internet and meet other people around the world. I started with the beats in like 2008. There's a cat from out here — his name was Outasight at the time — and him and I linked on Myspace. Around 2008 is when I felt like I was good enough to start sharing music with people outside of my city and then by 2016 is when I decided to stop working with everybody and only focus on myself. I wanted that instant gratification of making a beat and seeing what everybody says about it, so I started posting instrumentals on Instagram. So, selfishly I wanted to know how good and entertaining my beats can be without having a rapper on them. Then I learned Adobe Premiere, and just kind of started hustling on how to present myself differently. In your Amoeba record store 'What's in My Bag' video you had a vinyl, and mentioned how much it influenced your production style. Were you listening to a lot of Dilla, , and beat tapes at the time? Yeah, a lot of that. Pete Rock, too. And I honestly think Dilla was about to take it to a place where it was about to turn into jazz records, like instrumental beat tapes were about to be jazz records. He just didn't get a chance to finish his ideas. But I think the idea that he started is like, 'Yo, beats and samples can be told into stories in that way.' You mentioned that you decided to reinvent yourself around 2016 and a couple years later you pop up on some Griselda records. Talk about that relationship a bit. Ironically, the thing about Griselda that I haven't been able to articulate yet because I haven't had a chance to is that they were just outsiders. West and those guys kind of viewed themselves as outsiders, coming from Buffalo, and I was in Kansas City feeling the same way. And, you know, through the stars and through God, we all kind of met, so I didn't never have to change my s—t. They really appreciated that. Westside Gunn really appreciated me being me. It just so happened that we were in the same mindframe. How did you guys link up? Instagram. Did you hit him up? The blessing of my career has been that everybody hit me directly — like, there hasn't been a time where someone tried to go through a manager or an A&R yet. We're getting to that place now, but all of the records that you've heard, they DM'd me. So, there's something interesting about isolation and a one track mind, a one track system that I created where it's like, 'Yo, you got to go to that guy to get that thing.' And if you don't go to that guy and get it, then you won't get it. That's kind of been the allure of things, you know I'm saying? But West just seen me post a video the of the 'Euro Step' beat I did, which was the first record he chose on Pray for Paris. I posted the beat video of me making it with cartoon projections behind me, and he hit me on a DM and was like, 'Yo, take that down. Take that down. I need that. I need that send that.' And he was in Paris with Virgil, and I want to say Mike Dean. It was a bunch of people that were there. That's kind of how that all started. You're very proficient with your vlogs. That was the thing. I would make beats all week and then on the weekends I would work on videos for the next week. So, you already had a strategy. I don't know if you have children, but when you have that responsibility and your dream or your passion is for real, you gotta figure it out. It's not a matter of like, 'I can't make beats this weekend.' That was never the case, it was always, 'How am I going to make beats this weekend?' You gotta figure it out. More than anything, persistence was the key there. Your vlogging got you in a little bit of trouble, or that's the rumor. You posted the Drake '' freestyle and had to take it down. That's my brother. It was never 'trouble.' It wasn't a situation of like, 'Yo, why the f—k you do that? Take it down right now.' It was just like, 'Yo, Conductor. I know we were gonna do that, but not right now.' It was all good and it wasn't a big deal. And eventually we'll get to that. It was just like a miscommunication on both sides. And it's like, 'Yo, Conductor, can you take that down?' And it's like, 'Yeah, sure, I can take that down.' You're giving people advice on your vlogs. Some of them almost feels like a diary. It is like a diary to a certain degree, but with the YouTube specifically. I wanted it to be what I wanted from somebody else, like what I wanted from the RZA or some other god-tier producer. Like, what would the villain do? What would DOOM do? And you mentioned that he's your favorite rapper. I would say DOOM, West, and Evidence are my favorites. My top MCs are super strange for my taste. What is it about Gunn's style that you like? It's the character that he is. It's how the music makes you feel. It's his confidence. The way he loves himself is how we should all love ourselves. And a lot of us feel that way, but we don't got the guts to say it. So, when you listen to a Westside Gunn record and he's saying, 'I'm the flyest ever,' and you're rapping that, then it's like that loop of you saying that out loud, you know? I tell West all the time, 'You can rap, bro.' I think he is as nice as the other two. For the life of him, he'll be like, 'Nah, I don't even rap. I'm a fashion n—a.' Your beats reminded me of Dilla, DOOM and Madlib when I first heard them. You're from that school of thought. The loops, the cartoon sounds. Ultimately, those guys inspire me a lot. More than anything, bro, it's just trying to find a way to tell a story through the instrumental, more than emulating the style, and a lot of it is necessity too. I don't like computers like that. I don't like synthetic sounding music. But the studies, though, the studies is all Dilla, you know, and I don't know how I got spit out in the universe of like DOOM and Madlib, but the studies are completely all Dilla. I think the results of the studies is something like '8am in Charlotte.' That record is all of the years of studying the legend and trying to not be like him. There's times where I'm cutting a sample and I gotta turn the machine off, because it's going Dilla World — because I've studied it so much. You've said that you used to make five-to-10 beats a day. Has that process changed now? I'll never master the machines, but I'm at a place where I know how to get what I want. Now that I've got there, it's about why am I doing what I'm doing and if it's making sense. The part of the process that hasn't changed is once it's in the machine and to tape? I'm not an edit guy. I'm not listening to it constantly and going back to change the kicks. That s—t is cooked. I don't know if you ran into this, but I feel like at least for major label releases, even someone like Drake, right? Maybe you'll come with something to the table, and then like, Boi-1da or somebody else will come, and they'll add there bells and whistles to it. The gift of this whole s— is a gentleman in Missouri making the records that he makes with the feeling that he gets. They want that. When they come to me, they're like do whatever you do. On the Cole record '7 Minute Drill' there's a baseline in there, it's like a sine wave base, or an 808 — maybe elongated one — and Cole was so kind and almost halfway anxious about asking me if he can add it. He hit me a couple times that day that he was gonna add that little bass in there, and it was needed. I want the best piece of art imaginable for the fan when they hear the track. It's death of ego at all times, unless you're trying to change my whole s–t. If you want to come in and pitch up the sample and put extra drums, then it's not what I do. So maybe you should try, you know, by yourself, but it's death of ego every time I touch down. And that's the source of what I create out of and I think a lot of artists get that about me, and that's what they respect most. How did you feel about the drama surrounding that song? '' and he said that he can't control what rappers say on his beats. And Al told me the same thing. You can't control it. My job is to service the artist as best as I can. For me, being a man controlled by God, things that are blasphemous always alert me. Like n—as on some devil worshiping type s–t. You know what I'm saying? 'God ain't real, n—as out there praying is suckas.' I'm like, 'Yo, chill out' [Laughs.] I'm one of those, one of those people. Other than that, it's entertainment, and the artists that work with me come to me for the art. So, you didn't feel a way that he decided to delete it. No, because he communicated. So, Joey Bada$$, J. Cole and Drake all reached out to you? Everybody reached out. You know what's funny? There are fans that say I don't do any music with the West Coast, but that music is coming, bro. The records with the Jay Worthys and the Larry Junes and the Ab-Souls are coming. N—as are reaching out, you just gotta wait. You know what it is, too? I think it's the stan stuff on social media. You made a beat for Drake, so you're not allowed to make a beat for Kendrick. You know what I'm saying? Why not? That's that weirdo s–t. It doesn't make any sense. I'm doing my job. At the end of the day, it's rap at its highest level, and I'm just thankful to be a part of being of any of it. What's the difference in approach when you're working with different rappers? What's your process like? This is pretty important because it's maybe ethos at this point, no matter who the artist is — and Drake kind of ruined it for everybody in the best way — because a man of his stature and his schedule and his life still had the time to communicate with me about what he was feeling, what type of records he was listening to, where he was at with the pen, and that's the beginning of the process with everybody. Rarely is it getting a beat off the shelf. Generally, they pick off the beat tape and then we're having more conversations about what's happening. This is nothing more than a movie director or a movie producer. N—as don't just show up to Tarantino and they want him to do a movie for them and they don't talk about it. So, the beat that they pick off the tape initially isn't necessarily the one that they rap over? With Drake, Joey and Cole, they pick off the beat tape and then they reference other songs in history, whether that be hip-hop or jazz. So, now I'm creating in their world. It's a commutative thing, and that's why them records feel like that. That's why I can't make another '8am' for Joey, because of the conversation and the energy that went into me building with Drake in that room. So, you prefer a very collaborative process instead just handling things over email? I want to know what the artist is thinking. A lot of folks be like, 'Yo, I came to you because I'm trying to rap.' You've become the go-to guy for the mainstream cats when they wanna get on some real rap sh—. Yup. They be like, 'I got some s–t I'm trying to talk about. I'm trying to get people to feel that I'm in a place,' and then they come to me. Can you elaborate a little bit more on how different your relationship is with Gunn compared to other people? I feel like if something terrible happened to me, Gunn would provide for my family. I'll never be broke and I'll never be down bad. He'll pay for my kids to go to college if I'm not able to. That's the difference between my relationship with him and everybody else. I wanted to get into when you decided to rebrand yourself. Were you frustrated when you decided to do that? It was a moment of internal reform. My granny had died. I went through a bad relationship. I was living in my car a little bit and couch hopping. I really didn't have no money like that. I got laid off at the job. It was just a moment where everything changed, so maybe I needed to change too. And then there's a record that I just re-released that I put out in 2018 called Listen to Your Body, Talk to Plants, Ignore People. I started building beats for that in 2016 because I changed my life. I started like this hybrid vegan thing which was probably more vegetarian looking back at it. I really started my journey in mindfulness and meditation, and actually took it serious. I cut off all my friends, and the ones that were truly friends are still here with me now, but I cut off everybody. I didn't resort to s–t like gambling, manipulating women. I didn't start drinking and smoking weed or getting into drugs. I just stopped everything and I started finding what I truly was as an artist. I thought about not doing this anymore and going back to the railroad to make a career out of it. I was at a crossroads and I let God direct me. What was your big break? There's a couple. I met Remy Banks. Remy is a friend of the family. Remy introduced me to Evidence who was going through something personal at the time. He wasn't in the headspace to rap. He didn't want to do anything, but he saw my output and linked me with Termanology. So, Term was the first person to put his brand with mine and I did a couple joints on his album Vintage Horns around 2019. Shortly after that, Westside Gunn reached out for Pray for Paris and we did 'Euro Step.' Then came 'Michael Irvin' where he rapped, 'You ever cook a brick in an air fryer?' And that worked so much, Tyler, the Creator used it. Also, Mach-Hommy's Pray for Haiti was a really big moment because he put my three records back-to-back-to-back. Those are the type of things that visionaries do and I honestly feel like West saw what I was building towards and put me in position to execute. Have you and Tyler talked about working together? Because you guys remind me of each other. You both have a natural curiosity, a willingness to learn, and an appreciation of history. Nah, man. I feel like it'll be soon, though — because I've been working with Domo [Genesis.] We got a lot of incredible things in common, you know, even down to our days of birth. His birthday is on March 6 and mine is on March 5. I also hear from a lot of people there we're a lot alike, so I'm just curious to see if that's true or not. Let's talk about the producer tag. How did that come about? The idea is going back to the 2016 rebranding myself and the internal reform I had, which was a sensitive moment for me. So then in 2018, I'm like, 'Man, if n—as can't see that I'm cold and don't want to say it, then I'll say it myself. I'm gonna be obnoxious in a way where I'm repping myself like a graffiti artist.' It's all purposeful. I wanted to scratch a nerve. A lot of that is me getting to that place where I was just so frustrated and being overlooked. At some point, you take on the underdog role. Do you walk around saying it randomly? Because I do, especially after playing some of the tracks you've produced. [Laughs.] Yeah, people say that all the time. If somebody calls me, I'll answer and they'll be like, 'Conductor, we have a problem.' How did you link with ? The most exciting record for me this year is the the Wiz Khalifa record with Ty Dolla $ign, 'Billionaires.' He texts me, like, 'Yo, wait till you see what I did with this.' And I'm like, 'You rapping, rapping?' He made that jam. I want people to feel whatever emotion that radiates out. You still get excited when motherf–kers comes back with some s—t. Yeah, that's the best part. How did you find that pocket? Why did you find that pocket? Why did you pick that beat? He was like, 'This motherf—ker jam.' Did you send Wiz a pack? Nobody gets a nobody a cooked pack. Maybe West. But that's like I said, that's always different. Over the winter, I got into Matt Reeves super tough. I started marveling at Matt Reeves and the idea that he had to follow The Dark Knight trilogy. I fell in love with Matt Reeves for that moment and decided to rival that against Bruce Wayne. So, you get tapes like Matt Reeves vs. Bruce Wayne. And then there's photos that I found interesting for like color reasons, and then there's always a note for the artist on why I felt how I felt, so they can see where I was at creatively and then the tape happens. I feel like seeing what another artist is thinking and feeling gives you a moment to collaborate and join them, or find a moment of juxtaposition. Is there anything that you're working on this year that we can look forward to? I think the record with Rome is gonna be another dot on the map, because it's the entire joint — which we haven't got much of that for me yet, where I do every song, the arrangement of the track order, how it should feel all the way to the end. We ain't got that. We just seen me in like little spurts. Now you get to see some dynamic movement all at the same time. Then an instrumental album to drive home. No matter how far I get or how big the artist is that I work with, I want to keep making those jazz-like records — because honestly, bro, I really feel like that's where the guy Jay Dee was gonna take it. And I feel a sense of obligation to continue on that path just to see what happens. Are you planning on doing more full-lengths with rappers? Maybe three more. Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Janet Jackson's Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits H.E.R. & Chris Brown 'Come Through' to No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay Chart
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Ghost Becomes First Hard Rock Band to Top Albums Chart in Four Years
Ghost earns its first No. 1 album on the all-genre-inclusive Billboard 200 albums chart with 'Skeletá.' Their sixth studio album claims the biggest opening week, by either equivalent album units or traditional album sales, for any rock, hard rock or alternative album since AC/DC's 'Power Up' hit the apex with 117,000 equivalent album units in 2020. Preceded by the single 'Satanized,' the 10-song 'Skeletá' launches to the top of the list with 86,000 equivalent album units earned in the United States in the week, according to Luminate. It is the Swedish hard rock band's first full-length project since 2022's 'Impera,' which previously debuted at No. 2. More from Variety SZA Tops Albums and Songs Charts as 'SOS' Leaps Back to No. 1 Teddy Swims Makes Chart History as 'Lose Control' Beats the Weeknd's Record for Most Weeks in Top 10 Kendrick Lamar and SZA Continue Hot Streak Atop Singles Chart While Playboi Carti's 'Music' Album Returns to No. 1 Vinyl purchases comprised nearly half of Ghost's units sold this year with the sale of over 44,000 copies. That's not just the largest sales week on vinyl for Ghost, but the biggest week for a hard rock album on vinyl in the modern era (since Luminate began tracking data in 1991). It's also the third-largest sales week on vinyl in the modern era for any rock album, following the debut weeks of Blink-182's 'One More Time… ' and Boygenius' 'The Record.' Ghost will support their new record with a tour that will hit Europe and North America with performances in Antwerp, Berlin and Paris, in addition to New York, Las Vegas, Austin and Houston. The remaining titles topping the Billboard 200 are SZA's 'SOS' at No. 2 slips to No. 2; Kendrick Lamar's 'GNX' at No. 3; Morgan Wallen's 'One Thing at a Time' at No. 4; Sabrina Carpenter's 'Short n' Sweet' at No. 5; PartyNextDoor and Drake's '$ome $exy $ongs 4 U' at No. 6 and Bad Bunny's 'Debí Tirar Más Fotos' at No. 7. Shaboozey's 'Where I've Been, Isn't Where I'm Going' also climbs to No. 8 with 35,000 equivalent album units earned (up 110%) after a deluxe reissue of the album was released on April 25. 'Where I've Been' originally debuted and peaked at No. 5 on the June 15, 2024-dated list. Best of Variety Emmy Predictions: Talk/Scripted Variety Series - The Variety Categories Are Still a Mess; Netflix, Dropout, and 'Hot Ones' Stir Up Buzz Oscars Predictions 2026: 'Sinners' Becomes Early Contender Ahead of Cannes Film Festival New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
How Did Ghost Score Its First No. 1 Album on the Billboard 200 With ‘Skeletá'?
It's been four years since a hard rock band topped the Billboard 200 albums chart — and far longer since such a band did so without having decades of hits already to its name. But this week, Ghost puts an end to both of those droughts. The Swedish rock band, with its anonymous lineup and masked on-stage appearance, has grown its devoted cult of fans for over 15 years now, coming ever closer to the top spot on the Billboard 200 with their first five album releases. Now, the group has finally captured its first No. 1, with sixth album Skeletá bowing at pole position, moving 86,000 first-week units, according to Luminate (with the majority coming in physical sales). More from Billboard Rag'n'Bone Man Teases Danger Mouse-Produced 'Time to Love' Shakira and Wyclef Jean Celebrate 20 Years of 'Hips Don't Lie' on 'The Tonight Show' Big Thief Announce North American 'Somersault Slide 360' Tour Dates How did the group get over the top on the Billboard 200? And which band could be next? Billboard staffers answer these questions and more below. 1. Ghost's becomes the band's first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 with 86,000 units moved. On a scale from 1-10, how surprised are we by that first-week performance? Mackenzie Cummings-Grady: It's around a 9 or 10 for me. 86,000 units for a ROCK record in 2025 is an unbelievable accomplishment, especially when the band is this gothic and relatively niche. Don't get me wrong, Ghost's following has been strong and steady for years now, but I don't think anyone anticipated their supporters to be this die-hard this many years later. The group has been cranking out records consistently since 2010, so they're by no means a buzzing new band, nor do they have any sort of obvious mainstream pop culture support. This album is kinda just business-as-usual for them, making the No. 1 debut that much more impressive. Lyndsey Havens: 8. Ghost has been around for almost 20 years, having formed in 2006 and released its debut album in 2010. And Skeletá is its sixth album. That's not to say the group hasn't had incredible success across that timeline, but to debut atop the all-genre albums chart is indeed impressive — and yes, a bit of a shock. But it's important to look at the circumstances, too; Skeletá is the only debut in the top 10 of this week's Billboard 200 chart, meaning it wasn't a particularly crowded week for new releases. Even so, 86,000 units moved isn't nothing — and I think this No. 1 debut is an important reminder of the ironically quiet yet sturdy interest in hard rock. Elias Leight: 7 — the band did hit No. 2 in the past, and it helped that Ghost released Skeletá during a quiet chart week. Still, it's always surprising when a group with so few streams tops the Billboard 200. Andrew Unterberger: Maybe a 6? I'd go higher if I didn't already know anything about the band's chart trajectory — and certainly 86,000 units is an eye-opening first-week number — but I can't really deem it that shocking when a band goes to No. 8 with one album, then No. 3 with the album after that, then No. 2 with the album after that… then No. 1 with the album after that. Not that every band follows such a linear trajectory, but Ghost certainly has to this point. Christine Werthman: I registered a 3 on the surprise scale, once I knew that their fans love vinyl and the band offered over a dozen vinyl variants of the new album, and that the last album went to No. 2. Traditional album sales accounted for 89 percent of Skeletá's first-week numbers — and this tracks with the Billboard interview from 2022 after Impera's big year, where the band's marketing lead discussed how vinyl was a huge part of Ghost's strategy. The surprise level is pretty low, considering the band just implemented a strategy it knew to be successful and was already on the right track with the last album. And the competition for the week wasn't too stiff. 2. While is the band's first No. 1 album, they'd been getting closer with each successive album, and even scored a No. 2 album earlier this decade with 2022's . Is this album being the one to put them over the top more about the album itself or more a matter of the band's overall momentum? Mackenzie Cummings-Grady: In a way, I think it's both. Skeletá is definitely one of their better, more cohesive records in recent years, but let's just address the elephant in the room here: There is clearly a growing, reinvigorated interest in masked and disguised rock bands. Sleep Token is arguably the biggest band in the world right now, and they've experienced a very similar upward trajectory this decade. Those guys have a very strong chance of debuting at No. 1 two weeks from now, following the release of new album Even in Arcadia this Friday (May 9), which even just five years ago would have been unheard of. Skeletá's debut I think has to do more with cultural momentum. There's a strong gravitational pull young music fans are having towards dark and enigmatic rockers. Not to mention they rock hard, too. Lyndsey Havens: I think it's both. I actually love to see a trajectory like this, where you can trace a steady incline year over year — across many years. But it does take those two ingredients to get there: great music and an equally great fanbase. Ghost has always had both, with the latter being a tight-knight community that plays into the band's heavily costumed on-stage presence (with the members being known as a clergy of 'Nameless Ghouls' led by frontman Tobias Forge). With this new milestone, I'm curious to see where the band goes from here. Elias Leight: Ghost's timing was key. In February and March, stars like Bad Bunny, the Weeknd, PartyNextDoor and Drake, Lady Gaga, and Playboi Carti stormed to No. 1 with new releases. In the three most recent tracking weeks, however, the top album has not earned more than 65,000 album-equivalent units: Ken Carson, who hit No. 1 with More Chaos, managed to summit the chart with the smallest weekly total in three years (a number then lowered by SZA's SOS in its return to the top spot the following week). At the same time, Ghost's audience has grown with each recent album. The band jumped from a No. 8 debut in 2015 to No. 3 in 2018, more than doubling its first-week total in the process. Four years later, when Ghost reached No. 2 with Impera, the group's first-week numbers didn't move much. The band found a strategy to boost numbers again with Skeletá. Combined with a week when no stars were releasing new albums, this put Ghost over the top. Andrew Unterberger: It's the momentum. Skeletá is a fine album but hardly a game-changer; if you know Ghost already you have a pretty good idea of what to expect from it. It's more that a whole lot more people know who Ghost are now than did five or 10 years ago. Christine Werthman: Ghost didn't reinvent the wheel on this one compared to the others, so I'd chalk it up to the momentum. A loyal following led the Swedish hard rockers to the top. 3. While Ghost has scored a handful of Mainstream Rock Airplay No. 1s and even a minor crossover success with the belatedly viral 'Mary on a Cross' in 2022, this new set has yet to spawn a big hit, with 'Satanized' its only advance song to even crack an airplay top 10. Do you think a hit single will emerge from – and does it particularly matter for the band at this point? Mackenzie Cummings-Grady: I don't think it matters. The evidence of their growing popularity album-wise proves that point. Even at their earlier peaks, it felt that Ghost scored hit singles almost accidentally. They've never catered to radio or any sort of mainstream acceptance, that's what makes 'em so epic and cool. So if a hit song does emerge, it'll just be out of fan-wide love of the song, not because of any major push from them. Lyndsey Havens: No, I don't think it matters. And honestly, I think for a band like Ghost — and this deep into a career — having a full LP hit No. 1 versus a single would mean more to me. That's not to say it's too late for a hit from the album to emerge, but is it necessary? I think not. Elias Leight: This band has excelled at getting fans to buy albums — 61,000 copies of Prequelle, 62,500 of Impera, and now 77,000 of Skeletá — which makes it less dependent on U.S. hits. The success of 'Mary on a Cross' presumably helped Ghost reach some new listeners. But even so, the band's first-week stream count didn't budge much: 9.11 million on-demand streams of Impera songs compared to 12.45 million of Skeletá songs. Andrew Unterberger: Never hurts to have a breakout hit, certainly — and this set could have one, but if it does, it will probably pop off unpredictably, like 'Mary' did three years ago. But obviously a consistent sales-drawing power means that you're not dependent on them from album to album, which is the point that all popular performing artists — not just rock bands — should hope to get to in their careers. Christine Werthman: 'Lachryma' has some higher streaming numbers in its favor right now, but I also feel like 'Umbra' might be a sleeper hit. It really builds, has a righteous instrumental break, and it could stir some controversy, with its seemingly religious references to 'the chosen one' and 'the shadow of the Nazarene.' All hail the blasphemers? Maybe, though it's not as spicy as 'Mary on a Cross.' It doesn't totally matter though, as it seems like Ghost's fanbase is in it for the long haul already. 4. Given that it's one of the few hard rock bands of a relatively recent vintage to accumulate a devoted enough audience to top the Billboard 200, what lessons do you think other bands might be able to learn from Ghost's recent chart success? Mackenzie Cummings-Grady: Being authentic, unique and weird will always be cool. There will always be an appetite for it, and that appetite will translate to success if you just give it time. A lot of young bands cater to the algorithm right off the bat, you can hear it in the way they record and promote their albums. Ghost has always been Ghost, they've never swayed from that, which is why their fans have stuck by them. Do what creatively liberates you, don't cater to the data! Lyndsey Havens: To keep doing what you're doing. You make music that you love and believe in? Great. You built a fanbase that's willing to dress up for you at shows? Amazing. You've slowly over time played to bigger audiences across the world? Wow! All of these measurements of success, I believe, are what got Ghost to this point — and I haven't even gotten to their Grammy win (best metal performance for 'Cirice' in 2016). Over time, Ghost has created a world for itself and its fans to live in, and a No. 1 album is just proof of concept. Elias Leight: Ghost employed a strategy initially popularized by K-Pop groups, releasing more than 20 variants of Skeletá across vinyl — including a limited run of 6,000 LPs with three different sets of 'mystery' artwork — CD, and cassette. If a band already has an audience that likes to collect physical copies, releasing multiple variants has proven to be a reliable way to increase sales. Ghost fans snapped up 44,000 LPs across the various iterations of Skeletá, giving the band the third-largest vinyl sales week for any rock album in the modern era. Andrew Unterberger: Embrace theatrics and spectacle! Over the past 30-plus years in rock music, it's became increasingly normalized for rock bands to be no-frills in nature — but the pool of music fans who default to rock bands is pretty shallow these days, and it's hard to draw in modern pop audiences while presenting yourselves so statically. If you want to reach Ghost's commercial strata, you gotta give 'em a little more flair, a little more drama. Christine Werthman: Don't worry too much about chasing crossover hits, and find a marketing plan that works and follow it. Ghost didn't revamp its style to get to No. 1 for the first time. The band just doubled down and gave its fanbase what it wanted — more ripping hard rock and more vinyl for the collection. Sticking to the script doesn't work for every band, but Ghost identified its strengths and stuck with it. And remember: This is the group's sixth studio album. Stick with it! 5. What's another rock band that you could see topping the Billboard 200 for the first time in the near future? Mackenzie Cummings-Grady: Mark my words: Sleep Token will go No. 1 in two weeks. Lyndsey Havens: Our colleague Jason Lipshutz put me on to Spiritbox, and I think they are well on their way to a Billboard 200 No. 1. It would be a much quicker rise than Ghost, but I think the groundwork has been laid — and with Ghost delivering the first hard rock album to top the tally in over four years, I wouldn't be surprised if the wait for it to happen again is significantly shorter. Elias Leight: Falling in Reverse hit No. 12 — their highest position ever — with Popular Monster in 2024. Five Finger Death Punch have eight top 10 albums and have peaked at No. 2 on three separate occasions. Andrew Unterberger: It's Sleep Token, and it's this month. But keep an eye out for The Marías, too — that group's time might be coming sooner than you think, too. Christine Werthman: Turnstile! 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