Rudolf Weber Arena, Oberhausen, Germany14th May 2025
Ghost - “Skeletour” World Tour 2025
GHOST has announced their biggest world tour to date, which kicked off this year with over 55 shows in the US, Europe, the United Kingdom, and Mexico. The tour by the GRAMMY-winning Swedish rock icons began on April 15th at the AO Arena in Manchester, England, and four weeks later the band was scheduled for Oberhausen, where 12.000 disciples heeded the call of ‘Papa V Perpetua’, or Tobias Forge, as the new singer is called in civil life.
Some of them dressed up by wearing monk or nun costumes and skull face paint and/or masks to celebrate the occasion. But all of them (including us from the media) had to go through some unusual experience first: Parting with your personal phone, or at least not being able to access it, as it had to be sealed in a pouch for the duration of the concert. This led to long lines ahead of the concert, but thanks to the sunny weather this exercise in queuing was endured in a relaxed manner. https://ghost-official.com
Music & Performance
Shortly before 8pm, the giant arena was filled almost to the last place, and it was brimming with anticipation for what was hiding behind the black curtains, covering the huge stage. The background music changed from 80ies pop to clerical chants, which led to excited cheering of the masses. On the video screens left and right of the stage, singer Tobias appeared, his face hidden by a partial chrome-silver mask, singing the first tunes of the opener ‘Peacefield’ together with his band of anonymous “ghouls” all still behind the curtain.
Under the roaring applause of the audience the black curtain fell down, and the band unleashed a remarkable performance, which fascinated the fans from the first moment. This was partly due to the impressive stage layout, which revealed a giant Celtic cross (of course upside down) filled with spotlights hanging from the ceiling. For the hit from the 2022 ‘Impera’ album ‘Call me Little Sunshine’, singer Tobias changed into a truly sinister-looking papal inspired attire, and he seemingly levitated above the drummer, which lent a circus-like aura to the whole performance.
While Tobias did not interact with the audience at all for the first five songs, ahead of the sixth track he had some encouraging words for the audience, saying that while there are many reasons to worry in the world right now, nothing stays forever, which is a comforting message ahead of the song ‘The Future Is a Foreign Land’, which is about defeating fascism. The background of the stage contributed to the show by changing considerably during the set. For ‘Devil church’ another curtain in the back of the stage fell and revealed a church-like setting with medieval looking columns, gothic windows, and a huge tainted-glass depiction of a devil figure.
Later in the set, accompanied by fireworks and flames, the tainted glass seemingly splintered, opening a view to a starry sky. And with a later blast, the church columns and windows disappeared completely, opening the view to a lava-filled hellscape. For ‘Kiss the Go-Goat’, confetti cannons shot huge loads of golden glitter and fake Dollar bills (with the value 666) into the audience. Another load of confetti was unloaded into the audience for the song ‘Monstrance Clock’, after which the band disappeared. The break for the encore was fortunately quite brief, and the band returned for three more songs, among them the revelled ‘Mary on A Cross’, which sent the audience into frenzy.
All in all, GHOST took their audience for quite a wild ride, so even if you were not completely on board with the music, you would still have witnessed a remarkable performance. So seemingly all the 12.000 fans had an extraordinarily good time, which also manifested in the excited chatter among the leaving fans on their way to the parking garages.
Setlist
01. Peacefield
02. Lachryma
03. Spirit
04. Faith
05. Call Me Little Sunshine
06. The Future Is a Foreign Land
07. Devil Church
08. Cirice
09. Darkness at the Heart of My Love
10. Satanized
11. Ritual
12. Umbra
13. Year Zero
14. He Is
15. Rats
16. Kiss the Go-Goat
17. Mummy Dust
18. Monstrance Clock
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19. Mary on a Cross
20. Dance Macabre
21. Square Hammer
Rating
Music: 9
Performance: 9
Sound: 8
Light: 10
Total: 9 / 10
All pictures by Daniela Vorndran (http://www.vorndranphotography.com / http://www.facebook.com/blackcatnet)
