Ghost's Tobias Forge: Am I A Satanist!?

During a recent conversation with News Review, Ghost leader Tobias Forge was directly asked: "Are you a Satanist?". The musician replied:

"From a strictly Christian point of view, if that means believing in a physical, half-man, half-ram living in the underground, no, I don't believe there is such a thing. I'm not the opposite either.

"And you know, I'm sure in the eyes of the beholder, if I was put in front of true god-fearing Bible-thumpers, I would probably be regarded as a Satanist... just because I'm not a god-fearing Bible-thumper.

"But the concept of Satanism has many, many forms... In the last 50 years now, ever since Anton LaVey and pop-cultural Satanism, when that rose in the latter of the part of the '60s with the Church of Satan, and Black Sabbath and Black Widow and Coven and that sort of hippie Satanism, which at the end of the day, heavy metal, black metal, all that is based upon that cultural Satanism...

"I grew up with that. So from that point of view, I would definitely say that culturally, I am definitely, for lack of a better way of putting it, I'm a devil-liking kind of guy.

"But, I wouldn't sacrifice a baby to a half-ram that I believe to be living in the underground. And I would never ever encourage anyone to do that."

[rmnews]

What do you think of the image Ghost represents?!

[theredking]

I love how any metal band with the devil gimmick gets asked if they're satanists or devil worshippers, they always give an ambiguous analogous answer or, in some cases, some straight up bullshit to add to their mystique. Tobias answered that well. If he said he was straight up a theistic satanist (or even a LaVeyan satanist) he would've turned off a lot of people. And on the other end if he said he thinks this is just a skit and it's all bullshit he would've lost even more.

[TheGhostRonin]

I've never seen so many ads on a 12 minute video, especially one that is just text to speech

[Nikolina]

I KNEW I LOVED HIM DAMN WHAT A HONOR TO LISTEN TO HIS SONGS

[joperhop]

12 minutes video, 8 adverts... Just no

[Michael-imfl]

Just saw them in New Orleans tonight. 2 1/2 hours of awesomeness!

[lauriepoo]

Why would there be a problem if Tobias was a Satanist?

[bmoremetal]

Agree with his point of view on religion.

[Ana_Ng]

i feel like "he is" is a pretty good representation of tobias' feelings and beliefs. no literal satanism, but a lot of the core traits to strive towards.
also, drop the text-to-speech, my man. the point of video news is being able to listen while doing something else, but the synthesised voices just grind my brain and break my concentration

[TedCornish]

I like ghost even though they sound like an 80s rock band crossed with Duran Duran

[juliegogola]

I LOVE GHOST, as far as them being satanic, I don't think that they are, BUT, they do mention satan in a way that I think could make a christian think they are satanists. I had played the new CD "prequel" for the first time since I had bought it on my best friends CD player in her car on a road trip, MY car's CD player doesn't work. I was kinda upset that I had offended her, BUT, she seemed to see the point of the songs, at least that is what she said to me. BUT, I really hadn't realized that the whole CD is about the "Plague", at least that is what I had heard that it was all about by someone on Youtube here that had given his opinion about the whole CD, and it does seem that most of the songs are indeed about the plague. Anyway, I have loved GHOST for a while now, maybe 2 years so far, BUT, if I had heard their songs before those 2 years, I would';ve loved them even longer.

[garrapaterorulez]

Last Saturday saw them in Miami Beach 3 hours of great fucking excellence. One word to sum up the entire show SUPERB! Been waiting 9 years for them to comeback and they did not disappoint. \, , /

[RandyFricke]

Eddie Trunk needs a dose of Tobias regarding KISS. Trunk thinks Paul and Gene should be 25 for all eternity.

[facelesscovers]

I'm a Christian and I'm a fan of this band.
I will also say we get a very bad rap of it.

[VictorRobotov]

I find it really funny what Kerry King said. It’s not cuz I’m offended as a Ghost fan or anything but that’s the exact same way I feel about slayer. Well except them being great guys. I’m sure they, just never met them. But I respect the hell out what they’ve done for the metal community and what their careers represent for the metal world. They great musicians and have evidently put out a massively loved catalogue, but for the life of me, and good while of trying, I can not get into their music. Would never criticize anyone who likes or defends them I just cannot listen to them. So I laughed pretty nicely at that.

[mikepayne]

Im still trying to figure out why it matters so much what faith he has, or for that matter any band or group. I was brought up to listen to it if it sounds good. Not to point at it and say this man's a Satanist so im not going to listen to it. Sure this comes from an atheist point of view, so that means religion in music doesn't mean a damn thing to me.if I like it, I listen.plain and simple. Do I listen to the message? No, cause im not a moron like half of the people out there. If I did, I probably would have done some rather insane crap by now. Music is music.be it someone screaming for help, or just enjoying the fact they a talent that they can share. Religion shouldn't mean a damn thing.

[mindstorms]

when I see a 12 minute video in my feed with 8 separate adverts in that time I just Pause it and look for somthing adverts in 12 minutes! does that sound rational in any way at ALL?

[dbrewu]

It's impossible to say that there is No God ....even if your a Satan loving Atheist . After all, Satan at one time was Gods right hand man . So Tobias used a tricky way of getting around the admission of there being a God . And still being able to have a Satan running around .

[hellonieman]

Cloudkicker is such a great choice for background music

[SamMelik]

This robotic voice is more evil than satan