Ghost are one of the biggest success stories in metal over the last 10 years. Their unholy combination of occult rock, pop hooks, eye-catching theatrics and sly blasphemy has turned them into bona fide festival headliners. But what if you want to go beyond Tobias Forge and co and check out new music that is coming from the same place? Luckily for you, we’re here to help – here are five new bands every Ghost fan should listen to.
Sonja
Much like Tobias, Melissa Moore rose through the extreme metal underbelly then made her best music in a more melodic, nostalgic project. The Sonja frontwoman released 2022 debut album Loud Arriver, after being dismissed from black metal band Absu when she came out as trans. The album is eight songs of sexy and empowered goth/glam: rockers like Nylon Nights and Fuck Then Die exude confidence through a swaggering pace, no-nonsense songwriting and heaps of Judas Priest hooks.
Listen to: Nylon Nights
Spell
While Ghost push the influence of Blue Öyster Cult and Candlemass into a catchily blasphemous direction, Canadian duo Spell cast that sound towards magic, witchcraft and folklore. Their latest album Tragic Magic is the perfect entry point, mixing dark art of occult rock with such majestic choruses on Fever Dream, Ultraviolet and the sublimely mythical Hades Embrace. The fact that these two haven’t supported Tobias and co. yet seems ludicrous.
Listen to: Fever Dream
Sermon
Like Ghost, enigmatic one-man project Sermon deal in great spiralling swathes of noise, grand atmospherics and an undercurrent of unsettling weirdness. But Him – the anonymous mastermind behind it all – has swapped retro influences for a pounding barrage of prog metal-adjacent energy. If the epic tunes on new album Of Goldern Verse don’t hook in fans of Tobias and co, then the mask undoutbedly will.
Listen to: The Great Marsh
The Abbey
It feels like Finland’s The Abbey emerged fully formed out of a portal from hell. Their cerebral, progressive doom is more complicated and their vocals are more multi-layered than Ghost’s but, but they share a religious fixation with Tobias. The Abbey’s songs are about Thelema and Pagan gods “claiming back their territory” from Christianity, while their debut album is called Word Of Sin.
Listen to: Starless
Dead Quiet
Do you like the doomy grandeur of Ghost but wish they were louder and shoutier? Dead Quiet do the opposite of what they say on the tin. Mixing stoner jams, hard rock, hulking metal and some retro organ playing, the Canadians’ rambunctious tracks sound like Tobias hopped on a Harley and wrote some riffs with Tony Iommi.
Listen to: Of Sound & Fury
