In a brand new interview with the Dallas Observer, GHOST lead singer and founder Tobias Forge — who performs as Papa Emeritus and does the act's interviews disguised as a member of his backing band of Nameless Ghouls — spoke about being inspired by IRON MAIDEN, with whom his group is currently touring the United States. "For me personally, they have been very influential musically," Forge stated about the Bruce Dickinson-fronted outfit. "I've always listened to them a lot growing up as a metal fan. Their live album, 'Live After Death', had — and still has — a great impact on me when it comes to work ethic. Going through that book that came with the record, watching all those dates. When I was a kid, I would sit there with a map book and pin out all the cities they played on that tour. It was like a hundred shows all over America. The show was so over the top, so it set a standard." "MAIDEN was one of the big movers when it came to '80s heavy metal merchandise," Forge added. "All of our merchandise has always been inspired by bands like MAIDEN and the good ol' days of faithful RUSH t-shirts in parking lots outside of high school, with people smoking joints. That's the sort of idea I had about rock and roll merchandise. We didn't want to be worse. We wanted to look like those old, cool shirts, and that was the same with the logo." Forge recently told the Albuquerque Journal that even as he is preparing to record GHOST's fourth studio album, he's thinking about the one after that. He explained: "It's a pick and mix of a lot of different ideas and stuff laying around, a lot of new stuff being added to the pile. Yeah, it's a constant thinking ahead, and now, already now, I'm thinking about album number five, because there are songs coming out now or coming up being written that I feel like that won't fit into the new album, so I'll put that one on to the next one instead." Forge hinted at the lyrical themes of the next record, saying: "Having in mind that the previous record was about the absence of God or the absence of deities, this new one is going to be about the return of God. You know God's wrath cast upon the suffering humans, so it will be a little bit more biblical in that sense, which in turn makes it darker, a little bit more apocalyptic, I think." GHOST will enter the studio in mid-August to begin recording the new LP, after it completes its current North American tour as support for IRON MAIDEN. The follow-up to 2015's "Meliora" is expected out sometime early next year. "If everything goes to plan, by the end of the year we will have a new record recorded, mixed, mastered, delivered, and if nothing happens, we can still aim at an April release," Forge told the Dallas Observer. "The plan as of right now is to come back to America in April or May [of 2018]. We have a tendency to do American tours in April, so we like that tradition. It's a good one and we'd like to keep doing that."
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