GHOST played the first official show of the "Rats! On The Road" U.S. tour last night (Saturday, May 5) at Riverside Municipal Auditorium in Riverside, California. In addition to the previously released new single "Rats", which opened the concert, GHOST played four more songs from the upcoming "Prequelle" album during the set: "Faith", "Dance Macabre", "Miasma" (featuring a saxophone solo from Papa Nihil) and "Pro Memoria". The band's setlist was as follows: 01. Ashes 02. Rats 03. Absolution 04. Ritual 05. Con Clavi Con Dio 06. Per Aspera Ad Inferi 07. Devil Church 08. Cirice 09. Stand By Him 10. Miasma (feat. Papa Nihil on sax) 11. Jigolo Har Megiddo (Acoustic) 12. Pro Memoria 13. Deus In Absentia Set II 13. Spirit 14. From The Pinnacle To The Pit 15. Faith 16. Year Zero 17. Spöksonat 18. He Is 19. Prime Mover 20. Mummy Dust 21. If You Have Ghosts (Roky Erickson cover) 22. Dance Macabre 23. Square Hammer Fan-filmed video footage can be seen below. "Prequelle" will be released on June 1 via Loma Vista Recordings. The disc was recorded last year at Artery studios in Stockholm with producer Tom Dalgety (OPETH, ROYAL BLOOD) and was mixed in January at Westlake Studios in West Hollywood, California with Andy Wallace (NIRVANA, SLAYER). GHOST lead singer Tobias Forge, who performs under the names Papa Emeritus and now Cardinal Copia, told The Pulse Of Radio what inspired him to write "Rats". "A few years ago, I decided, like, 'I really want to have a big opening track that just blows people's minds immediately,'" he said. "So I wrote 'Square Hammer' and that went well. But I didn't want 'Square Hammer' to turn into a 'Start Me Up', where that always feels best to play first. I want to be able to mix it up. So we needed another song that works as an opening track. That was basically my intention with 'Rats'." Forge has hinted that the theme of "Prequelle" has to do in part with the arrival of the Black Plague in Europe, among other events in history. Forge last year revealed his identity while responding to a lawsuit filed by four former members of GHOST, who accused him of cheating them out of their rightful share of the profits from the group's album releases and world tours. Tobias told The Pulse Of Radio that the lawsuit affected the making of "Prequelle". "I had a personal situation that urgently told me to salvage the situation and reclaim what is mine and also justify that it was mine to begin with," he said. "So, of course, there was a great sense of urgency over the album. Not only thematically, but for myself, this record was a record about survival through trauma."
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