GHOST Posts Las Vegas Billboard Teasing 'New' Frontman For 2025 Touring Cycle: PAPA V PERPETUA

Swedish occult metallers GHOST have posted a billboard in Las Vegas teasing the new character who will be fronting the band for its 2025 touring cycle: Papa V Perpetua. A “FumataCast” YouTube livestream featuring the billboard — which contains the phrase “V is coming…” — has also been launched.

Papa V Perpetua‘s name was initially listed as one of the performers for BLACK SABBATH‘s final concert, set to take place on July 5 at Villa Park in Birmingham, United Kingdom.

GHOST also confirmed the singer’s participation at the Villa Park event in a social media update, writing: “We wish to inform you V is coming… To Birmingham on July 5th.”

GHOST mastermind Tobias Forge performed as a “new” Papa Emeritus on each of the band’s first three LPs, with each version of Papa replacing the one that came before it. Papa Emeritus III was retired in favor of Cardinal Copia before the release of 2018’s “Prequelle”. In March 2020, at final show of GHOST‘s “Prequelle” tour in Mexico City, Mexico, the band officially introduced Papa Emeritus IV, the character who fronted the act for its “Impera” (2022) album phase.

Asked in a 2019 interview with Full Metal Jackie‘s nationally syndicated radio show how those different identities empower him as a performer, Forge said: “Speaking just for myself, I know that coming out onstage as another character, looking different, acting different, definitely allows for you to act and behave in a way that you wouldn’t normally do. This can be both traumatic and also therapeutical in away.

“Even though it’s been a long time since I practiced any sort of martial arts, I almost feel similar to myself back then, like after karate class. I did all kinds of things. I did judo, jiu-jitsu, tae kwon do and karate. After you are sort of cleansed from any sort of violent urges that you had. And in a way, I feel that way. Especially now when we play on our regular nights. When we play that long, any inkling that you have of wanting to dance and rock out is sort of over when you come off stage, which is very nice.

“One of the luxuries of being able to dress up for it and become a different character is that as soon as I am not that character anymore, no one expects me to behave the way that the character does onstage,” he added. “No one expects me to be that way offstage. There’s been a great handful of rock artists that have had a big problem differentiating themselves from their character onstage. And that leads to a lot of potential problems.”

As previously reported, GHOST will embark on a world tour in 2025. The European leg of the trek will kick off on April 15 in Manchester, United Kingdom and conclude on May 24 in Oslo, Norway. The North American leg of GHOST‘s 2025 tour will launch on July 9 in Baltimore, Maryland and wrap up on August 16 in Houston, Texas.

The physical home video of GHOST‘s worldwide Top 10 box office smash feature film debut “Rite Here Rite Now” was made available on December 6, 2024.