Ghost

Few bands have built a career on anonymity as deliberately as Ghost. Hailing from Linköping in Sweden, the group founded by Tobias Forge in 2006 blends hard rock, heavy metal, arena rock and pop rock with the theatrics of horror cinema. Masked musicians known as Nameless Ghouls stand behind a lead singer who has worn the Papa Emeritus persona and its successors, and the costumes give the act its shape, while the music gives it weight.

Their debut, Opus Eponymous, arrived on the independent Rise Above Records in October 2010, reached number 50 in Sweden and earned a 2011 Grammis nomination for Best Hard Rock album. A tour with Paradise Lost, an appearance at Download Festival in Leicestershire and an opening slot on the Heritage Hunter Tour with Mastodon and Opeth followed, and in 2012 they won Breakthrough Band at the Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards. Meliora, released in 2015, went to number one in Sweden and number eight in the US. Skeletá, their sixth studio album, came out in 2025 and gave them their first number one on the US Billboard 200. Forge's identity was revealed in 2017, after several musicians who had worked with him on the project began legal action over royalties.