What is Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott opinion on Ghost

Since the release of their debut album in 2010, the Swedish group Ghost, led by singer Tobias Forge had become one of the most praised bands in music over the last decade. With a unique sound, it’s difficult to label the band into a Rock and Roll subgenre because they can mix Heavy Metal, Pop and religious music into their songs. Forge, that is Papa Emeritus, the vocalist of the band recently said during the release of their acclaimed new album “Impera” (2022) that Def Leppard was an influence.

So Metal Hammer asked the legendary Leppard frontman Joe Elliott was is his opinion on Ghost and he revealed that the first person that presented the band to him was his bandmate, the guitarist Phil Collen.

What is Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott opinion on Ghost:

Phil (Collen) introduced me to them. He said, ‘Here, have you heard about this band Ghost? It’s like this kind of Scando goth-metal but with brilliant melodies.’ I went, ‘Well, that’s an oxymoron, cos it’s usually [makes unintelligible singing noise like someone vomiting in a bucket].’ But he played me something – a couple of minutes each of a few songs.”

“I was really intrigued. So I asked him to Dropbox me the new album. I listened to it all, and I thought it was absolutely stunning. It’s like a whole new genre of music – it’s way more Toto than death metal or any of that stuff. It’s like the song Spillways. It starts off like Hold The Line by Toto or Jane by Jefferson Starship – one of those classic 70s songs that begin on the piano before these big, chunky chords come in,” Joe Elliott said.

The musician also said that “Impera” is his “got-to album” during the last weeks and he even downloaded the record onto his Apple Watch, that according to him has only a few albums. He also compared the intro track of the album “Imperium” to what bands like Metallica and Thin Lizzy already did on some of their classic albums.

He also said that he loves the theatrical side of the band, because he is a big fan of what bands like Kiss and David Bowie did in the past. Even though he said that he hasn’t heard a lot Def Leppard on the Ghost record he said that certainly the attitude that Leppard had is in it. Elliott also said that his band is always open to collaborate with other artists, regardless of the style of music they made, so he doesn’t rule out the possibility of accepting to work with Ghost in the future.

The concept of the album

In an interview with KLAQ radio station (Transcribed by Blabbermouth) back in 2021, the band’s singer and leader Tobias Forge explained the concept of the new album, saying: “The album that I have been working on, I came up with that concept years ago.”

“We played in Seattle in 2013, 2014 — something like that — we played at Showbox At The Market. I remember that day I came up with the idea for this record, this upcoming record. Because I got a book called ‘The Rule Of Empires’.”

“So, basically, I wanted to make a record about the rise and ultimately the unescapable fails and falls of empires. And an idea like that can take — at least me — quite far. So once you get that idea of, like, ‘Oh, now I know what the pile is gonna look like. I know now what not to put in there.’”