Tobias Forge From Ghost Talks About His Death Metal Dream

Tobias Forge from Ghost (Instagram @thebandghost)

JAKARTA - Before becoming the vocalist of Ghost as Papa Emeritus, Tobias Forge happened to a death metal band called Repugnant.

The band was founded between 1998 and 2004, and released an album titled Epitome Of Darkness in 2006 (outside several demos, splits and EPs).

Then what is the cause of the death of Repugnant? Reality. In an interview with Metal Hammer, Forge said he finally realized that Repugnant was not what people wanted even though there was a glimmer of hope throughout their career.

"I learned from the bitter experience at the end of the 90s that the desire to play death metal inspired in the 80s with my band Repugnant was completely unrelated to what was going on at the time," Forge said.

"I am heartbroken; I want us to join the Roadrunner and support Slayer. Unfortunately it never happened or maybe fortunately, because it keeps me going for a few more years and if that happened I probably wouldn't be here today."

"Repundant is close to success. We signed a contract with the [Netherlands] Hammerheart label, which at that time felt we were successful because the first thing they did was take us on our first tour, supporting the American band Macabre."

"And at that time it felt like we were going somewhere, but we separated from Hammerheart too quickly because we didn't reach an agreement. It felt like we had our chance but we failed."

If you've never heard of the Epitome Of Darkness album, listen to the YouTube link below. It's a bit surprising that the name Repugnant no longer appears as death metal has been a sustainable and massive revival lately.

Despite Ghost's worldwide success, Forge previously stated that he wanted to return to death metal someday.

"I love death metal. I listen to it a lot. I'm still obsessed with it from the point of view of collecting it. That's where my teenager's heart is. I grew up with a lot of music, but my teenage years were completely submerged and really drowned in the impression of death metal."