Ghost frontman Tobias Forge, who previously revealed that the band was on hiatus, is rumored to be working on a secret death metal project as multiple collaborators and industry figures have dropped hints regarding his future plans in recent weeks, such as Swedish drummer Johan Koleberg and Europe vocalist Joey Tempest.
Swedish drummer Johan Koleberg wrote in the caption of his post: “Helping out Mr. Tobias Forge to tune these fine drums for his new project for the next couple of weeks.”
Europe frontman Joey Tempest also said in a new interview: “I don’t know [Forge’s] Ghost plans. I know he’s sitting in his studio again and no one is allowed in … he’s doing something!”
Those two comments have given the rumors their momentum, but the pause behind them is not a mystery. Forge has spoken about the break openly in recent weeks, and his earlier career explains why talk of a heavier side project keeps finding an audience.
Forge discussed his decision to step away from the road after the completion of the “Skeletour,” which supported Ghost’s 2025 album “Skeletá.” He told Kerrang! that he was exhausted after finishing more than 70 concerts across Europe and North America, and that he is now spending time at home rather than planning a quick return.
“I’m not gonna just go back to make an album or force myself to make an album for no reason,” Forge said, explaining that this time around he simply did not have an idea for the band and wanted to enjoy the break before deciding on the next steps.
The idea of Forge returning to death metal is not new to anyone who followed him before Ghost. He fronted the death metal band Repugnant before Ghost, and the group existed between 1998 and 2004. Repugnant formed in the late 1990s in Linköping, Sweden, never reached a mainstream audience, and left behind a single posthumous album, “Epitome of Darkness,” released in 2006 alongside a handful of demos, splits and an EP.
Forge has described those years as a formative period rather than a phase he left behind. He has said his first band was a death metal band and that he spent his whole adolescence playing death and black metal, where satanic themes are omnipresent. He has explained that he embraced Satanism as a teenager as a way of rebelling against strict teachers and an oppressively Christian, conservative stepmother, and as a means of finding his tribe among the rock fraternity.
The break is also being used for projects outside of music. Forge was recently added to the Mylla Films roster and contributed a segment to the “V/H/S Mixtape” horror anthology, which shows that his time away from the stage is already being filled with other work.
None of that confirms a death metal record, and neither Koleberg nor Tempest has described one. For now, the only firm facts are that Ghost is on hiatus, that Forge says he has no new Ghost album in mind, and that he is back in a studio working on something he has not named.
