Ghost, at the Milan Forum a collective ritual without phones

Hermetically sealed smartphones, silenced notifications and all the distractions of this left outside the gates of the Assago forum. The Milanese stage of the “Skeletour 2025” of the Ghost follows the script of the “Experience without telephones”, strongly desired by Tobias Forge – mind and guide of the Swedish band – to offer an authentically immersive show.
The show to support the recent “Skeletá”, published on April 25, thus freed from the screen filter, soon turns into a truly collective rite and diabolically devoid of distractions of any kind. In the guise of his last papal incarnation, the sinister Pope V perpetual, the frontman officia then his ceremonial with theatricality and sailed skill, combining, as usual, profane rock and dark liturgies.

A stage like a cathedral

To welcome the audience that fills the building in full, a stage adorned as a ruined cathedral, ready to reveal itself, through digital scenography and gigantic neon crosses in all its Luciferian splendor. On the restless notes of “Piecefield” thus kicks off the show at 20.30 in the point – not exactly the hour of the witches, but so much so – welcomed by a collective roar. On stage, together with the charismatic leader, a band of seven Ghouls without name hidden in a voodoo-phaclical look inspired by the new album, ready to accentuate its presence with the exaggerated movements of the actors of silent cinema.

With a bright move, the entire scaletta of the European tour had already been widespread on the social profiles of the band and made available as a playlist in its counterpart in the studio. In a sort of Greatest Hits of the first fifteen years of the forge creature, one after the other old and new songs with immediate power follow one after the other: from the very recent “Lachryma” and “Satanized”, with the refreshments prudent immediately intended by all those present, up to pieces left outside the last tours, such as “Majesty”, “Spirit” or “from the Pinnacle to the pit”. There are also, the apocalyptic pop of “The Future Is a Foreign Land” and pieces with a decidedly more energetic knock as “Rats”, the inevitable seductive march “Cirice” and the very black “Year Zero”.

To dominate the scene can only be the Pontiff-Vocalist. With his disguises forgery forge he always manages to be the group’s nerve center, ascending to heaven, showing himself in choral clothes and accentuating any movement with studied solemnity. Blessed, fascinates and almost hypnotizes. In front of a practically sold-out forum, he expresses less than other occasions, but on the other hand his Pope V is still a new character and lets the songs and imposing visuals above all speak for him. Thus, between smoke and flames with the windows with the images of the great tempter who have accompanied most of the show are shattered to make room for representations of other disturbing cults, from the predatory world of business to even more ambiguous and gloomy size, for a powerful visual sequence, which amplifies the symbolic scope of the concert.

More or less sacred fires

In closing, it is a crescendo of intensity, with the orgiastic prayer of “Monstrance Clock”, before granting the crowd three conclusive bis very unlawful. The Hit of almost two million copies “Mary On A Cross”, followed by the piercing case of “Dance Macabre” which makes the forum a huge hellish dance hall. Finally, with “Square Hammer”, the last coup de théâtre: the cameras turn to the public, to project the faces on the stage of the stage, between blessed smiles, rock horns and inevitable pope make-up.

Once again, between more or less sacred fires, found sparkling and an aptly blasphemous irony, Tobias Forge and his Ghosts have been able to drag the public out of time, offering his very cunning rite as cunning. Suspended between hard, glam and an entirely allegorical imagination they thus pack an performance with a decidedly engaging shot. A dark, theatrical and perfectly orchestrated celebration. Amen.

Setlist

1. Peacefield
2. Lachryma
3. Spirit
4. From the pinnacle to the pit
5. Majesty
6. The Future Is a Foreign Land
7. Devil Church
8. Cirice
9. Darkness at the Heart of My Love
10. Satanized
11. Ritual
12. Umbra
13. Year zero
14. He is
15. Rats
16. Kiss the Goat
17. Mummy Dust
18. Monstrance Clock

19. Mary on a cross
20. Dance macabre
21. Square Hammer