Swedish heavy metal crew announces five-song covers EP Phantomime, featuring tracks by Iron Maiden, Tina Turner, Television and more
Papa Emeritus IV and Swedish heavy metal act Ghost blasphemously celebrated Easter Sunday with a surprise cover of Genesis’ 1992 single “Jesus He Knows Me.”
Fitting for a song that spoofs televangelism, Ghost paired their rendition with an Alex Ross Perry-directed, age-restricted video featuring the duplicitous Father Jim DeFroque who — after delivering his sermon — goes on an all-night party binge complete with multiple drug runs, encounters with sex workers, and other frowned-upon activities.
“We wish to inform you that one person’s beauty is another’s blasphemy…,” Ghost said of the video.
“Jesus He Knows Me” is the first single off Ghost’s upcoming five-song covers EP Phantomime, due out May 18. The EP also features tracks by Iron Maiden (“Phantom of the Opera”), Television (“See No Evil”), the Stranglers (“Hanging Around”) and Tina Turner (“We Don’t Need Another Hero (Thunderdome)”).
In 2022, Ghost released their latest album Impera, a record that rails against bloated nations, empty leaders, and the glorification of stupidity. “We now have mechanisms within our own Western empire who are actively trying to, and to some degree have, created this time machine where we’re regressing,” Ghost frontman Tobias Forge told Rolling Stone. “We’re flattening the earth. We’re submitting to stupidity, which is fucking unbelievable.”
The band has also announced a North American amphitheater tour for this summer. Titled the Re-Imperatour U.S.A. 2023, the trek begins August 2nd in Concord, California, and plays 27 dates, wrapping up September 11th in Los Angeles.
