Tobias Forge has always shown his passion for classic 80s rock bands, and the new album Skeletá is no different.
In a recent interview with Kerrang !, the Ghost frontman revealed two albums from the 80s that influenced his new album. Not only Blue Öyster Cult Fire of Unknown Origin (1981) , but Abominog (1982) also a major influence on Skeletá.
“As a reference, I used two albums released in the early 80s, around the time I was born: Fire Of Unknown Origin by Blue Öyster Cult, and Abominog by Uriah Heep. Both were already at an advanced stage of their careers at the time, and in the early 80s they were seen as older guys. They started saying, 'Well, the kids like these funny keyboards. Let's try this, and maybe some electronic drums.' It has that 'laser sound,' but it kind of struggles with it. It sounds like the future. I wanted a bit of that. Not this shitty future we live in, the idea of the future from the 80s.”
At another point, Tobias had already cited his influence from both bands. In an interview with Loudwire in 2019, the musician spoke about the riffs of the famous track "Square Hammer" from the EP Popestar (2016) [transcription via Ultimate Guitar ]:
“We had a lot of, I mean, speaking of influences, I really like a band called Uriah Heep, and all the drum melodies we had on the opening tracks of three albums, that's completely Uriah. If there's one thing I listen to much more than Blue Oyster Cult, it's Uriah Heep, and you just have to listen to 'Return to Fantasy' [from 1975] or 'Look at Yourself' [from 1971] and you'll hear 'That's Ghost'. And so we ended up adopting this triplet thing.”.
Tobias Forge and the strong influence of Brazilian bands
In an interview with Wikimetal , Tobias Forge also revealed which Brazilian bands influenced him:
“The most influential bands in Brazil for me are: without a doubt, Sepultura. I even have a tattoo on my arm of the cover of the EP Bestial Devastation . It was the first tattoo I got when I was 18 or 19 years old. I think the first three or four Sepultura albums were very important to me. INRI , by Sarcófago, meant a lot to me. I still think it's absolutely wonderful. Mutilator is cool. I know Holocausto has aged, but Bloody Vengeance by Vulcano is a great album. What else? Mystifier , great band. I think most of the bands I like from Brazil are very underground and old. But nowadays, a band I really like is Crypta . I think they're incredible.”
Check out the full interview with Tobias Forge..
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