The Papa Emeritus IV Era

2020-2023

Papa Emeritus IV was born onstage on March 3, 2020 in Mexico City, at the exact moment Cardinal Copia was anointed before the audience. He was the same character—the same person—with a new crown and a new name. But the transformation was real within the lore: Copia had proven his worth, and the Clergy had elevated him. His first major test came immediately: the COVID-19 pandemic cancelled all live activity for over a year. Ghost could not tour. The world stopped, and Papa IV existed only in fans' imagination until the machinery started moving again. Impera (2022) was the album of his full reign. Conceptually centered on the rise and fall of empires—Rome, the Third Reich, the Catholic Church, late capitalism—it was Ghost's most epic and grandiose record. 'Kaisarion', 'Spillways', 'Call Me Little Sunshine', 'Twenties', 'Darkness at the Heart of My Love' and 'Respite on the Spitalfields' showed a band capable of moving fluidly between classic hard rock, melodic pop and cinematic ballad. The album reached #2 on the Billboard 200 and #1 in eight countries. But the real cultural explosion of this era didn't come from Impera. 'Mary on a Cross'—originally released on the Seven Inches of Satanic Panic EP in 2019, during the Cardinal Copia era—went massively viral on TikTok in 2022, accumulating over 1 billion streams and turning Ghost into a cross-genre pop phenomenon. An entire generation discovered the band through that single, multiplying their fanbase exponentially. In May 2023, Ghost released Phantomime, a five-cover EP including songs by Television, Genesis, The Stranglers, Iron Maiden and Tina Turner. It was the last release of the Papa IV era. On September 11, 2023, at the final show of the Re-Imperatour at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, California, Sister Imperator died onstage from an undisclosed illness. In her will, she bequeathed the Clergy's leadership to her son—Papa Emeritus IV—who ascended to the role of Frater Imperator, retiring as Ghost's frontman to become the organization's new head. That same cycle of shows was filmed for Rite Here Rite Now, Ghost's cinematic debut directed alongside Alex Ross Perry. The film combined live performances with a fiction narrative that picked up the threads of the Chapters series, starring Papa Emeritus IV in his final hours as frontman. It became North America's highest-grossing hard rock cinematic event of its release year. Within the lore, the figure of Papa Emeritus IV marked the definitive exhaustion of the Emeritus lineage as a source of succession. Frater Imperator now governs the Clergy from the shadows, and his tense relationship with his fraternal twin Papa V Perpetua is Ghost's new narrative axis.

Albums

Members

Tobias Forge

Vocals & leader

Leader

Chris Catalyst

Rhythm guitar

Core Member

Per Eriksson

Lead guitar

Core Member

Cos Sylvan

Bass

Core Member

Hayden Scott

Drums

Core Member

Jutty Taylor

Guitar · Saxophone (as Papa Nihil)

Core Member

Laura Scarborough

Keyboards · Keytar

Core Member

Mad Gallica

Keyboards · Percussion

Core Member