Concert Review: Ghost (02 Arena, London - Saturday 19th April 2025)

Written: 20th April 2025

A few hours before Ghost were due to take the stage at the 02 in London, the area surrounding the venue is already buzzing with anticipation. A range of rock and metal t-shirts are on show, from Marillion to Def Leppard and Iron Maiden to Cannibal Corpse, demonstrating that Ghost have truly captured the imagination of a wide array of fans. As the time for Ghost to take the stage approaches, there is not a spare seat in sight and the venue is packed to the rafters. From the moment the lights dim until that last note of the evening died away, the crowd were held enraptured by the spectacle unfolding and the music they were hearing, all delivered with grandeur, humour, menace, and mystery.

Ghost choose to open the show with two songs from their upcoming album, Skeletá. Peacefield, which has yet to be released, and the band’s current single Lachryma both receive a marvellous reception with the latter finding the crowd enthusiastically singing along. Knowing that the audience are so appreciative of brand new material must enable the band savour the moment more so.

The setlist is a masterstroke of curation, spanning the band’s ever-expanding canon but giving special prominence to Meliora, their breakthrough 2015 opus, in honour of its tenth anniversary. Songs from that era (Spirit, Majesty and Cirice amongst others) are given space to breathe, and met with thunderous applause, Ghost imbuing the tracks with a decade’s worth of evolution and touring sheen.

Central to the experience is the band’s bold decision to enforce a no-phones policy - a rare and increasingly radical move in our hyper-documented age, but it paid off tenfold. Without the flicker of a thousand tiny screens, the audience are more focused, more present and more alive in the moment. It is one of the most engaged audiences at any show I have been to in recent years and the night is all the better for it.

The staging is pure ecclesiastical theatre and the lighting crafted to guide the emotional contours of the evening. Each song has its own visual personality combining perfectly with the music meaning the audience are not just watching the showing but are absorbed into it. Backdrops vary between pure black and devilish stain-glassed windows to name just two. An overhead inverted cross—looming like a divine contradiction—hangs suspended, pulsing with light and colour, both ominous and mesmerising. Tobias Forge – in his latest guise as Papa V Perpetua – knows exactly how to work the crowd without making the concert merely about him, and he is more than willing to share the stage and the spotlight (in the most literal sense) with The Nameless Ghouls, masked and anonymous in their sharp uniforms, who play with eerie synchronisation.

Highlights of the set are hard to choose but the tour debut of Faith (taking the place of From The Pinnacle To The Pit from the two shows earlier in the tour), a stunning performance of Year Zero - unfurled with apocalyptic majesty, the entire arena bellowing Beelzebub! in unison like a perverse prayer - and Darkness At The Heart Of My Love (a track not played on the Imperatour) all staked their claim. New material was delivered with confidence and flair. The two other unreleased songs - Umbra and Satanized (which was met with universal approval from the audience)  - were not awkward insertions but seamless additions to the band’s sonic gospel. They came across not as previews, but as instant classics by a crowd who seemed already intimately acquainted with Satanized. Ghost certainly know how to write a catchy song and performances of Rats, Ritual and The Future Is A Foreign Land (Forge changing the date mentioned to 2034) again find the crowd willing to raise the roof.

What stands out about Ghost is the totality of their performance. Every gesture, every costume change, every lighting cue is synchronised for maximum impact. Yet, for all the precision, it never feels cold or calculated. Heavier live than on their albums, there’s heart in the theatricality, humour in the darkness, and always a deep love for the rock tradition they so gleefully warp and embellish. The crowd is equally magnificent and there is a significant number of raised hands, singing along and looks of pure enjoyment. In a moment of genuine gratitude, Forge is keen to mention how London (and indeed the UK) has always welcomed the band and referenced a gig at The Underworld in Camden some fifteen years ago. What a remarkable rise it has been.

After bathing the audience (and humorously a lot of the front of the stage) in confetti at the end of Mummy Dust, Ghost round off the main set with Monstrance Clock and the band leave the stage to rapturous applause. The encores seal the night in style: Mary on a Cross is sultry and bittersweet and Dance Macabre is campy, catchy and irresistible. Square Hammer brings it all crashing home with apocalyptic pomp, ending the night on a high that borders on euphoric.

Ghost at the 02 was a grand, multi-sensory sermon wrapped in darkness and light, sound and silence. In a world of fleeting digital moments, this was a wonderful vindication of performance art: an entertaining spectacle yes but one backed up with exceptional songs that brought an audience together as one. Dark, dramatic and hypnotising.

Ghost setlist

Peacefield

Lachryma

Spirit

Faith

Majesty

The Future Is A Foreign Land

Devil Church

Cirice

Darkness At The Heart Of My Love

Satanized

Ritual

Umbra

Year Zero

He Is

Rats

Kiss The Go-Goat

Mummy Dust

Monstrance Clock

Mary On A Cross

Dance Macabre

Square Hammer