“This is not a tale about death, but one of life”: Watch the trailer for Ghost’s Rite Here Rite Now film and stream the first song from the soundtrack

Papa Emeritus IV in 2023
(Image credit: Ghost via Youtube)

Ghost have released the trailer for their upcoming concert film Rite Here Rite Now, along with the first taste of its soundtrack.

The Swedish masked metal collective, led by Tobias Forge under the papal guise of “Papa Emeritus”, will release the film in global cinemas on June 20 and 22 via Trafalgar Releasing.

Tickets to see Rite Here Rite Now worldwide are now available and the soundtrack is now available for preorder.

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Watch the trailer, featuring the Ghost songs Year Zero and Square Hammer, and listen to a live version of Meliora track Absolution from the film below.

A voiceover in the trailer teases: “The great beyond. The infinite darkness of the universe. With all its secrets unknown to mankind. The risk of oneself not being able to experience eternity.

“However, this is not a tale about death, but one of life.”

Ghost announced Rite Here Rite Now last week, promising the film would mix live footage of the band’s two shows in Los Angeles last September with a fictional narrative.

Forge commented upon the announcement: “Over a decade ago when Ghost got signed to [current record label] Loma Vista, Tom Whalley (owner and CEO) asked what the story of the band was.

“He felt telling a story was vital in order to get new fans engaged.

“I said that because we were a new ‘baby’ band and more importantly we were an anonymous baby band, there wasn’t really a compelling story to tell.

“Not yet anyway.

“But I told him that if he wanted a story, I could come up with one.

“This film is the fruit of that conversation.”

Forge previously teased that Ghost would be releasing a film of last year’s Los Angeles shows in a 2023 interview with Metal Hammer.

“We were essentially shooting a film,” he said of the concerts. “And we used two nights of crowds as extras.

“It’s going to be a film with a concert element. So a lot of what you experienced [at the two L.A. shows] is going to be part of this project.”

When asked if the Ghost film would be similar to Metallica’s Through The Never, which combined concert footage with an action film-like narrative, Forge replied, “In the sense that it’s a concert with something else combined.”

Ghost finished the touring cycle for their latest album, 2022’s Impera, last October with some Australian shows.

During the last date of the trek on October 7 in Brisbane, Forge (under the Papa Emeritus IV persona) announced that the concert will mark the end of his current character and that he’d return as a new incarnation, possibly Papa Emeritus V.

He said: “This finale, it’s just going to be my last show, and I’m going to do my best to deliver that show to you. And that would just have to be enough, OK?”

In a March 2022 interview with Guitar.com, Forge revealed that he already had a plan for Ghost’s activities up to 2025.

This plan included what the followup to Impera will sound like and be titled, and when it will be released.

However, no concrete release date for the next album has been given and the band have not announced any future concerts at time of publication.

Matt Mills
Contributing Editor, Metal Hammer

Louder’s resident Gojira obsessive was still at uni when he joined the team in 2017. Since then, Matt’s become a regular in Prog and Metal Hammer, at his happiest when interviewing the most forward-thinking artists heavy music can muster. He’s got bylines in The Guardian, The Telegraph, NME, Guitar and many others, too. When he’s not writing, you’ll probably find him skydiving, scuba diving or coasteering.

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