Ghost have unveiled the new single, Peacefield, lifted from their forthcoming new album, Skeletá, which is due out on April 25, via Loma Vista.
Peacefield is the third track to arrive from the album, following Satanized and Lachryma, the latter of which was released earlier this month.
Heavily-80s coded and featuring a power stance-inducing chorus, Peacefield lands somewhere between Journey, Alice Cooper and Kiss, with a triumphant melody and a hard-hitting hair metal guitar riff.
Speaking of the song - which will serve as album opener - in a new Metal Hammer interview, frontman Tobias Forge says: "Beginning track of the album...always important to open a Ghost record with some sort of tone-setting epic, and that is Peacefield.
"Because the record is going to slalom, zig-zag into darker subjects, I wanted to set a tone of hope in the beginning, even though its addressing very contemporary, contemptuous issues, I wanted to add a hand to the listener, that it'll be all fine, but we're gonna go sideways now, and go on a little trip."
The track was performed for the first time on Ghost's recent UK Skeletour, with Metal Hammer praising their London show as the "perfect Easter resurrection" with a four star review.
"Though the night was missing most songs from the much-loved Impera, with the upcoming Skeletá album seemingly carrying on its 80s vein, Ghost are band that needn't rely on the excitement of newer releases or fan-filmed footage on social media", the review reads. "Instead, they’ve created a sacred - and superbly-fun - world of their own, one run by its own rules and enchanting lore, and after performances like tonight, it feels like a privilege just to be let inside. Metal’s messiah has officially returned - and his name is Tobias Forge."
Listen below:
