Ghost mainman Tobias Forge has had the band's future mapped out inside his endlessly creative mind from their very earliest days. What's more, the visionary frontman has rarely (if ever) shied away from their more theatrical side, giving him and the band endless leeway to pull out all the stops and more when crafting their own visual reality.
With a firm hand on the occult party-rockers' direction at any given time – he is the clergy leader after all – it's only expected that he would also be the one to decide on how his backing bandmates, the Nameless Ghouls, should look.
When speaking in a recent interview with Revolver, Forge discussed the inspiration behind the Nameless Ghouls' latest makeover, and revealed that it was the film franchise Star Wars that gave him the most ideas.
Previously, the NG's wore iconic mouth-less, silver Roman-inspired masks, and now, for Ghost's Impera era, they've transitioned to wearing steampunk Navy helmets that feature large bug-like eye holes and tubes connected to the the sides.
"I wanted a sort of militant look," Forge explains, "but any time you have people in uniform and in plural, you end up with a slight military vibe.
"I wanted to progress that from cult members to more like an army. So you have a little bit of '30s European there, and also old air-pilot helmets."
He continues, "As a Star Wars fan, I've always been into the Tusken Raiders and their sort of lifeless look, so that was also part of it."
The Tusken Raiders, aka the "Sand People," first appeared onscreen in 1977's Star Wars, otherwise known as Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope.
Ghost are now currently on their European/UK tour alongside Satanic do-whoppers Twin Temple and occult rockers Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats.
