GHOST unveil Papa’s romantic past in 'Dance Macabre' video: Watch

17 October 2018

Having recently released a disco remix of the song 'Dance Macabre', GHOST have now unveiled a music video for the original album track. The clip beautifully depicts the origins of a young Papa Emeritus and the start of his romantic relationship with Sister Imperator, a recurring character in the world of GHOST.

The video (watch below), directed by Zev Deans, starts out with a bit of an homage to The Rocky Horror Picture Show, as two young men knock on the door of a party, with a creepy host greeting them at the door. From there, the two get separated, as one of them falls for a blonde woman on the dance floor. From there, the story of Papa and Sister Imperator begins.

The song itself is about the 14th century Black Plague of Europe that decimated millions, with the video serving somewhat as a celebration of the End of Days.

“It’s about dancing the night away,” GHOST frontman Tobias Forge (aka Cardinal Copia) tells us of the video. “Ironically, this video is a little bit about the beginning, whereas the song is about the end, but then again, the world comes to an end often. You can regard it as the beginning of [Papa and Sister Imperator’s] relationship.”

As for the dance vibe of track, which is the latest single off the band’s Prequelle album, Forge explained to us, “Originally, I wasn’t necessarily entertaining the idea that it would be a Ghost track … but as soon as I started writing the full lyrics for it, I realized this is going to work [as a Ghost song]. I like the idea of trying to create unique songs … kind of like what Queen did — they have a hard rock song, then they synth song, then they have a ballad.”