At their June 18 set at Hellfest in Clisson, France, Ghost had to cut their set one song short because, as frontman Tobias Forge admitted onstage, his voice was “completely fucked.”
The 18-song set concluded with the Prequelle hit “Dance Macabre,” foregoing “Square Hammer,” the 2016 track which Ghost had been closing out their shows with recently.
Fan-filmed footage shows that Forge’s voice was a bit weathered throughout the night and had taken on a grittier, more distorted tone than the silky smooth, buttery vocals that usually emanate from the Papa Emeritus character onstage. Still, the singer powered through a dozen and a half songs in front of the massive festival audience before electing to give his voice some rest.
“My voice is completely fucked. I cannot sing one other song for you,” Forge declares in the video clip seen toward the bottom of the page as confetti rains down on the stage and crowd at the end of “Dance Macabre.”
Although fans missed out on “Square Hammer,” they did bear witness to the live debut of “Griftwood,” a song off their new Impera album that Forge had previously indicated is about former U.S. Vince President Mike Pence, whom he dubbed an “awful person.”
Watch performance footage of that song further down the page as well.
For Ghost, the Hellfest set was the first time they had been back onstage since the European leg of their tour in support of their new album, Impera, came to a close on May 18 in Budapest, Hungary. That run also culminated in the unmasking of Ghost’s current live band in several social media posts which identified the members by name.
Ghost Setlist, Hellfest — June 18, 2022 (via setlist.fm)
01. “Kaisarion”
02. “Rats”
03. “From the Pinnacle to the Pit”
04. “Devil Church”
05. “Cirice”
06. “Hunter’s Moon”
07. “Faith”
08. “Spillways”
09. “Ritual”
10. “Call Me Little Sunshine”
11. “Helvetesfönster”
12. “Year Zero”
13. “Spöksonat”
14. “He Is”
15. “Miasma”
16. “Mummy Dust”
17. “Griftwood” (Live Premiere feat. Sisters of Sin)
18. “Dance Macabre”