Retrospective: To The Missionary At The Austin, TX Ghost Show

"...It is a wonderful feeling. I've always felt that if I just got to the end of the rainbow, whatever is there, I will find belonging. I'm assuming that this is it, this is the belonging that we're sharing." -- Papa Emeritus IV, Ghost, Re-Imperatour

Edit: the show was September 4, 2023

(* disclaimer at bottom)

Dear Madame,

Firstly, I hope this find you well. You probably are not sore or tired, and your voice probably isn't hoarse. I'm a little the worse for wear this morning. I probably had more activity at the show last night than I usually do even during a workout, as I have a very sedentary job in tech and work from home.

You would probably recognize me. I sat two chairs down from you. I had several tattoos, one sleeve on my left arm and several visible on my legs. I had the blackletter Ghost "G" emblazoned in black and white paint on my face. I did a lot of head banging and jumping, and screaming.

So much screaming.

I had the sleeves torn off a red and black Ghost t-shirt from the Prequelle days, ancient history in the music world. Ghost has put out two albums since Cardinal Copia led the faithful. The girl directly beside you in the black Ghost Impera t-shirt and tall Doc Martins is my sixteen-year-old niece. She plays mellophone and obo for the Bastrop High School marching band and will have a very prominent roll in the Bastrop High School theater production of Les Misérables in 25 days. To maintain her band and theater participation, she holds an B+ or better in her AP courses, and because she is probably the sweetest girl in the world, she takes a very active role in her home helping her mother raise her special needs brother.

I confess I noticed you might not be there for the same reasons we were when you sat down on the other side of my niece. At first I thought you might be there with some of your kids or grandkids, as many of the people in the crowd around us were young adults or teens and kids in the company of parents or guardians. Despite the tone and content of their music and show, Ghost has a very eclectic following. We would never dream of judging anyone or questioning anyone's right to be there. But it became clear as the show progressed that you were not enjoying yourself. If I had to judge by the look on your face, you remained patently unamused. You did not find the spectacle entertaining nor the energy infectious.

Nevertheless, I apologize for not speaking to you. On the one hand, it was very childish of me. As a member of the faithful clergy with decades of metal shows under my very sweaty belt and waistband, my reaction to seeing anyone among us who could have been there with anything other than the rapturous joy that is attending a metal show was rather rebellious and loaded with no small amount of contempt. On the other hand, I had no wish to draw attention to you. Though the attendees of this particular show are mostly young, and I would describe the congregates assembled to be good-natured, metal heads are like pack animals. We're protective of our own. Those who are not there in what I would call "good faith" could be considered an enemy. The middle of a metal show is no place to call someone out.

However, a bit of misplaced rebel ire is no occasion for rudeness. In hindsight I should have introduced myself and my niece, as I did for some of the others around us. In my defense, you didn't seem inclined to talk. You might have noticed the members of the flock have no qualms about making each other feel welcomed. We should have done the same for you. You came among us, made no fuss, caused no trouble, and quietly watched the show with us with what I would say was a commendable amount of patience and restraint. That must not have been easy. For someone of your inclinations, the sight of us raising horns in the air in salute to Satanas during "Year Zero" and "Ritual" and Papa's blasphemous gestures with the censor during "Clavi Con Dio", with all of us screaming to bring the high heavens down around us, must have angered you to your core. My niece said you might have been searching up some information on Ghost before we left.

I'd say that wasn't our best moment, except it was absolutely our best moment and we meant every single word to every single lyric. What you must think of the assembled and the band we came together for is beyond my ken, and quite honestly, I am not bound by any obligation to protect your feelings or apologize for my behavior, nor am I even bound by any sense of decorum to explain myself or the band.

But if I'm going to miss The Next Great American Novel challenge deadline, I might as well miss it in style. In spite of the above disclaimer, I feel you may have gotten the wrong idea about us. But that's okay. That happens when you stumble upon something you don't understand. I'm not going to try to convince you that what we're doing is somehow good or righteous. I'm not here to defend it. We're purposefully doing something you and others like you would consider wrong and evil. And that, my dear madame, is entirely the point.

And I think that before you judge us and take back whatever information you think you've gotten by attending the show to whomever was needing it, it might be a good idea to read this. I think you will find it enlightening, even if it doesn't change your mind. If anything, what I have to say will only convince you further of our sins.

You see we love this band and we love heavy metal because there is something about us that you and yours have deemed unclean, unworthy, or unnecessary. Punk rock, thrash, heavy metal, grunge, whatever Ghost actually is, all of these are reactions to generations of kids being told what to do by people who have no actual authority over anything. The world that gave us David Bowie and The New York Dolls and Bad Brains is the same world you are living in. Upright, rigid, righteous, morally superior and probably also white, middle if not upper class, and very secure in our practice of Manifest Destiny. Ghost is preceded by dozens of metal bands and icons of rock and roll that were far more offensive than anything Papa Emeritus and the Nameless Ghouls have ever done on stage. Almost all of it was fake, just like what you saw at the show. McKenize Marsh said of Christopher Marlow and his play Doctor Faustus,

He said what few would dare say out loud, placing complex feelings about spirituality and religion in a play for characters and audiences to work out. (Marsh 1)

You see Ghost is like Doctor Faustus, it's a parody, a silly, gaudy, puppetry for the stage, and that has always been the point.

The Origins Of Ghost, And Probably All Metal

I hazard a guess that it all started with Marlowe.

You might not know who that is, but then again you might. I have no idea if you went to seminary school or pursued any higher education. I myself have a Bachelor's degree in English with a concentration in professional writing. I got all the business classes and all the British Authors I wanted. One of them was Christopher Marlowe, author of the Elizabethan play, The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus. The play was based on German folk traditions of a Doctor Faustus who makes a deal with the devil. In Marlowe's play, Mephistopheles brokers a deal between Doctor Faustus and Lucifer. The good doctor (theological, not medical) trades his soul to Lucifer for 24 years in exchange for the service of Mephistopheles (you may now understand the lyrics to "Little Sunshine" a little better).

What does Faustus do with such a powerful servant at his command? He misplaces a magic book, he and Mephistopheles impersonate two cardinals in order to meet the Pope (I'm actually beginning to see a pattern here), makes fun of some knights, calls on Helen Of Troy for a laugh before thinking better of it and making her his lover, and Lucifer comes for his soul after 24 years. The play is more parody than tragedy, especially it's B version, likely a less censored version, though it was common to adjust the tone and content and even the length of the play depending on the audience.

This play is especially poignant for the time, as it's B version (published in 1604) was a performance of high spectacle, "where witchcraft and magic were explored as special effects," (Marsh 8). The stages for this performance were rigged with trap doors for Mephistopheles to disappear and reappear from. Actors portrayed elaborately costumed devils, and the sets were equally elaborate--much like the Western European metal shows of today.

According to McKenzie Marsh, the stage effects of the play were well received by audiences, but critics were split down the middle. On the one side, the effects were thrilling and made for an excellent show; on the other hand, the effects were considered demonic, entertaining the idea of magic and anti-Christian symbolism.

If you cannot see the parallels to Ghost, then I argue willful or militant ignorance. It is an inconvenient truth that few are willing to accept: that despite the lyrical content, stage spectacle, costuming, and characters portrayed by the band members, Ghost, like Doctor Faustus, is nothing more than a parody, a metaphorical observation about organized religion. The Marsh writes of Marlowe:

"While his work was radical for sixteenth century English readers, Marlowe courageously made fresh and honest contributions to English literature. He said what few would dare say out loud, placing complex feelings about spirituality and religion in a play for characters and audiences to work out. Doctor Faustus engages the process of bringing to light doubt as a natural offspring of faith with the central conflicts of the Elizabethan era by the play’s expressed opinion of Christianity, its humanist approach to individual morality, and its attention to symbols that bring out elements of conflict," (Marsh, 1)

Ghost is not at all the only figure in music history to don the white makeup, nor is Papa Emeritus, in any incarnation, any better or worse than any other Gothic legend. From King Diamond to Alice Cooper to Marilyn Manson, there have been far more offensive metal and rock and roll icons. But in 2010 Papa Emeritus the First (I) did what none of these others ever dared to do. He slathered on a deaths mask of white and black paint (or a mask), donned the papal Mitre and paraded himself across the stage in a mockery of the Pope, echoing Faustus' mockery of a cardinal to sneak himself and an actual demon into an audience with the Pope. People were at first very uneasy, but front man Tobias Forge quickly put them at ease with his witty banter and sexual innuendo. Papa and the Nameless Ghouls invite their congregation to worship, especially in the older material, fantastical figures, demons, devils, and corrupted leaders. The original live material for the three albums, Opus Eponymous, Infestessumam (arguably my favorite), and Meliora (my inaugural album) were designed as "rituals" intended to be consumed as a sort of sermon or worship. In the pre-Cardinal Copia days we even referred to live shows as "Rituals", and to this day, the band never fails to play the eponymous song itself at live shows.

Marlowe may have given voice to Metal, and Ghost in particular, but in this day and age, you may ask, "Why turn to Satan? Why not just embrace God?"

Thank you for asking.

"Have You Ever Read Milton, Captain?"

Through "elements of conflict" Ghost takes a Renaissance Humanist approach to the metal genre, which is more overtly anti-Christian than it isn't. Bands in the metal scene question why the righteous suffer through deep throaty growls and screams that definitely express the anger and defiance of generations of oppressed and working class individuals. What many bands fail to clearly articulate is where this rebellion comes from. It's easy enough to walk away from organized religion. Expats of the Mormon and other evangelical and extreme sections of Christianity do it all the time. Few start metal bands, though. While some are happy to quietly live their lives, others are only to happy to take this fight against organized religion into the medium of music.

Though the band members themselves are of no identifiable religious affiliation, Ghost's content is devoutly anti-Christian, as it must be. To acknowledge and accept the presence of Satan is to acknowledge the God that created him. With songs like "Ritual", "Satan Prayer", "Year Zero," "His Body And Blood", and "Idolotrine", Ghost conducts a worship ceremony that is at once pro-Satan but somehow not Satanic in the evangelical Christian definition of the word. I say this because by now you should know that you cannot really take the show seriously. By shrouding the argument against organized religions and the infrastructure they uphold whereby oppression is allowed to endure in a "Satanic" or "Demonic" context, Ghost is a much more "enlightened" experience despite the hedonistic revelry.

What does it mean to be "Pro-Satan" without being a stereotypical Satanist? I.e. can you like Ghost and not actually worship Satan as if you were trying to overthrow God and everyone who believes in Him?

The answer lies in the Humanists of the Renaissance period. During this time in history, intellectuals were moving away from Christianity and returning to classical world studies to examine what it means to be human. Marlowe preceded this movement by only a few years with Doctor Faustus. It was John Milton who would continue Marlowe's exploration of this conflict with a follow-up question: were we truly given free will if God knew the Fall was going to happen? This is of course a reaction to the Calvanist view that those who ascend to Heaven are pre-determined by God (Marsh 5), leaving mankind to wonder who among them have been chosen. Who are we if there is nothing we can do about either our damnation or absolution?

The characterization of Satan in Milton's Paradise Lost is sort of the Humanist answer. Many argue that Satan is in fact the hero of Paradise Lost instead of Adam and Eve. However, that only holds up, according to Dr. Mark Allan in one of his lectures to me at University of Texas San Antonio, "if you never got past book 2." I agree except I think you could totally still argue Satan is the hero if you only get to book 6. You really have to get to book 9 if you want to understand why he is not the hero. But I digress.

In Doctor Faustus, Mephistopheles Book 1, line 264

"“Hell hath no limits, nor is circumscribed in one self place; for where we are is hell, and where hell is, there must we ever be. And to conclude, when all the world dissolves, and every creature shall be purified, all places shall be hell that is not heaven” (Norton 1141)," (Marsh 4).

Milton carries the metaphor further in Paradise Lost Book One, lines 254-263,

"The mind is its own place, and in itself Can make a heav’n of hell, a hell of heav’n. What matter where, if I be still the same, And what I should be, all but less than he Whom thunder hath made greater? Here at least We shall be free: th’Almighty hath not built Here for his envy, will not drive us hence: Here we may reign secure, and in my choice To reign is worth ambition, though in hell; Better to reign in hell than serve in heav’n."

Ghost, like Faust and Satan, as fictional characters, are but characters on a stage created for them by the reader or listener in much the way that God created the worlds that Faust and Satan occupy. Satan in Paradise Lost constructed his own prison, Pandemonium. The humanists looked to the abandonment of organized religion as an exercise of free will, as Satan does when he condemns "serving" in Heaven as opposed to "reigning" in Hell.

Through their metaphor, Ghost fans tackle conflicts of personal accountability, personal freedom, and bodily autonomy on an individual level while the band uses the power of the large audience to leverage "the word". As Ghost has gained popularity, as the size of the rituals has increased, so it seems the call to action has never been more urgent. As evangelical Christians within the United States seek to use government institutions to erase personal freedoms of sexuality and sexual expression, of female bodily autonomy and human rights, Ghost fans gather as the assembled flock and then send our messengers to the polls. Our voices are amplified on the unholy wind of Papa Emeritus IV and the Nameless Ghouls, and through us, the message of human empowerment, sexual freedom, individual expression, and human rights is spread. Like the Elizabethan period, we find ourselves at a fine line between good entertainment and courageous conversations about spirituality and organized religion, where many of us are seeking the former without the restriction, confinement, and censorship of the latter.

Another 3000 word essay. Wrap it up already.

I hope that helps clarify some things about the nature of Ghost and their fans. We're not evil. We just don't fit the servile, obedient definition of good. We're tearing down the infrastructure your religion seeks to uphold. We don't find freedom in the kind of salvation you offer. It is slavery by another name. You call it "faith" as if we don't have any. We have faith in ourselves and our individual journeys. We have faith in each other as members of the same human cause. We have faith in Ghost as one of the many metal bands that, like Marlowe, say what we're all thinking.

From all of us Ghost fans to you madame, "come together, together as one."

Love,

Ashley and Audrey, September 3, 2023, Austin, TX, Germania Insurance Amphitheater section 102, row S, seats 16 and 17.

*Disclaimer:

This is in response to one of the attendees at our local Ghost show last night in Austin, Texas. I won't be posting any pictures of our experience as my niece is a minor and the person in question did not consent to have their picture taken; additionally, I'm not joking around about not calling this person out. The internet is a terrible place. By withholding their identity, I respect their right to personal safety and privacy. I can't believe I have to say this. This letter is not intended to inspire action. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions and no one deserves the threat of verbal or physical violence or abuse due to their beliefs. It was very clear based on personal appearance that this person was affiliated with a local Christian or religious organization and not the ironized "clerical" manner of other attendees. If you see someone like this at one of your shows, dear members of the clergy, I adjure you to leave them alone, or better yet, introduce yourself and ask if they need anything. They typically come with a set of predispositions about us and our nature. I encourage any attempts made by any member of our clergy to prove them wrong. If they are bothering you, inform security of the problem and let the venue handle it.