Motorpoint Arena, CardiffThe flamboyant Swedish band fuse rock bombast with pop classicism on their most ambitious tour to date
‘Welcome to tonight’s spectacle,” murmurs the fiendish figure in the spotlight, his latex face rigid as the audience roars. And it is quite a spectacle, replete with pyrotechnics, costume changes, crowd participation and confetti. Swedish metal outfit Ghost have arrived in the big league with a bang.
The man in the mask is the band’s leader Tobias Forge, taking to the stage here as Cardinal Copia, a sort of satanic Barry Manilow who serves as the latest in a string of creative personas. He’s flanked by a slick band who perform under horned silver helmets and go by the collective sobriquet Nameless Ghouls. It’s all terribly silly, and tremendous fun.