Author: Michael Pementel
During a conversation with Johnny Christ of Avenged Sevenfold – via the bassist’s podcast called Drinks With Johnny – Ghost singer Tobias Forge talked about the kind of heavy metal he enjoys, as well as some of his early introductions to the genre.
At one point during their conversation, Forge and Christ are talking about record collecting, and that is when Forge goes into sharing his taste when it comes to metal (and its various subgenres). He talks about collecting records from bands that would be associated with death metal and extreme metal.
The following is what Forge had to say via his conversation with Johnny Christ.
Ghost singer talks heavy metal genre
“When it comes to metal, I’m very, sort of, anal. I only like old, especially when it comes to extreme metal – death, metal, black metal, thrash metal, all that stuff. It’s just ’80s stuff until, like, the early ’90s, and then my cutoff point is around 1994. After that, I’m pretty much, ‘Eh, I just don’t like most of it after that.'”
Johnny Christ shares that he very much agrees with what Tobias has said. Christ shares that he feels, “Most of good metal was already done,” referring to the heavy metal music of the ’80s and such bands like Metallica. The Avenged Sevenfold bassist then goes on to credit Forge and the work he does through Ghost, saying that he is offering a new spin on musical styles.
Tobias says that “Ghost is like a mixtape of, maybe not my entire record collection, but many of the things that I’ve held dear over the course of my life.” At one point later on, Forge goes on to bring up a magazine that was based in Sweden called OK! and his enjoyment of heavy metal. Tobias shares that he liked the magazine’s coverage regarding the heavy metal genre, and he ends up sharing the following:
“My favorite thing in the world when I was a kid that my brother brought home – even though it wasn’t his favorite thing, but he liked it – was the heavy metal part of everything [regarding OK! magazine]. I always liked heavy metal. I remember the first record he gave to me was ‘Love Gun’ by Kiss. I remember he came home with Twisted Sister‘s ‘Stay Hungry,’ and he gave that to me, because I liked it even more.
“…And Mötley Crüe was also huge at the time, ‘Shout at the Devil’ was also one of my favorite records. So, that was my big introductory year that I remember very, actually vividly, to whatever extent you can remember things when you were three years old.
“But I remembered the power of those bands, how they made me feel, and that was always my thing. And whenever he [Forge’s brother] came home with a new issue of OK!, then I always got the posters that had hard rock and heavy metal stuff on [them].”
What do you think about Tobias’ taste in heavy metal music? Regarding his comment about his cut off point being 1994, Forge has shared in the past that he isn’t a super huge fan of the nu metal genre. In our interview with the Ghost singer from earlier this year, he also brought up how “metal has this sort of high horse.”
You can watch the full conversation featuring Tobias Forge below: