When Ghost’s Tobias Forge announced he was delaying the band’s next album, it was originally due to the 2020 election, however the vocalist shocked fans last week when he announced that the group was set to release an album in 2021, despite their inability to tour due to COVID-19. Forge has now provided an update for that project, clarifying that he will not begin recording the album until next January, with a release tentatively scheduled for late 2021.

Forge explained that the group is also planning on delaying an album release until they are able to tour once again, which the singer states will be after next summer. He also explained that the recording should take around a month and a half, with two to three weeks of mixing and mastering.

“The idea is for the album to be recorded in January. The actual recording will last around six weeks and then there’s two to three weeks of mixing and mastering,” Forge was quoted in a translated excerpt sent to Blabbermouth. “So sometime in March the record should be finished, but it won’t be released until after the summer. As it looks now, knock on wood, we will then go on tour. We won’t release an album until we know that we are actually going on tour. The album release will coincide with the start of a tour.”

The singer also announced back in 2019 that this new album, and its subsequent tours, will feature the return of Cardinal Copia, one of the characters Forge played prior to the release of Prequelle. This character was meant to replace the Forge’s previous Papa Emeritus character.

Photo Credit: Ekaterina Gorbacheva