Artist · chart history
Ghost
Band Linköping Sweden Formed 2008 Swedish metal band
Ghost formed in 2008 in Linköping, Sweden. Ghost has 32 chart appearances on 23 radio countdowns from 7 stations on RockLists, spanning 2015–2025. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Rats”, which appears on 6 lists with a best position of #2. The station that charted Ghost most often is 98KUPD (Phoenix, AZ), with 10 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 2022.
Ghost rose out of Linköping, Sweden, with a gimmick that turned out to be a whole mythology: a frontman dressed as a demonic anti-pope, backed by a band of masked, anonymous Nameless Ghouls. The singer has cycled through characters, Papa Emeritus in several editions, then Cardinal Copia, then Papa V Perpetua, reinventing the costume for each new album and tour, and the man behind the characters is Tobias Forge, whose identity came out in 2017.
What makes the pageant work is that the songs are so sweetly, sneakily catchy. Ghost stir metal riffs, stadium-sized bombast and shameless pop hooks into one gleaming cauldron, all of it resting on hard rock, and the result sounds like a black mass staged by people who worship a big pop chorus. The debut, Opus Eponymous, arrived in 2010, Infestissumam followed in 2013, and Meliora in 2015 went to number one at home and number eight in the US; its "Cirice" won the Grammy for Best Metal Performance in 2016. The Popestar EP brought "Square Hammer", Prequelle in 2018 brought "Rats", the Seven Inches of Satanic Panic EP carried "Mary on a Cross", and Impera arrived in 2022.
Records have come out on Rise Above, Metal Blade and Loma Vista, and the ascent hasn't stopped: Sweden handed them its music export prize in 2019, and their sixth album, Skeletá, became their first US number one in 2025.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Ghost on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rats | 6 | #2 | – | 2018 | |
| 2 | Call Me Little Sunshine | 3 | #6 | – | 2022 | |
| 3 | Dance Macabre | 4 | #20 | – | 2018 | |
| 4 | Hunter's Moon | 2 | #27 | – | 2022 | |
| 5 | Lachryma | 2 | #13 | – | 2025 | |
| 6 | Spillways | 3 | #9 | – | 2022 | |
| 7 | Square Hammer | 4 | #10 | – | 2017 | |
| 8 | Satanized | 2 | #17 | – | 2025 | |
| 9 | Mary On A Cross | 1 | #68 | – | 2022 | |
| 10 | From the Pinnacle to the Pit | 3 | #61 | – | – | |
| 11 | The Future Is a Foreign Land | 1 | #84 | – | 2024 | |
| 12 | Cirice | 1 | #27 | – | 2015 |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
Year-end chart timeline
Combined year-end countdown points per year. Taller bars mean more songs placing higher across more stations.
Comments
Log in or create a free account to join the conversation about Ghost.
No comments yet. Be the first to share your thoughts.