THE BEAST

EMPEROR frontman Ihsahn (real name: Vegard Sverre Tveitan ) has praised GHOST for holding the blowtorch high for theatrical rock and roll at a time when rock performances can be pretty stripped down and straightforward.

"Bands like RAMMSTEIN or GHOST or all these bands, they create an experience," Ihsahn told the "Scars And Guitars" podcast (hear audio below). "I took my son to see GHOST , and KVELERTAK , the Norwegian band, was supporting. And he said, ' KVELERTAK was great, but it was just a band on stage performing their songs really well, with energy. But when GHOST came on, it was like watching a musical. It was an experience.' And he was 10 at the time. And even he got that."

Ihsahn added that it's great to see GHOST having commercial success when hip-hop continues to dominate charts in the U.S. The band's latest album, "Prequelle" , landed at position No. 3 on the Billboard 200 chart after shifting 66,000 equivalent album units in its first week of release.

"I discussed this with [Canadian musician/producer] Devin Townsend sometime back as well," Ihsahn said. "I said, 'I think it's great to have Satanic music on the Billboard chart.' Just for the fun of it."

Ihsahn 's latest solo album, "Ámr" , was released in May 2018 via Candlelight / Spinefarm .

EMPEROR hasn't released any new material since 2001's "Prometheus - The Discipline Of Fire And Demise" . That album was composed and mostly played by Ihsahn , with guitarist Samoth already forming his next band during its production.

Via Blabbermouth