GHOST's 'If You Have Ghost' EP Cracks U.S. Top 100

November 27, 2013

"If You Have Ghost", the new covers EP from Swedish occult rockers GHOST, sold around 5,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 87 on The Billboard 200 chart. Issued on November 19 via Loma Vista Recordings, the five-track EP was recorded and produced by Dave Grohl (FOO FIGHTERS, NIRVANA),and includes cover versions of songs by ROKY ERICKSON, ABBA, ARMY OF LOVERS and DEPECHE MODE, plus a live version of the GHOST offering "Secular Haze", recorded in Brooklyn earlier this year.

Outside North America (with the exception of Scandinavia),Spinefarm Records is the new releasing partner for Loma Vista on all GHOST recordings, including the new EP and previous album. Spinefarm releases are distributed through Caroline/Universal in all territories, including the U.K., where a November 18 date has been confirmed for the release of "If You Have Ghost".

"If You Have Ghost" is available on CD, 12-inch vinyl and digitally. Those who pre-ordered the EP received an instant free download of "Secular Haze - Live".

The track listing for the effort is as follows:

01. If You Have Ghosts (ROKY ERICKSON cover)
02. I'm A Marionette (ABBA cover)
03. Crucified (ARMY OF LOVERS cover)
04. Waiting For The Night (DEPECHE MODE cover)
05. Secular Haze (live at Music Hall Of Williamsburg In Brooklyn, NY)

GHOST recently travelled to the U.S. to join AVENGED SEVENFOLD and DEFTONES for the "Hail To The King" tour; these dates — which ran until October 26 — marked the band's first proper U.S. outing since their "Haze Over America" trek earlier this year. GHOST also appeared at various music festivals across the U.S. this summer, including Coachella, Lollapalooza and Rock On The Range.

In Europe, GHOST has joined forces with ALICE IN CHAINS for a run of dates that started in the U.K. on November 9, before heading across to mainland Europe.

"Infestissumam" has sold around 42,000 copies in the United States since its April release.

The CD topped the official chart in the group's home country after selling nearly five times as many copies as the No. 2 album, MISS LI's "Wolves".

In a recent interview with ARTISTdirect, a nameless ghoul from GHOST said about "Infestissumam": "It feels way more theatrical and bombastic. In many ways, 'Infestissumam' is thematically a continuation of where [the debut album] 'Opus Eponymous' began. Whereas a lot of the thematic ideas we have in mind for upcoming albums might differ a little bit and will go in another direction. That's not to say we won't sing about the things we do and not have makeup. I'm just saying it will evolve into other things in the future. On this record, I feel like we're doing a lot of things we intended to do on the first naïvely being we could pull off a show like that at that point — which we couldn't. Now, we have a little bit more muscle. The attendance is probably more in accordance with being able to present a show like that."

Regarding the lyrical themes covered "Infestissumam", the nameless ghoul said: "Thematically we knew the major difference between the first and the second albums as much as we do between the second and the third. It's a bit ironic now. Jumping up to the contemporary controversy with our album artwork and the refusal of printers to print the art is funny because the whole record is about the presence of the devil. Obviously, it's about how mankind relate to the presence of the devil. Historically, it's always been the female body that has taken the fall for that, which is what happened in this case. The problem was a vagina in the art not the inverted crosses."

GHOST was forced to modify its name in the U.S. to GHOST B.C. for "legal reasons."

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