It was probably the earliest that I had found myself deploying for an event outside of something like the Toy Fair, but when Ghost announced that a Press Conference would be taking place in NYC at our own Irving Plaza (see that news HERE), I knew that I had to be on point no matter how much coffee was needed to make this happen.

The marquee of the venue that we know so well got right to the point about their being a special sermon by Papa Nihil and Sister Imperator.  Sister is the one we see in all of their propaganda videos.

On the stage a couple of microphones and a lectern.

The screen that blocks the stage between bands showed these words. “We Wish To Inform You”. It was very dramatic.

Before I forget this one, there was a step and repeat banner downstairs and I was expecting the chance to do close up visuals of the attendees from the clergy. I would be wrong about this but that was okay.

While the attendees and the folks who were doing the Press today like myself waited. The music from the presumabley new Ghost album “Prequelle” was being played over the speakers but the thing about it was that there were no vocals in the mix. This was weird but cool at the same time because with the new song “Rats”, the folks in the venue were singing it all as loud as possible. My guess is that they all approve of the new material and the bands newest singer Cardinal Copia.

Eventually Sister Imperator arrived and right behind her was the elderly founding member of their Clergy, Papa Nihil. He looks pretty good for his advanced age and still appeared to have all of his faculties. He and Sister discussed their reason for being here and it was to share that there was news about the bands previous Papa. We got the third video in their ongoing series from this new go round and well, its pretty grim to see what’s happened to all of the Papas that have come and gone since the world has first learned of them.

Nihil also announced that the band would be returing to tour and shared with everyone the great news about the bands very first headlining North American tour which would make a stop at the Barclays Center as its first stop. As a resident of Brooklyn, I love the idea of the tour starting here. The other item that was most interesting was that the tickets would be available at the Irving Plaza Box Office immediately after the press conference and fans could not only grab a ticket, but also take a candid photo with Papa Nihil and Sister Imperator. That’s why they had the banner in the lobby.

Overall the whole event in terms of the press conference was not even a half an hour but the line to meet them would find it running longer. I don’t think anyone who was in attendance passed on the photo op, and it was great to be able to do that with them myself and thank them for all of their hard and earnest work. Ghost is currently breaking in the new singer on some select shows and will return with the “A Pale Tour Called Death” in the Winter. Make sure that you are in attendance, lest you disappoint the unholy powers that be.

In addition to the awesome news about the bands headlining tour and its first stop being in my own beloved Brooklyn, I just loved the idea of the fans being in Ghost Cosplay or would that be “Ghosplay”? I dunno. Whatever you prefer to call it works for me. I snapped a whole bunch of them because they looked terrific and some of them put in great work. Thanks folks for letting me photograph you, its warming me up for the NY Comic Con.

PiercingMetal Thoughts: I don’t have much to add to this since the whole report was my views on the event. I will say that I was surprised that it didn’t turn into a brief acoustic set like we saw them doing a few years ago at Rough Trade NYC (seen HERE). It was assumed that we would have met the Cardinal here today but that was not to be the case. The idea of selling the tickets in advance and letting those who got here so super early take a photo with the members was pretty darned cool. Now it was time for me to get some more coffee and head over to the Live Nation HQ for my second press conference of the day. I am ready for I am on the square!

Official Website: http://ghost-official.com/