Today, August 21, 2025, marks the tenth anniversary of the release of Ghost‘s Meliora, and with it, the announcement of an array of limited-edition double vinyl variants to be released on October 17 and available for pre-order now.
Ghost‘s classic third studio album, Meliora, is packed with fan-favorite tracks that have been raising tens of thousands of voices in unison, including “He Is”, “Mummy Dust”, “Spirit”, and 2015 “Best Metal Performance” Grammy winner “Cirice”.
From Ghost‘s Papa Emeritus III era, “Meliora”‘s themes explore humanity’s pursuit of progress and its potential consequences, often in a dystopian or futuristic context. The special tenth-anniversary edition of Meliora arrives October 17 as a deluxe 15-song 2xLP featuring the RIAA-certified platinum single “Square Hammer” pressed on color vinyl and packaged in a double-wide spine jacket — and including a commemorative Papa III Mummy Dust buck.
Ghost has just completed the U.S. leg of the “Skeletour” world tour in support of the group’s sixth studio album, Skeletá, which came out in April. Marking a bold evolution in Ghost‘s live performances, the tour was the band’s most theatrical and cinematic production yet. Designed by Tobias Rylander and Ghost mastermind Tobias Forge, the tour embraced a grander and more ambitious scale than ever before.
Renowned for his work across live music world tours, fashion, theatre, and art installations, Rylander has collaborated with artists such as Beyoncé, THE 1975, Childish Gambino, Chappell Roan, The XX, and FKA Twigs. “Skeletour” marks his first creative partnership with the Grammy Award-winning band, bringing a new dimension to Ghost‘s already-iconic stage presence.
This past May, Skeletá landed at position No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart with 86,000 equivalent album units earned in the United States in the LP’s first week of release. According to Billboard, 89% of that figure (77,000) consisted of traditional album sales, with vinyl purchases accounting for over 44,000 copies. Notably, Skeletá was the first hard rock album to reach the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 since AC/DC‘s Power Up in 2020.
The music video for the LP’s first single, “Satanized”, introduced the new character who is fronting GHOST for its 2025 touring cycle: Papa V Perpetua.
Forge performed as a “new” Papa Emeritus on each of the band’s first three LPs, with each version of Papa replacing the one that came before it. Papa Emeritus III retired in favor of Cardinal Copia before the release of 2018’s Prequelle. In March 2020, at the final show of GHOST‘s Prequelle tour in Mexico City, Mexico, the band officially introduced Papa Emeritus IV, the character who fronted the act for its Impera (2022) album phase.