Ghost – Manchester AO Arena 15th April 2025 Review

After a painfully long day at work, I got the Uber to the AO Arena in Manchester. There, I encountered what can only be described as a sea of nuns, papas, and everything in between, as well as the longest queues I have ever seen at the venue. It was everything I was hoping to see leading up to my first time seeing Ghost.

Ghost is a Swedish rock band formed in 2006 that is known for their theatricality and stage presence of frontman Tobias Forge and the rest of the band, aptly named Ghouls & Ghoulettes. This show was the first on the Skeletour album tour promoting their upcoming release, Skeleta, which is released April 25th.

Before I go into the show itself, I don’t think I can talk about this tour without a mention of the no-phone policy that was implemented for the entire tour. For anyone who is unsure how it works, your phones are placed into a Yonder pouch, sealed inside, upon entry into the venue. If you want to get your phone out again, you either have to go to one of the phone use zones where you will then reseal it on leaving, or will have to wait until after the show.

I didn’t have many issues with the experience of this throughout the evening. Getting into the venue took longer than usual, but I don’t blame the pouches exclusively for this. With no support acts, all of the 20+ thousand fans attending arrived at the same time, which caused a longer entry time, as there weren’t enough supports to stagger the entry like usual. Getting out, however, was no issue, and it took me maybe five minutes to get from standing in the arena to being back in Victoria Station.

I am hoping that this is a policy we see implemented more with bands in the future, as it was a great sight to be in a gig and not be surrounded by people filming the gig start to finish, and not even paying attention to what was going on. Whilst I understand the complaints, it means people can’t record small parts for keepsakes (which I don’t fully disagree with); ultimately, I think it is a trade-off that is worth doing in the larger scheme of things.

Now it’s time to talk about Ghost. They were incredibly bold with the setlist and order of songs this evening, choosing to open with the world premiere of a new song, Peacefield. Usually, I would go into how the song is; however, with the no phone policy making it clear Ghost wants a lot of the show kept under wraps, I guess you will have to wait until April 25th. The same goes for the other world premiere, Umbra. All I will say is both songs are very good, and this album is shaping up to be one to remember.

We were also treated to the live debuts of the already released singles Satanised and Lachryma. Both are just as good live as they are on the record, and Tobias sounds at the top of his game. Satanised  especially is one I want to mention, as the crowd got behind that a lot more than I was expecting, and was one of the loudest songs of the evening from the sold out audience and has quickly risen to one of my favourite live performances by any band I have seen in person.

Closing off the live debuts was Darkness at the Heart of My Love and The Future is A Foreign Land which I am so happy was in the setlist, as I was 50/50 on whether it would be included. The rest of the set featured tracks from the band’s discography, from their first album to their most recent work, so there is plenty on this setlist for everyone to enjoy.

They finished the show with what might be one of the best encores I have ever seen and proved how a band should actually do an encore, which is something I have been getting sick of seeing for a while now, so it was nice to see an encore done really well.

I don’t want to touch on the set anymore as I don’t want to spoil it for anyone still going to the final two rituals on the UK leg of the tour, so I will end with this. I am not the most diehard Ghost fan, but I have a lot of respect for them and really enjoy their music. However, I am going to go on record and say Ghost is the best touring band on the planet right now and may possibly be the best rock band as well right now, and I can’t wait to hear what the rest of the album is like and what comes next for the band.

Download 2026 headline, maybe (Andy Copping, you know what to do).