On a brutally cold January night, Ghost did the most Montreal thing imaginable: they took a massive hockey arena and turned it into a gothic fever dream where Satan has better lighting than most Broadway shows and nobody questions why they’re chanting along to lyrics about damnation with a giant grin on their face.
The Skeletour stop at the Bell Centre felt less like a concert and more like a highly organized ritual disguised as a rock show. From the second the lights dropped, it was obvious this band is operating on a level that goes far beyond plays songs and exits stage. Towering cathedral visuals, skeletal iconography, dramatic lighting cues, everything was dialed in, dramatic, and gloriously over the top. Subtlety was not invited, and honestly, thank Satan for that.
Ghost eased us in with a slow ominous build before snapping the room wide open with crushing guitars and choir like melodies that rattled the rafters. This band has always been dangerously good at making dark theatrical metal feel catchy and fun, and Skeletour doubles down on that strength. One minute you are soaking in an eerie atmosphere, the next you are shouting along like it is a stadium pop chorus, except the pope would absolutely not approve.
Tobias Forge’s Papa V Perpetua is quite simply a menace in the best way. Charismatic, self aware, and clearly enjoying every second of the spectacle, he commands the stage like a gothic ringmaster. There is humor baked into everything. The gestures. The timing. The costume changes. It never tips into parody because Ghost knows exactly what they are. The Nameless Ghouls, meanwhile, are a perfectly calibrated machine. Tight. Heavy. Melodic. Completely locked in, even as the stage fills with smoke, lights, and visual chaos.
One of the night’s biggest unexpected wins was the enforced phone free environment. With screens sealed away in individual Yondr pouches, the Bell Centre actually felt alive. People were watching, reacting, laughing, singing, and losing their minds in real time instead of filming it for later. It felt communal. Unfiltered. Refreshingly unpolished. Like concerts used to be before everyone became their own content team.
Midway through the set, Ghost leaned into darker moodier material, letting tension simmer before detonating into full blown crowd eruptions. Ghost money rained down like a holy offering to the church of excess. The lighting shifted between infernal reds and celestial golds, and somehow the sound stayed massive and clear in a room that size, no small miracle.
By the encore, the Bell Centre was not just engaged. It was fully converted. Voices echoed back in unison, the final songs landing like victory laps rather than farewells. When the last note rang out, the roar from the crowd felt less like applause and more like collective disbelief that it was already over.
Skeletour proves Ghost is not just a band with a look. It is a band that builds an entire world and invites you to gleefully disappear inside it for two hours. Ghost in Montreal was not something we simply watched. We participated. And yes, I would absolutely do it again and again.
1. Peacefield
2. Lachryma
3. Spirit
4. Per Aspera ad Inferi
5. From the Pinnacle to the Pit
6. Majesty
7. The Future Is a Foreign Land
8. Devil Church
9. Cirice
10. Darkness at the Heart of My Love
11. Satanized
12. Ritual
13. Umbra
14. Year Zero
15. He Is
16. Rats
17. Kiss the Go-Goat
18. Mummy Dust
19. Monstrance Clock
Encore:
20. Mary on a Cross
21. Dance Macabre
22. Square Hammer
