Ghost have just announced their fifth album, Impera. The record bears 12 new songs, including the previously released single "Hunter's Moon" and the latest offering, "Call Me Little Sunshine," for which the ghastly group conjured up another captivating animated music video.

The announcement comes nearly two years after the band unveiled its latest frontman, Papa Emeritus IV, at a festival show in Mexico in March of 2020. It was the final concert in support of 2018's Prequelle and firmly set in motion the next chapter of Ghost's dark legacy, which we now know will continue through Impera.

"Call Me Little Sunshine" counters the bombast of "Hunter's Moon" with a reliable mid-paced hook riff that opens the track and carries forward through the verse and even the chorus. If there's one thing Ghost mastermind Tobias Forge has exhibited over the years, it's how to maximize a simple and wickedly effective motif, and he does exactly that on this second Impera single.

Watch the music video for "Call Me Little Sunshine" below.

In the fall of last year, Forge told KLAQ about the inspiration behind Ghost's successor to Prequelle, and said, "The album that I have been working on, I came up with that concept years ago. We played in Seattle in 2013, 2014 — something like that — we played at Showbox At The Market. I remember that day I came up with the idea for this record, this upcoming record. Because I got a book called The Rule of Empires. So, basically, I wanted to make a record about the rise and ultimately the unescapable fails and falls of empires."

He continued, "An idea like that can take — at least me — quite far. So once you get that idea of, like, 'Oh, now I know what the pile is gonna look like. I know now what not to put in there.' And it was the same thing with Prequelle; it was gonna be about the great death, a medieval, primordial threat of annihilation which was, I guess I wouldn't say carnal but maybe a tiny tad more spiritual and philosophical death, with the ever presence of actual termination, whereas this record about the empires was gonna be a little bit more practical, I guess; a little bit more, I don't wanna say political. So it wasn't really hard to be inspired by the last couple of years."

Impera will be released through Loma Vista/Concord on March 11, just one week after Ghost finish their co-headlining U.S. tour with Volbeat and special guest Twin Temple. See those upcoming dates at this location and, to pre-order Ghost new record, head here.

Ghost, "Call Me Little Sunshine" Lyrics (via Genius)

Call out in the middle of the night
For when else would I hear you?
Fall out in the cold starlight
I can save you if you do

You will never walk alone
You can always reach me
You will never ever walk alone

Call me Little Sunshine
Call me, call me Mephistopheles
Call me when you feel all alone
Just call me Little Sunshine

Light up in the middle of the day
For how else could you see me?
Ease up to the hunter from thе prey
And transform indefinitely

You will nеver walk alone
You can always reach me
You will never ever walk alone

Call me Little Sunshine
Call me, call me Mephistopheles
Call me when you feel all alone
Just call me Little Sunshine

You will never walk alone
You can always reach me
You will never ever walk alone
You will never walk alone
You can always reach me
You will never ever walk alone
You will never walk alone
You can always reach me
You will never ever walk alone
Even when you're dead and gone
You can always reach me
All you gotta do is call me, call me

Call me Little Sunshine
Call me, call me Mephistopheles
Call me when you feel all alone
Just call me Little Sunshine

Ghost, "Call Me Little Sunshine" Music Video

Ghost, Impera Album Art + Track Listing

Ghost, 'Impera'
Loma Vista/Concord
loading...

01. "Imperium"
02. "Kaisarion"
03. "Spillways"
04. "Call Me Little Sunshine"
05. "Hunter's Moon"
06. "Watcher In The Sky"
07. "Dominion"
08. "Twenties"
09. "Darkness At The Heart Of My Love"
10. "Griftwood"
11. "Bite Of Passage"
12. "Respite On The Spital Fields"

Most Anticipated Rock + Metal Albums of 2022

What should be on your radar for 2022.

More From 96.5 KNRX