GHOST Collaborates With DEF LEPPARD's JOE ELLIOTT On New Version Of 'Spillways'

On January 26, Swedish rockers GHOST will release a new version of their song "Spillways" featuring a guest appearance by DEF LEPPARD singer Joe Elliott.

"Spillways" is taken from GHOST's fifth album, "Impera", which was released in March 2022.

Last year, GHOST mainman Tobias Forge told Metal Hammer magazine that he thought DEF LEPPARD was "great" and added that "going into ['Impera'], I thought I would see if I could do it a little more like DEF LEPPARD did it."

For his part, Elliott told Metal Hammer in April 2022 that he was introduced to GHOST's music through DEF LEPPARD guitarist Phil Collen. "He said, 'Here, have you heard about this band GHOST? It's like this kind of Scando goth-metal but with brilliant melodies.' I went, 'Well, that's an oxymoron, 'cause it's usually [makes unintelligible singing noise like someone vomiting in a bucket].' But he played me something — a couple of minutes each of a few songs. I was really intrigued, so I asked him to Dropbox me the new album. I listened to it all, and I thought it was absolutely stunning. It's like a whole new genre of music — it's way more TOTO than death metal or any of that stuff. It's like the song 'Spillways'. It starts off like 'Hold The Line' by TOTO or 'Jane' by JEFFERSON STARSHIP — one of those classic '70s songs that begin on the piano before these big, chunky chords come in."

At the time, Joe said that "Impera" had been his "go-to album" for at least a couple of weeks. I've got it downloaded on to my Apple Watch so I can march away and listen to it. I've only got a few albums on there, and GHOST are one of them."

Asked if he had been approached by GHOST for a collaboration, Joe said: "Not yet. Maybe they will. We've got [country singer] Alison Krauss on our new album, we did stuff with Taylor Swift 10 years ago. We're not scared of collaborating with anybody."

"Impera" sold 70,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in its first week of release to land at position No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart. It marked the third top 10 album — and fifth top 40-charting set — for the Swedish act. The 12-song effort was produced by Klas Åhlund and mixed by Andy Wallace.

"Impera" landed at position No. 1 in Germany and Sweden, No. 2 in the U.K., Netherlands, Belgium and Norway, No. 3 in Australia, No. 5 in France and Ireland, and No. 20 in Italy.

Forge worked on the follow-up to 2018's "Prequelle" with Åhlund and Swedish co-writers Salem Al Fakir and Vincent Pontare, whose credits include Madonna and Lady Gaga.

Tobias told Metal Hammer magazine about "Spillways": "This is an elegy for the darkness that most people have inside. When you have a dam, spillways are the run-offs so the dam won't overflow. That darkness inside us needs to find its way out."