GHOST have released a surprise EP titled "Skeletal Remains" exclusively through their Bandcamp page and direct website store as of Tuesday, March 10, with a physical release — including 12" vinyl, cassette, and CD editions — confirmed for June 6 via Loma Vista Recordings. The four-track EP, running just over 18 minutes, represents the Swedish rock/metal band's first new studio material since their Grammy Award-winning 2022 album "Impera," and has been the subject of intense fan speculation since lead Ghoul Tobias Forge was photographed at Cove City Sound Studios in New York in November 2025.
The EP features the tracks "Pale Rider," "Ossuary Lullaby," "Skeletal Remains" (the title track), and "The Ferryman's Coin" — the last of which, at seven minutes, is the longest studio recording GHOST have released and the closest they have come to progressive rock territory since the "Prequelle" era. "Pale Rider" opens the EP with immediately recognizable GHOST signifiers: a warm, retro organ tone, a hook that is simultaneously catchy and menacing, and Forge's theatrical baritone sitting atop a production that draws on 1970s Swedish progressive rock as much as heavy metal.
Forge described the EP in a brief press statement as "an exorcism — material that needed to breathe before we could move forward." He confirmed that a full seventh GHOST album is in development and that "Skeletal Remains" should be understood as a bridge between "Impera" and the next chapter. The Bandcamp release has already generated over 50,000 downloads in the first six hours, and the physical pre-order campaign, which opened simultaneously, has been described by the label as "exceeding all projections."