Let’s face it, Africa is not the continent where heavy metal is played – no matter what style. Yes, ok, Iron Maiden played in South Africa – and that might be the only country with touring potential. The countries of this continent are so deeply trapped in religious patterns that a satanic rock’n’roll band like Ghost would not find many listeners to fill a hall – not to mention the clerical authorities who would prevent it from happening in the first place. Never say never, but a Ghost concert in Egypt or Botswana is unlikely in the near future. But leaving a continent as vast as Africa completely empty on a Ghost Gig Globe was not an option for me. I had to fill it up a bit.

Well, we’re in 2019, I’m still playing the latest Ghost album Prequelle on endless loop. Behind my bedroom door hangs a big poster of the album cover with the great artwork by Zbigniew Bielak, I look at it every day. Since it’s the most successful album so far, I thought it should be reflected on 3G somehow. When I was researching for my Ghost Gig Globe project, I also came across a picture of a cake – given to the band at some point – with the monster from the Prequelle cover artwork. And I figured if a baker could isolate and recreate the monster, I could do the same.

Africa is hot as hell – at least in most parts. So the hellish monster would fit in there and can fill up quite a bit of space. I cut a small Styrofoam ball in half and made it into a giant jaw. Inserting the teeth (toothpicks wrapped in tissue paper) was like the dentist game from my childhood. A lot of fun! The pope sitting in the chair above the monster even has a sound button. Until March 2020, most of us thought the next Papa Emeritus would look like this, so I put the He is snippet behind that button. Well. Tobias‘ plans and actions turned out to be as unpredictable as ever. Papa IV looks quite different…. With the devilish Prequelle monster comes a bunch of locusts – a small plague of six very colorful insects fills the African air. In black light, their eyes and antennae tips even glow.