Hard-rocking Swedish greasepaint fans Ghost are heading out on tour next month. And with Halloween also on the horizon, who better than Ghost frontman Tobias Forge AKA Cardinal Copia to guide us through metal’s spookiest looks?
Alice Cooper “I think he had the face for it and I mean that as a positive thing! He’s quite a good-looking man, but he had a Hammer Horror face, like Vincent Price or Christopher Lee; a face that could look very, very scary. He effectively uglified his look with that eyeliner; he was punkish, dressed in drag and wasn’t afraid to get dirty and crawl around on the floor. There seems to be real darkness in Alice Cooper.”
Fear factor: 4/5
Mayhem “They just looked like thrashing, mad kids. When I discovered black metal as a kid, the proximity both geographically and age-wise to bands like Mayhem made them even more intimidating. You knew that this was the real deal. It felt and looked like dangerous shit.”
Fear factor: 5/5
Misfits “They did a good job of working with their facial features for their look; they enhanced their lack of fat with shadowing, which makes you look way more menacing. If you have prominent cheekbones you can definitely make yourself look way more scary if you just highlight them. They were insanely muscular bodybuilders and punks and dark demons. They were lethal.”
Fear factor: 4.5/5
Kiss “They just had a uniformity that was phenomenal. Despite being four different characters, they all stayed in black, white and silver. I’ve always been interested in the darker side of life, and I’ve also always been intrigued by androgynous creatures, too, so I found [guitarist] Ace Frehley in his spaceman get-up so cool. He looked genderless; I couldn’t decipher what he looked like under the makeup. I love Kiss with all my heart.”
Fear factor: 3/5
Attila “I remember seeing a black-and-white Xerox photo of Attila [of Tormentor, later Mayhem] in a fanzine, where he’s wearing what I know now to be a wig. It’s absolutely horrendous and sticks out so he looks like a swamp monster. There’s another picture where he’s wearing a crab claw, too. He was intimidating and scary and cool.”
Fear factor: 5/5
Insane Clown Posse “I mean … it’s efficient. They look like insane clowns. Problem solved.”
Fear factor: Clown!
