Sweden's Ghost hit the North American road last week at Freakers Ball in Grand Prairie, Texas with its A Pale Tour Named Death, a 40-date headline trek. The band is due to perform at the Wagner Noël Performing Arts Center in Midland, TX on Monday, November 19th, and the gig has drawn the attention of a small number of community members. Midland pastor Larry Long appeared on KWEL's The Morning Show With Craig Anderson and offered his thoughts on Ghost being booked to play in town.

Larry Long: "Sure, I'm concerned about the content of the band. We have a freedom of religion in America, which means a freedom of irreligion and anti-Christian faith, if that's what people want to do. And so, from that sense, yes, the band bothers me. But I'm not in favor of outlawing the band per se; what I'm in favor is finding out from Wagner Noël what in the world they're thinking. I don't know what Wagner Noël can do once they sign that contract, but for Heaven's sakes, they need better sense than this, and I think the community should be alarmed about it. This is not healthy for our community because we Christians believe the devil is real, so when you have a devil-worshipping band… And I'm sure the band believes the devil's real; I doubt that they're just doing this as a part of their shtick for music and music they produce and so on. And if you were to read some of the lyrics of their songs, they're really quite disturbing.

The main band leader goes by the name of Tobias; whether or not that's his real name, who knows? And then the rest of them go by 'ghoulish horde' or something like that. Of course, you see this kind of stuff and you say 'Well, how much of this... do they understand?' I think that they understand all of it. I think that they are doing this intentionally, and I think they really do worship the devil, because I believe… as a Christian, as a biblical Christian, I believe the devil's real. So I imagine maybe some people listening right now would say, 'Oh, you guys are getting overblown with this,' and those kinds of things. Well, you would only think that if you didn't think the devil was real."

Listen to the interview here.

To get a glimpse at Ghost's spectacular theatrical stage production that may be coming to your town, check out the video clip filmed at Ghost's recent sold-out, headline performance at the UK's prestigious Royal Albert Hall.

Ghost is well-known for its "an evening with" stage shows that are presented in two acts with an intermission. For A Pale Tour Named Death, frontman Cardinal Copia and the now expanded band - seven Ghouls and Ghoulettes - are presenting a two-hour program on a striking stage set performing some of the band's most popular songs from Ghost's albums and EPs catalogue. The set list includes "Square Hammer," "Cirice," "Ashes," "He Is" and "Year Zero." The band is also preforming its new single, "Dance Macabre," currently #14 at Active Rock Radio; the companion video, is a romantic and erotic look at a defining encounter in Ghost's past.

Find Ghost's live itinerary here.