How the Algorithm Made “Mary On A Cross” Ghost’s Biggest Hit—and Changed Their Future

For decades, breaking a band was all about promotion and proximity. Whether it was a heavy radio push (sometimes with a little payola in the mix), a spotlight moment in a blockbuster movie, or a prime TV performance, success often hinged on the connections behind the curtain. Songs didn’t just happen—they were carefully placed.

That grip loosened with the rise of digital downloads and streaming. The industry’s gatekeepers couldn’t lock out the outsiders anymore, and many of the old systems propping up the majors started to crumble.

Social media gave artists another way to cut through—but nothing has shifted the playing field more than the algorithm.

While heavy music may have drifted from its mainstream peak of the late ‘90s and early 2000s, it’s far from fading. Acts like Bad Omens, Sleep Token, and The Plot In You—and even the resurgence of alt-metal icons Deftones—have all found massive audiences largely thanks to the reach of TikTok and streaming algorithms.

One of the most surprising beneficiaries? Ghost.

Back in 2019, the Swedish occult rock band dropped a B-side titled “Mary On A Cross” as part of their Seven Inches Of Satanic Panic EP. Within the band’s lore, the track was supposedly recorded in the ‘60s by a fictional former frontman—but in reality, it was a new studio cut with a retro sheen.

Initially, the EP had a modest run. But that changed when a fan-made slowed + reverb version of “Mary On A Cross” started going viral on TikTok. Seizing the moment, Ghost officially released their own slowed-down version in 2022—and the response was explosive.

By November of that year, “Mary On A Cross” had gone gold in the U.S., matching the success of their flagship single “Square Hammer”—a song that had label muscle and radio support behind it from day one. Then, in September 2023, “Mary On A Cross” became the band’s first platinum single in the U.S.

That unexpected viral wave didn’t just reshape the trajectory of one song—it altered the way Ghost’s mastermind Tobias Forge writes music, and how the band’s label views their creative output. In a recent interview with ‘The Rock Hard Radio Show With Kim Rennie’, Forge reflected on the lasting impact of that moment:

“Just because you mentioned radio and I’m obviously talking on the radio right now, and I must underline, underscore that I grew up with a radio on, so I have nothing against the format. I am also a songwriter and I’m also very, very interested in the art of writing hit music. So there’s nothing bad about that. But for as long as we have, with Ghost, experienced some sort of what you might call mainstream success, where radio has been an element through which greater success could be achieved, it has been a little bit of a question mark, exactly what are the elements needed in order to succeed?

And I think that the biggest element of surprise was some years ago when I had written a song that, according to the lore, of course, was written 50 years ago, but was a song that I had written and recorded, and I showed it to the label and I was, like, ‘How about that?’ And they were, like, ‘What?’ ‘It’s pretty good. My kid likes it.’ And they were, like, ‘Okay, it’s a good song, but it’s like a b-side. It’s not meant for…’ It was just like a question mark.

‘What do you mean? It’s like an old song, right?’ I was, like, ‘It doesn’t matter. It’s a good song. Okay, regardless, I’m gonna play it live.’ So we started playing that immediately, the moment it came out. And I felt like, ‘Wow, that’s amazing. One of the best songs I’ve ever written is like just a b-side. Fine.’ A few years later, it turned out that was gonna be, so far, the biggest song of my career. That turned a lot of heads within the label world because they were, like, ‘Oh, we didn’t know.’”

With Ghost’s upcoming album Skeletá on the way, Forge revealed that the viral success of “Mary On A Cross” gave him the freedom to stop chasing hits and just make music on his own terms:

“What it told me was just like, we have no plan — I have no plan — so I’m not gonna chase that. I am gonna write songs — I’m gonna write the best songs I can ever write — and we’ll see what happens with them because there’s no clear way of telling exactly how it’s gonna materialize to a song that is worth anything from a hit point of view.

And I felt that is not even a bad thing, because I’m in a great spot anyway. I can make a record filled with songs that are maybe too hard or maybe too this or too little of that or just thematically sits together. If it’s a hit, it will show itself, it will materialize. If it’s not a hit, that’s fine. We can play the other hits too. We’re blessed, for lack of a better, more fitting word, to be able to go out on tour. And we have a lot of fans and we have a lot of support anyway, and that, to me, actually alleviated me from a little bit of that stress because I’m, like, ‘I’m not gonna chase another big hit.’”

Whether Skeletá spawns another surprise smash or not, Ghost are in a rare spot—a heavy band thriving on their own terms, blessed by the algorithm but no longer bound by it.

Ghost’s fifth studio album, Skeletá, is due out April 25th.

[via Blabbermouth.net]

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