Orlando Magic Fan Blames Ghost Concert's 'Satanic Vibes' for Team's Loss

On Jan. 22, the Orlando Magic (23-20) hosted the Charlotte Hornets (17-18) at the Kia Center. The Magic have been off to a middling start this NBA season, but they should have been able to secure the win against the even worse-off Hornets. But, no matter how they tried, the Magic couldn’t find their footing, losing to the Hornets by nearly thirty points, 124-94.

And this prompted some to ask, ‘Why?’ And one fan had a theory: the band Ghostwas to blame.

Ghost—the Swedish group that uses dark papal imagery, while founder and frontman Tobias Forge performs as characters as Papa Emeritus and Cardinal Copia—played Orlando’s Kia Center the night before the Magic-Hornets game, and one fan blames the group’s “super Satanic vibes” for the team’s loss.

In a Reddit post titled “Kia Center Needs Holy Water” (preserved by The Noise), an unnamed fan said they worked at the Magic’s home court. “The night before we got blown out by Charlotte, there was a concert there by this rock band called Ghost, and I’m not even exaggerating, super Satanic vibes.”

“Devil imagery, stained-glass church setup, chanting ‘Lucifer,’ all types of weird sh-t I’m not into at all,” the poster wrote. “I was mad as hell as I was forced to sit through all that lol.”

The Redditor theorized that “whatever energy they left in the building carried over into the game because there’s no other explanation for how bad we looked.” The Magic fan did wonder if blaming Ghost was “a valid excuse” for the loss, or are we just inconsistent af.”

Adding more fuel to the fire, the Magic hosted the Cleveland Cavaliers (27-20) on Jan. 24 and lost 119-105. The results were even worse when the Magic played the Cavs in Cleveland on Jan. 26: the Magic flopped, losing 114-98.

The supposed “Ghost” losing streak continues.

Ironically, that fan might not realize that Ghost is far less “Satanic” than Death, the death metal band that came out of Altamonte Springs, in the northern suburbs of Orlando. Death helped pioneer the genre in the early 1980s, and since then, the “Sunshine State” has been home to death metal.

Bands like Morbid Angel, Deicide, Obituary, Massacre, Diabolic, and Cynic all formed in Florida. And the scene was so fertile and fetid that it drew bands from outside—Cannibal Corpse is originally from Buffalo, but if you ever look at George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher’s neck, you’d think that he’d hatched in the swamps outside Tampa.

(He’s actually a really nice guy. He loves playing claw games and is quite good at them. In 2023, he donated seven bags full of toys to Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg. Oh, and Donald Tardy, the drummer for Obituary? He and his girlfriend run Metal Mowlisha, an organization that cares for 30+ feral cat colonies in Tampa.)

So, maybe the Kia Center needs to book Cannibal Corpse and Obituary to offset the vibes left by Ghost? Or perhaps the Orlando Magic need to do something like work on their defense and get both Paolo Banchero and Tristan da Silva to make more than 48% of their shots? Just a thought.

This story was originally published by Parade on Jan 28, 2026, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

Orlando Magic Fan Blames Ghost Concert’s ‘Satanic Vibes’ for Team’s Loss

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