adg211288 In tribute to Sir Christopher Lee (1922 - 2015).

Sir Christopher Lee will no doubt be (rightly) remembered as one of the greats of the big screen and not for his late life interest in metal music and release of his own metal albums, but that doesn't change the fact that it happened and all things considered I don't think it's really all that bad despite the largely negative reception I've seen from other metalheads, but it's music that really needs to be taken in context before any sort of appreciation can be found for it. So first of all, I think some history is in order.

Charlemagne: The Omens of Death (2013) wasn't Lee's first attempt at a metal release. There was another album before this one, Charlemagne: By the Sword and the Cross (2010). The two releases are essentially the same set of songs (tracks are renamed though, for example The Bloody Verdict Of Verden becomes Massacre of the Saxons) but The Omens of Death has a few new ones tacked onto the end. If this were a movie, you would call it a remake. And there's a good reason for that, the idea behind By the Sword and the Cross was to make a symphonic metal album. But that went wrong and Lee ended up with an album that sounded like a film score with occasional metallic guitars on it. Why did it go so wrong for him on the first go? Because for some reason Lee teamed up with an Italian composer called Marco Sabiu, who was previously known for working with pop artists such as Take That and Kylie Minogue and well, the moral of that story is to never get a pop guy to do a metal guy's job. I actually quite liked By the Sword and the Cross at the time it was released, but it is not primarily a metal release by any stretch of the imagination and I've since lost all interest in it thanks to this much more metal version.

So a few years later comes along The Omens of Death, the extended remake. The songs are the same up until a point, and the vocals were largely lifted from the original sessions. It's probably fair to call that lazy. The music though has been transformed by Judas Priest's Richie Faulkner into a traditional/power metal release. In all honesty the music is rather standard sounding stuff for these genres; if the two albums have anything in common, it's they're releases designed for the full attention to be on the vocals. The vocals are the area that most metalheads seem to have a problem with, and I can understand why, the album is done in such a way that it sounds like it should be performed in theatres rather than be on record. It's a metal opera; with Sir Christopher Lee playing the lead role, with a cast of guest vocalists. The theatrical singing style of the album applies to both Lee and his guests, at least on the songs originally from By the Sword and the Cross, the newer songs I think have a noticeably different vibe. There's even a growler on The Devil's Advocate. It might be true that the singing styles were more suited to what Marco Sabiu originally came up with on By the Sword and the Cross, but it's clear that The Omens of Death is the album that Sir Christopher wanted to make in the first place.

And taken in context, I think it's a pretty good album. Not exactly mind-blowing and certainly an acquired taste, but good. Lee sounded damn impressive as well despite being in his 90's (he was 93 at the time of his death), a real commanding presence on record just as he was in films. Considering Lee's still recent death, the lyrics of the songs are actually pretty thought provoking. He's singing about his own ancestor, First Holy Roman Emperor, King Charlemagne, and playing the ghost of the character, but it wouldn't take much to reapply the lyrics to himself, especially in a track like Let Legend Mark Me as the King.

Though it's not an album for everyone, I for one am pretty happy that Lee got to make it before his passing in 2015. Whether you like the music on not, Sir Christopher Lee proved something with this: that metal is for anyone and everyone and I at least am happy to have The Omens of Death in my metal collection. A four star rating is fairest objectively, I think.

Rest in Peace, Sir Christopher Lee.

adg211288 Metal Knight (2014) is an EP release by noted actor turned heavy metal singer Sir Christopher Lee. The release was aimed to coincide with Lee's 92th birthday and is comprised of various cover songs remade in heavy metal versions.

Before I discuss the actual music on Metal Knight I want to point out that things aren't entirely what they may appear with this EP though. You see the first three songs are all edited versions of the last three, separated by a rendition of the famous song My Way, which is also an edited version of the one that already appeared on the previous EP release A Heavy Metal Christmas Too (2013). So on paper it's only really the last three of seven songs that have a chance to really offer up anything to followers of Christopher Lee's late life metal music career. Then of course is the little fact that Christopher Lee has released all these songs before on his pre-metal album Revelation (2006) and given the situation with Charlemagne: The Omens of Death (2013), where most of the vocals were lifted straight off of Charlemagne: By the Sword and the Cross (2010), I can't help but wonder if the same has not in fact happened on Metal Knight also.

Regardless of how Metal Knight did or did not come to be, I think it's fair to say that anyone who enjoys Christopher Lee's singing would be better off to just go with the flawed but fun in a cheesy way full-length Charlemagne: The Omens of Death, a metal opera where Lee is joined by a host of guest singers backed by heavy/power metal music. Metal Knight is enjoyable to a point but it simply does not have the charm of the album and the quality is a little up and down. The first/fifth song I, Don Quixote comes over as slightly messy due to the presence of semi-harsh vocals accompanying Lee at some points. Most of the rest of the EP is tolerable with French sung The Toreador March being the best of what can only be described as a poor selection for the music style, which is best described as symphonic influenced traditional metal.

Despite my earlier warning the full versions of the songs are, if anything, not as worthwhile as the edited cuts since the main feature of the full songs is narration sequences which just come over as incredibly cheesy.

I have a hellish amount of respect for Christopher Lee and have been a defender rather than a detractor of his late life metal career as early as the release of Charlemagne: By the Sword and the Cross, an album which despite its common branding of symphonic metal is, let's be honest here, much more of an orchestral release. While Charlemagne: The Omens of Death had some pretty glaring faults too, chief among them the situation with the vocals, I did end up really enjoying it. Metal Knight though is a different matter and I can't honestly justify more than 1.5 stars for this one.

adg211288 Charlemagne: By the Sword and the Cross is a Symphonic Metal release by legendary knighted actor Christopher Lee, an epic concept piece about the life of Lee’s ancestor, The First Holy Roman Emperor, Charlemagne. The concept of an 87 year old man suddenly bringing out a metal album is bound to attract attention from many sources, but ultimately will he or won’t he be criticised for taking on a genre such as metal? Well I for one think he should be praised for this work, even if he didn’t write the music or the lyrics, because the guy has an epic voice (just watch his performance in The Lord of the Rings), and he should be praised for his vocals no matter what you might feel about the compositions.

So let’s talk about those, well first as far as first impressions of the album go, you could call it SYMPHONIC metal. So yeah, it’s heavily symphonic, and the metal elements don’t always come across as that overly heavy, though they are present and this is definitely an album with metal in it. Is it enough to actually class it as metal? Personally I’d say yes, when the metal comes it is metal, but what bothers me with that claim is that after track 1, Overture, you don’t really hear a trace of metal again to track 5, Act II: The Iron Crown Of Lombardy. This is quite a big time gap for a metal album not to have metal sounds, but one thing that should be taken into consideration is that each of the many songs, or Acts as they call them have an intro track, effectively doubling the number of tracks, so there’s actually only one proper song in there (Act I: King Of The Franks), and to be honest it’s not uncommon for established symphonic metal bands to have a completely symphonic track on their albums, I can name several by Nightwish or Within Temptation, and Epica even did a whole album like that. The other main tracks (or Acts, whatever you want to call them), all have metal in them, though there are many sections in the songs that don’t. Take Act III: The Bloody Verdict Of Verden for example. Intro and verses have no metal, but the chorus and outro does so it’s about 50/50. Otherwise this is best considered as film score music, and pretty good film score music at that.

Enough on whether the album is metal or not. To me, it’s metal enough, but since I increasingly find myself not caring if what I listen to appears on Encyclopaedia Metallum (note – this album doesn’t), maybe I am not the best of judges. Let’s talk about if the album is any good or not.

Short answer: yes.

Long answer: Charlemagne is actually a very epic piece of music. The tracks effortlessly run into each other and Lee is perfect in the lead role. The album could actually be liked to what artists such as Ayreon and Avantasia do; it is a concept album with a vocal cast, a metal opera if you will. Lee of course takes the lead role as Charlemagne's ghost, which many other singers taking others roles, included a younger version of the title character. I don’t know any of the names and perhaps this is where the album falls short, it’s metal but made by people who don’t appear to be associated with metal aside from Lee himself (who has worked with the likes of Manowar and Rhapsody of Fire). The composer, Marco Sabiu, for one, is credited for being known for working with the likes of Take That and Kylie Minogue. So, maybe not the best of references when trying to sell an album aimed at metal fans. For what’s it’s worth he did a good enough job, since I do really like this album, however I wouldn’t be doing my job as a reviewer if I didn’t point out from a metal perspective that if this had been composed by a metal composer, the result would have been much different. However as it stands the album is pretty solid, not a masterpiece for sure but overall it's pretty impressive.

My personal favourite track from Charlemagne is Act III: The Bloody Verdict Of Verden. That “I shed the blood of Saxon men” line is rather memorable I must admit. Act IV: The Age Of Oneness Out Of Diversity is a pretty strong second place.

The only thing that is really irksome about this album is that it has so many intro tracks. There are five even if you discount the actual track 1, Overture. Each features narration to tell the story. This suits for this kind of album, but really I feel they would have better fitted as part of the main tracks, especially since they don’t seem to have a probably having the narration is these as well.

Overall though I've found Charlemagne: By the Sword and the Cross to be quite a nice surprise. I would have liked perhaps a bit more balance between the symphonic metal and film score influences though.

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven, scoring 7.5/10)