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From their beginnings on MySpace to being handpicked by IRON MAIDEN to support, German rockers, LORD OF THE LOST, have seen it all since their beginnings in 2007 as a solo project of Chris Harms. Now expanded into a six piece and nine studio albums later, the band have continued to expand their sound and style, including creating five albums with an orchestra, and much more. With their tenth album on the horizon, OPVS NOIR Vol. 1, with an additional two more volumes to be released down the line, band members Benji Mundigler and Pi ‘π’ Stoffers discussed the upcoming album, tour plans, and even their dream support they would handpick themselves.
“I know a kind of mysterious band that would be perfect,” Pi explains as the interview begins. “They’re called PRESIDENT. It was their first show at Download Festival. I believe they played five songs, performed three new songs, so five debuts of their music. I looked at some crappy footage on YouTube, and I think that would be cool, but then again, probably wouldn’t fit that well with our style, but I know it would be interesting to me, at least. But we are doing a co-headlining with FEUERSCHWANZ in October, exclusive to Germany. It’s called the Lords of Fyre tour makes sense because of the song.”
“However, as I said, it’s a co-headlining tour, so both bands will be playing a full headline set,” he continues. “In November, we are coming to the UK and Ireland, so we’re coming to your beautiful countries, and we’ll be playing for you all. Then in January and February, we will be going to North America, so across the US and Canada to tour our new album, and with OPUS NOIR Vol. 1 out in August, we will likely have Volume 2 released at the end of this year. So we’ll perform both those two volumes out on tour.”
As mentioned by Pi, the band’s 10th album, OPUS NOIR Vol. 1, is to be released in August this year, which LORD OF THE LOST have described as much darker than their previous releases. In addition, this is the first of three volumes of albums that will be subsequently released soon. As Benji explains, “Volume Two and Three are already finished, waiting on the shelves to be sent out, that kind of thing. We knew what we were getting ourselves into from the get go. We had to know how many songs we’d be releasing, how we’d time the releases of the three volumes for all the press and PR to know what to do. I don’t know in advance what we’ve actually planned to do for those releases specifically, but the volumes have all been planned from the start.”
“The album is a heavier look into our inner selves, as opposed to commenting exclusively on outside events or scenery,” Pi breaks it down further. “It sounds cliche to look at our inner darkness, it’s a buzz word, but the meaning of that is in the darkness. While you obviously find a lot of negative things, or if there negative connotations, there’s also a lot to find that gives you answers you’re looking for, as well as a lot of beauty within it. So in short, that was the overall feeling, the overall vibe. We just started writing, and then it extended and extended and extended, and eventually we ended up with more than what would usually be a double album. Since we’ve already done a double album in 2021 called Judas, we decided to do a triple album. So it’s a trilogy, essentially, so on August 8th, you get OPVS NOIR Vol. 1, but obviously there’s Volume Two and Three as well that will come out on later dates.”
In promotion of the album, the band have released two singles; My Sanctuary and I Will Die In It, as well as a song in collaboration with FEUERSCHWANZ called Lords Of Fyre. “We chose to start off this new album era with My Sanctuary because from a musical perspective, it’s a lot more approachable than some of the other songs which we’ve got on the album,” Benji elaborates. “In a way, it’s easier to understand, but it’s also easy to see that this era is going to be a bit darker, not necessarily musically, but thematically, from the lyrics. It starts setting up the door into this, this look inside ourselves. With that, we felt that it was a bit easier to get into, a smoother transition than if we just go in with a bang at full force just ‘here’s all the darkness and all the aggression and everything’. We were concerned it might be a bit confusing for some so we thought we’d start off a bit easier.”
Pi describes this darker tone further with the second single. “I Will Die In It, at least to me, combines everything that will be OPVS NOIR, or it touches on everything in a in a more direct way than, for example, My Sanctuary, which we call a gateway track into the new world. However, I Will Die In It gives much more away on what’s to come, and combines all together what OPVS NOIR can be. There’s still a lot to discover, a lot of weirdness, a lot of darkness, a lot of experiments, which I’m really happy about, because it’s decisions that we’ve taken that we wouldn’t have taken five years ago, and it’s exciting to see them come to life and flourish.”
“Working with FEUERSCHWANZ, it was kind of straightforward. but also very complicated,” Pi expands about the collaboration song, Lord of Fyre. “Not because they’re complicated humans, they’re all wonderful, but they’re an even bigger band than we are in terms of people and instruments. We have six people, they have nine people and then perform as seven people on stage. They also have different instruments to what we use, like a violin, and medieval folk instruments. So, combining all that into a song, which is in a digestible pop length, a mainstream radio length, like 3 minutes 33, 3 minutes 40, it’s quite the challenge. In addition, shooting the video for it in one day, and everybody being visible was also quite the challenge, but we somehow managed, and it’s a nice combination between the two worlds of FEUERSCHWANZ and LORD OF THE LOST. It’s not necessarily so much OPVS NOIR, however, but it still fits into the whole context of the new album, and it definitely would not make sense to not include it in the album. FEUERSCHWANZ will include the song on their own album, which will be released this summer as well.”
Opvs Noir Vol. 1 is out now via Napalm Records. View this interview, alongside dozens of other killer bands, in glorious print magazine fashion in DS122 here:
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