The Last Fireworks

► Anticipation is known to be the most beautiful joy. To increase this even more, the guys from Lord Of The Lost are ready to give Sonic Seducer an exclusive insight into the 13 brand-new tracks from the upcoming album “Empyrean”. Mastermind Chris Harms and drummer Tobias Mertens talk about meaning, emergence or sound pattern, song for song.

 

 

1. Miss Machine

Chris: I first wrote this song in a different, German version. With different content, for another band. But my music publisher made clear I summarized what “Empyrean” means with this song. The opinion of outsiders I trust can sometimes be helpful. Without BMG, this song would have ended at the band's desk it was meant to be for.

 

2. Drag Me To Hell

Tobias: I remember a funny story: When the song was created in the studio, Chris wasn't present at first, and that's why I recorded the vocals – let's call it so – for fun first. My improvisation of the lyrics was on point and characterized one line: You like to dadadaaaaa, you like to dadadaaaaa, ooouuuhh.

Chris: After songs like “Black Lolita” and “Your Victories” again a burner, which was created with one of my oldest friends from Hamburg and now studio colleague Eike Freese. For me a milestone beneath my all-time-favorites from Lord of the Lost.

 

3. The Love Of God

Tobias: Might be the weirdest guitar riff on this album! I played drums, guitar and bass for this track and I'm happy it's the first single. It's a song which is not ordinary – however it's despite its weirdness very catchy at the chorus.

Chris: It's really hard to make songs which are rarely directly comparable with other songs and bands. This track is such one! And it proves that not only melodies, but also siren-like buzz-saw-synthesyzer can become earworms. I wrote the song with my old friend Keile, who was guitarist for my first band Philiae back in 1999 and is now working with Wirtz.

 

4. Raining Stars

Chris: This song is for me a typical Harms-song: Hard and brute in the underground, but very catchy and jazzy. This kind of music is my favorite music and this track will become the figurehead of our Raining Stars-tour in spring 2017. By the way, it's not about raining stars like Sterntaler [Star Money], but about the doomsday, when it's raining suns and our planet is falling apart – from the point of view from two lovers, who are seeing this with the feeling of a wonderful, final firework. That's how a doomsday should be, not that cumbersome as the one we are experiencing right now.

Tobias: A strong and typical Harms-track, which represents the album very well. Who wants to know what “Empyrean” is should listen to “Raining Stars” first. Wonderful inferno!

 

5. In Silence

Chris: In the intro you can hear a sound which faintly reminiscent of whale song. The sound was created by accident when I recorded the layout vocals for the song at home. While shifting around on the floor, my wooden chair made weird hollow and tonal sounds. So I laid my singing microphone next to it and tried to change the tone pitch and its course through pressure and speed. It fairly worked, I adjusted the last inaccuracies technically. So you can say, we make music with a chair.

 

6. Black Oxide

Chris: Some metals have the property to oxide black when getting in contact with oxygen. Which is a nice image for a love story in the “Empyrean”-cosmos. I'm a fan of co-writing with all kinds of people – it keeps the band-repertoire vivid and interesting. The, regarding the combination very unlikely, co-writing happened with Ela – the frontlady from Elaiza – which gave us a new emotional perspective. Guest-vocalist for this track is the, in my view and ears unbelievably talented, Scarlet Dorn; a newcomer, which my production partner Benjamin Lawrenz and I discovered, wrote songs with and soon will show her to the world. On “Black Oxide”, she can be heard for the first time.

 

7. Interstellar Wars

Chris: I wrote this song, like many other from this album, with Alexander Paul Blake from Eden weint im Grab. While I personally don't like Alexander's own bands that much, I'm very impressed by his songwriting talent especially for this song. I like writing a lot for others – and I like writing with others for us. I think a lot more artists should do this; especially the ones which are copying themselves with every album more and more.

 

8. Doomsday Disco

Chris: There has never been a Lord Of The Lost-song as electronic as this one – and there might never be one again! The main riff consists of a two beat long riff, which repeats itself again and again and should sound artificially looped. Including multiple guitar doublings, I maybe needed about two minutes to record this track. So I can say I recorded a five minute song within two minutes.

Tobias: “Doomsday Disco” might be the most difficult song for every drummer and is nearly unplayable. In the studio, my sticks regularly broke through and I don't know if I could ever reproduce the song live.

 

9. Death Penalty

Chris: This song is a good example, because often some main ideas are dashed off during a fuck-off mode for the first layout and later, in the studio without any distraction and with highest concentration, it can't be reproduced that true. There are only three possibilities: 1. Throw away the song. 2. Getting drunk without hesitation, destroying all microphones and recording it with bandaged eyes. Or 3. Keep everything from the layout, which feels better than the final production. We decided for number three – that's why many tracks, which are hearable, were created between tour and stress and are maybe therefore that charming.

 

10. No Gods No War

Chris: Inspiration is sometimes amazing: Tobi showed me a layout of the track, which I thought was musically very cool and I was, after listening to it three times, sure it would find a final place on “Empyrean”. But the necessary creative-bomb did not explode in my brain until Tobi had the idea for the title. These four words were that strong, the full song was rotating in my head minutes later – with vocals and singing melody.

 

11. The Interplay Of Life And Death

Chris: There are specific songs, which you should not flog to death, but just listen to – this is one of them!

 

12. Utopya

Chris: Yes, we know “Utopya” is actually written with an i. But we don't do it anyway. Why? You will never know. This song was frequently open to debate for one of the four singles, which we will take from the album. First for the first one, then for the second and so on. But something inside me said, the story which is told here wouldn't feel right as a single. It might be because the lyrics are very personal, affect me deeply and I don't want to share it with every YouTube consumer.

 

13. Where Is All The Love

Chris: One of my oldest texts, I must have been only 17 years old. I had a totally different perspective back then, which I can't feel anymore. I'm grateful I kept many of these old texts and can use them at the right place. It's nearly an out-of-body time journey for me and gives me the chance to experience a production with youthful madness emotionally different.