The Germans of Lord of the Lost return with their seventh album « Judas » which succeeds to « Swan Songs III » released in 2020. Divided into two parts named respectively « Damnation » (CD1) and « Salvation » (CD2), this new opus has twenty-four songs that plunge us back into the millennial debate between good and evil, with a theme centered on Judas Iscariot. The drummer Niklas Kahl tells us more…
RiskTheDeath : With the successive lockdowns, how was « Judas » composed: separately or collectively? During the promotion of « Swan Songs III », Class confessed that the band members worked separately on ideas that would be used for the next album.
NIK : Of course everyone is always free to work on ideas, but for « Judas » we did a songwriting camp, like we already did for « Thornstar ». So we locked ourselfs together with parts of our crew and some befriended musicians into the Chameleon Studios in Hamburg for one week, where we worked in different teams each day. There we wrote the major part of the album. From the songwriting camp we went directly into working out the details and started the recordings. So it was a pretty collectively thing.
RTD : Is « Judas » only inspired by the New Testament or are there also some romanticized parts? What would you say to convince someone who is reluctant to dive into an album about biblical or religious facts?
NIK : Judas is not a religious or biblical album. It’s an album about the character of Judas himself. It’s all about the tales we know about him, plus our own thought about how it also could have been. – That’s absolutely interesting, also for people who are not that much in christian belief.
RTD : From « Priest » you introduce a leitmotif that comes back several times in the album: how did you get this idea? Was it something you had in mind?
NIK : No matter which hollywood movie theme you hear – if it’s Lord Of The Rings, Harry Potter, Star Wars – you always have those kinda things in the soundtracks. We thought for a concept album with 24 songs it would fit absolutely perfect to have a leitmotif.
RTD : In this title, we also find lyrics that seem to come from « Jesus He Knows Me » from Genesis: is this band an influence for you? Or is it a tribute to this band ?
NIK : It just fit in there – but it’s also a nice tribute to one of the greatest bands of all times I think.
RTD : One could almost say that the many faces of Judas are translated by the different emotions and moods present in the opus: is this the purpose?
NIK : We wanted to try to see the character of Judas from as many different perspectives as possible. Of course we took all the written facts we know about Judas, but we were also mind spinning around about how it might have been else. And of course all this is hearable in the sound, not only in lyrics.
RTD : Most of the Lord of the Lost albums are quite long, especially « Empyrean » which had 19 tracks, and then 20 tracks for « Thornstar »: is the idea of making a double album a will from the beginning?
NIK : It was absolutely clear from the very beginning that Judas would be a double album. It just felt right.
RTD : Lord of the Lost has always evolved and especially visually, this time we find you with a make-up of a « J » that almost looks like an inverted cross: is it a provocative sign or a purely aesthetic sign?
NIK : One of the greatest things in Lord of the Lost for me, is that in everything we do there is still so much space for interpretations. Some people say it is an inverted cross, some say it’s a « J »… I already heard someone who saw a sword in that sign. So, feel free to do some thought acrobatics (smile).
RTD : Recently, the new Powerwolf album was released as well as their bonus disc, where Chris covers the title « Kiss the Cobra King »: do you agree with the following statement: « the mixture of the styles of two bands is always an ideal way to achieve original creations »?
NIK : Of course. Whenever you’re mixing things together new stuff is beeing created.
RTD : Nowadays, a lot of bands release their albums on vinyl and cassette : what pushed you to release « Judas » in these formats ?
NIK : Vinyl is having a huge comeback these days. Some people just like the oldschool scratchy sound for others it’s the fact that vinyl is much more long lasting than CDs. The first time we release an album on cassette was « Thornstar ». Back then it was just a dream of us to have our own music on a cassette, the medium which we all know from our childhood.« Judas »
Thanks to Magali from SOUNDS LIKE HELL Productions for the opportunity of this interview; thanks to Lord of the Lost and especially to Niklas Kahl for his answers and his time…