Lord Of The Lost definitely put the ‘industrial’ in industrial metal. Formed in 2007 by frontman Chris Harms, the hardworking German industrial-glam-goths have released 12 studio albums including a covers album, plus a seemingly never-ending procession of new material in the form of orchestral records and live releases.
They’ve taken part in Eurovision (they came last), toured with Iron Maiden and recently graduated to arenas over on the continent. How’s that for the defiant, triumphant spirit of heavy metal? Hammer caught up with Chris to give him the grilling our readers felt he deserved. To quote one of their songs on 2022’s Blood & Glitter album, leave your hate in the comments.
If you were to show someone that has never heard of the band your music, what song would you show them first?
loganthecorekid, Instagram
“Right now, I Will Die In It from Opvs Noir Vol. 1, because it has a nice riff but also a nice singalong chorus. It has a great message, which is very positive, but still sounds sinister.”
What is the most difficult song you have written? Ziekmanpaula, Instagram
“I think it was See You Soon [from 2012’s Die Tomorrow]. It was one of our early ballads; a friend of ours had a girlfriend who was suffering with cancer. Luckily she’s still with us, but she nearly died a couple of times.
I’m agnostic, atheist or somewhere in between, but in those moments I could understand why we’d want to believe in something greater, that when we leave this world it’s not farewell – it’s ‘see you soon’. It’s very different to a heartbreak or something, which are champagne problems – you’re not going to die from them.”
We'd do Eurovision again.
Chris Harms, Lord Of The Lost
Which country would you like to play where you haven’t performed before?
Alexandracarla15, Instagram
“We’d love to tour Japan. Iceland too, but I’m less interested in playing a show there than shooting a music video.”
Did that Eurovision last place affect you in any way?
Dylan Dunn, Facebook
“Hard as it might be to believe, we really enjoyed Eurovision. When 200 million people watch you on television, that has a big impact. Even if just 0.1% like you, that’s still a lot of people! Our numbers went through the roof for a while afterwards, but of course there was a peak to that and it’s levelled out. Our streams and sales have tripled since we did it. We’d do it again.”
How do you deal with depression?
Mo Jo, Facebook
“I’ve never had it. I’ve felt depressed in the colloquial sense but really, I don’t know shit about what depression is. Our bass player Klaas [Helmecke] has been very open about how his depression has highly influenced him and has gotten worse over the years. We support him in every way we can. It’s taken me a few years to realise it’s not the kind of thing that’ll just go away if you’re like, ‘Pull yourself together.’ That’s like telling someone with a broken leg, ‘Walk it off!’”
If you could collaborate on a song with anyone, who would it be?
Liz Caomhánach, Facebook
“Lady Gaga. I feel so connected to the way she does art. She’s a chameleon, a female David Bowie where she doesn’t just do straight pop, she’s so genius in what she does. For one of our recent songs, Bazaar Bizarre, we shot the video near Mexico City in the ‘Island of the Dolls’, Isla de las Muñecas.
It has a haunting, weird story and there’s broken dolls everywhere; there was a guy who lived there for 50 years and put dolls up to scare ghosts or whatever. The director pointed out two dolls that had been left just two weeks earlier, by Tim Burton and Lady Gaga, because she’d also shot a music video there. It was funny that when we put our video out, she also put her video out around the same time. I could see her singing in the same place I was!”
Hammer: You’ve already done a lot of collabs. When are you going to pull a Babymetal and do a full collabs album?
“We should give it some time! Opvs Noir is 33 songs across three volumes and, of those, I think we’ve got 15 or 16 guests. We wanted to give different spices to our songs. I’ve had the idea to do a collabs album with indigenous people from around the world – like Māori people for New Zealand, Aboriginal people for Australia, Native Americans… Try to do bands who have their own rich folklore.
We could call it ‘Cultural Appropriation’. Or maybe just ‘Culture’. But it’d be great to do that with bands like Bloodywood or The Hu, travelling around the world.”
Will there be another concept album similar to Judas in the future? Or any continuation of the story?
Hovelskull, Instagram
“I don’t know how to continue the story, because it wasn’t really one in the first place! It was a bunch of songs to explore the shades of grey between light and darkness using the character of Judas. But I’m pretty sure we’ll do more concept albums in future. In fact, our next big thing is going to be one, if we don’t change plans. I’m sure we’ll do an acoustic or classical album in between too because they’re fun to do.”
Which one of you is most likely to survive a zombie apocalypse?
Emma Kitty Opheliac, Facebook
“Nik [Kahl, drums]. He can build stuff out of pretty much anything.”
Steve Harris said, 'If you've got a problem, don't ask the crew - talk to me.'
Chris Harms
What was it like touring with Iron Maiden? James_Akrigg, Instagram
“Awful. Come on… it was amazing! Being asked the first time was like, ‘What the fuck?!’ Then they asked us a second time and it felt even greater, because it’s not like they’re gonna go, ‘The first time didn’t really work out, but let’s give it another try.’
The most impressive thing wasn’t the size of the venues, the crowds or whatever, it was getting to know them. Their crew too – they’re all so tight-knit, they’ve been together for decades and you can really feel that. They made us feel at home and had our back. Steve [Harris] came up a few times like, ‘If you’ve got any problems, don’t ask the crew – talk to me.’ He still writes on WhatsApp or will give us a call. Maybe we can have a third run with them someday.”
If you could have written any song from another artist, what would it be?
Tina Wyles, Facebook
“Bohemian Rhapsody. It’s a spectacular song, and from a composer’s point of view it’s a piece of art. It’s a hit, but somehow no part ever repeats. How do you do that?!”
Do you have your make-up done by pros?
Erick Ancillary Theorem, Facebook
“Sometimes. When we do important photos for album covers, posters etc, where you can see every detail, we have people we’ll work with. We credit a few artists in our albums – there’s one girl in particular who knows exactly what we want and somehow always makes it better.
Obviously sometimes you work with a team that you don’t know, and then there can be some adjustment: ‘No, I look like a sad clown today. Let’s try again.’ But on tour we do it ourselves because it’s gone after one song.”
How do you manage to rise above hate comments and general negativity on social media so gracefully?
Helen Forsyth, Facebook
“Mostly by ignoring it. I haven’t been on social media for almost a year – I have an email address where I can put anything I want to post so I don’t see the feedback. After all these years, I rise above it. It’s not hurtful anymore, just annoying. I bet there were a few hate comments among these questions!”
Why do you choose English instead of German for your songs?
Cristina Medina, Facebook
“Growing up, I listened to bands like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. So music for me, for years, was in English. Later I discovered artists like Roxette and Michael Jackson and they also sang in English, so it never occurred to me that I should sing in German.”
Will there ever be a Lord Of The Lost X David Hasselhoff collab?
Adam Bendickson, Facebook
“I hope so! Gerrit [Heinemann], our keyboard player, actually played with him for two tours, so we’ve got a contact there. I doubt he’s in the mood to collab with a German metal band, though. We will try. We’ve tried already, but he’s not actually said no yet.”
Opvs Noir Vol. 3 is out now via Napalm.
