Lord of the Lost

Lord of the Lost is a German gothic metal group from Hamburg, active since 2007. It is formed around singer and frontman Chris Harms, who starts the project as a solo venture in mid-2007 before expanding it into a full band after the early songs receive a strong response online. Harms first uses the name Lord, then changes it to Lord of the Lost to avoid possible disputes with other similarly named acts.

Formation and early work

Before forming Lord of the Lost, Harms performs as a singer and guitarist in Philiae from 1999 to 2004, then as guitarist and second singer in the glam metal band The Pleasures from 2004 to 2007. He also works on projects including Big Boy and Unterart. For Lord of the Lost, he recruits musicians from the Hamburg scene and begins work on the first album. The debut single, Dry the Rain, appears in 2009, and the debut album Fears follows in 2010 on the independent label Out of Line.

Style and line-up

The band’s music spans alternative metal, gothic, gothic metal, gothic rock, industrial metal and industrial rock, with additional influences from heavy metal, glam rock, industrial music and classical music. Members associated with the group include Chris Harms, Sensai, Any Wayst, Sebsta Lindström, Class Grenayde, Bo Six, Gared Dirge, Christian Schellhorn, Tobias Mertens, Niklas Kahl and Pi Stoffers. Christian Schellhorn leaves in 2014 and Tobias Mertens later takes a break from live work, with Niklas Kahl filling in on drums for performances. Bo Six departs in 2016 and Pi joins in 2017.

Albums, tours and collaborations

Lord of the Lost follows Fears with Antagony in 2011, its first concept album, after which it tours with Mono Inc. on the Viva Hades tour. The band releases Die Tomorrow in 2012 and From the Flame Into the Fire in 2014. It appears on the Gothic Meets Klassik concert series at the Leipzig Gewandhaus in 2013 with the Zielona Gòra Symphony Orchestra, and plays its first US tour in 2014, funded through crowdfunding. In 2015 it issues the acoustic album Swan Songs, which reaches number 34 on the GfK Entertainment Charts, along with the EP Full Metal Whore and the live release A Night to Remember - Live Acoustic in Hamburg.

The group releases Empyrean in 2016 as its second concept album, preceded by the single The Love of God. It then tours Europe with Combichrist, Filter and Rabia Sorda. Later releases include Thornstar in 2018, live album Confession: Live at Christuskirche in 2018, best-of collection Till Death Us Do Part: Best Of in 2019, and Swan Songs III in 2020. Other releases include the EPs Beside & Beyond, MMXIV, Eisheilige Nacht 2016 with Eric Fish, Ruins, and Swan Songs III - Piano EP.

Live activity and guest work

The band tours extensively through the 2010s, including appearances at Wave-Gotik-Treffen, Wacken Open Air and M'era Luna Festival, as well as support and co-headline dates with Letzte Instanz, Unzucht, and others. It also performs as The Lord Of The Lost Ensemble with acoustic-classical instrumentation and former drummer Christian Schellhorn. In 2017 it performs in the United Kingdom with KMFDM and Inertia, but withdraws from the United States leg of the tour after not receiving visas.

Lord of the Lost also records and performs with a wide range of other artists, including Latexxx Teens, Staubkind, Rabia Sorda, Subway to Sally, A Life Divided, Ost+Front, Solitary Experiments, Mono Inc., Blutengel, Joachim Witt, Tanzwut, Coppelius, Saltatio Mortis, Solar Fake, Meinhard, Rocksin, Unzucht, 5th Avenue, Hell Boulevard, Heldmaschine, Tilo Wolff, Scarlet Dorn, Oomph!, Lolita KompleX, Vogelfrey and Pyogenesis.

Singles and videos

Across its catalogue, the group releases singles including Sex on Legs, Die Tomorrow, See You Soon, Afterlife, La Bomba, Six Feet Underground, Waiting for You to Die, Lighthouse, The Broken Ones, On This Rock I Will Build My Church, Morgana, Loreley, Voodoo Doll, A One Ton Heart, A Splintered Mind and Dying on the Moon. It also builds a large video output, with many clips directed by Matteo Fabbiani and Chiara Cerami, alongside directors including Nikola Stahl, Moritz Krebs, Katya Tsyganova, Jasmin Kreft, Christian Beer, Michel Briegel, Lisa Morgenstern, Harun Hazar and Andrés Villa.