Music

THIS EXISTS: Sir Christopher Lee's heavy metal career

by Tyler Munro

Every week, This Exists uncovers and explores musical peculiarities that exist in the dark corners of the internet, sometimes just outside the mainstream. Today we take a closer look at Sir Christopher Lee, a former super-spy, current legendary actor and, at nearly nine decades old, a heavy metal vocalist. He’s 6 foot 4, claiming to have shrunk due to old age; he’s Ian Fleming’s [step]-cousin and—regardless of what Dos Equis might tell you—quite possibly The Most Interesting Man in the World.

Before his tragic death in May of last year, jokes were often made about how Ronnie James Dio was the grandfather of heavy metal. Dio was 67 when Heaven and Hell released The Devil You Know back in 2009. Christopher Lee, who you’re about to read about, is old enough to be Ronnie James Dio’s father.

If you recognize the name, well, you should. Christopher Lee was at one point, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, the world record holder for the most acting film roles ever. Since 1948 Christopher Lee has acted in over 260 films, and his resumé is still growing. According to IMDB, Lee is busy filming The Hobbit parts 1 and 2 and has four other films currently undergoing post-production.

To make a long resumé into a short story, Christopher Lee is a big deal. Of his seemingly endless resumé, Lee’s standout roles include playing turncoat wizard Saruman in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, Count Duku in two of the Star Wars prequels and a legendary run as Dracula in a number of Hammer Horror films. But Lee’s influence extends beyond his reach as an actor. Christopher Lee was once a member of Churchill’s “Secret Army”; the Special Operations Executive, which also went by “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare”, a secret World War II military outfit whose roles and actions still remain largely classified to this day. In 2001, he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire and 8 years later, the day before Halloween, he was knighted by Prince Charles. For those keeping score, that means the official title of an actor most famous for his roles in horror, sci-fi and fantasy films is ‘Sir’.

As course as interesting as these facts might be, they’re not the reason we’re here. No, we’re here because at 88, Sir Christopher Lee is set to release his second album as Charlemagne. Like the first Charlemagne album, The Omens of Death is poised to be a blend of eerily Gregorian sounding classical music and boisterous, theatrical heavy metal. You read that right: Sir Christopher Lee is in the midst of a blossoming career in heavy metal. He’ll turn 89 next month.

So how did this happen? It’s by no coincidence, actually. The great-grandson of Australian opera singer Marie Carandini, Lee’s trademark, booming baritone has found itself in many-a-musics over the past six decades. He’s sung on the Wicker Man soundtrack and in the movie musical The Return of Captain Invincible, but those songs, while interesting enough, aren’t metal. And metal, as Manowar teaches us, is really all that matters in life.

In spite of the occasional song in a film or a play, Lee always remained an actor first and foremost, and so it makes sense that his first leap into heavy metal would come as an acting gig. It was 2004 when Rhapsody of Fire (then simply known as Rhapsody) asked Lee to provide the narration on their album Symphony of Enchanted Lands II – The Dark Secret. For Lee, things had come full circle. Rhapsody (of Fire) were, and remain, a wildly theatrical band, one whose own mythology is heavily influenced by the writings of J.R.R Tolkien. As you’ll hear below, Lee’s fit as the band’s narrator was a natural fit. Normally we’d just embed the audio, but in this case you’re going to want to watch the video because, quite frankly, it’s hilaaaaaaaaaarious

“But what about the singing,” you’re probably asking. “What about the singing?” That started not long after Symphony of Enchanted Lands II came out. Rhapsody of Fire were set to release a single of one of the album’s songs, “The Magic of the Wizard’s Dream”, but weren’t content with just tossing out a lazy release. Deciding to make things interesting, they enlisted Lee’s voice not as narrator, but as a backing vocalist, in not one, not two, but five additional version of the song in English (twice, once with an orchestra, once without), Italian, French and German. For posterity’s sake it’s worth pointing out that Lee also speaks Swedish, Russian and Greek.

Rhapsody of Fire feat. Christopher Lee – The Magic of the Wizard’s Dream (German Version)

Later this year Christopher Lee’s run as Rhapsody of Fire’s narrator will come to an end with the release of From Chaos to Eternity, the band’s tenth (!!!) album in their “Dark Secret Saga” and thus their last requiring the services of the famed, barrel voiced actor. Though From Chaos to Eternity signals the end of an era, Lee’s time with Rhapsody of Fire will come into play once more with his second release under the Charlemagne moniker, and if you thought Lee’s time with Rhapsody of Fire was peculiar, just wait until you hear what Charlemagne is all about. We’ll let a quote off Charlemagne’s MySpace fill you in:

“According to the Heraldic College in Rome, Christopher Lee is a direct descendant of Charlemagne. The Carandinis, Lee’s maternal ancestors, were given the right to bear the coat of arms of the Holy Roman Empire by the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. Christopher Lee has decided for the first time in his life to pay homage to his distinguished ancestor, who is credited as “The Father of Europe”. Charlemagne is a concept album with original words and symphonic metal music.”

Seriously. This exists, and by now you’re probably dying to hear it, so without further adieu…

….a promo video, because honestly, this stuff is better in small doses.

Of course much of his work under the Charlemagne moniker is anything but the truest of heavy metals; it is, in contrast, a rather Wagnerian-meets-Meatloaf spin on the Rhapsody of Fire mold of fantasy metal. Strings are as apparent as guitars, if not more at times, but for every elegant element of orchestration there’s a percussive gallop or pinch harmonic not far behind. Sir Christopher Lee refers to himself as a heavy metal musician. He identifies it, embraces it, and however loose the interpretation might be, he wears his metal crown with pride.

And you thought your grandfather was cool.