The late Sir Christopher Lee was an amazing man. He served in the SOE, played Dracula, the Frankenstein monster, Saruman, a Sith lord and so many more in addition to having been a real life Nazi hunter after World War 2. Another thing that is not as well known is that Lee was a member of the Carandini family, a noble family with the documentation to prove their ancestry goes back to the first Holy Roman Emperor, Charlemagne. Lee was also a fan of heavy metal music and collaborated with Manowar and Rhapsody of Fire on an various projects before releasing a symphonic metal album entitled Charlemagne: By The Sword and The Cross. This was followed by a second album with a heavy metal focus entitled Charlemagne: The Omens of Death, done in collaboration with artists like Richie Faulkner and more.
Lee’s Charlemagne albums were of a different sort of nature than most metal albums. More than just going up and down on the scale of intensity, Lee used metal to discuss his famous ancestor and performed a full on metal opera that would interest not only metal fans, but also historians. He truly knew the subject well and combined his passions into these works. Lee didn’t handle all the vocals, but his presence in the songs showed just how awe inspiring his voice could be. The standout song of the first album “The Bloody Verdict of Verden” only had him in a few parts for example, but that just made those parts stand out even more. the song was remade for the second album as “Massacre of the Saxons” and expanded on in terms of the song’s narrative. In fact, the second album allowed Lee to show off more intensity while still having his gentlemanly restraint, giving metal a sense of classiness that no one else can match.
These are just fantastic albums that need to be heard. I encourage you all to check out the songs mentioned here, “The Bloody Verdict of Verden” and its remake “Massacre of the Saxons” to see what I mean. Those songs alone will sell you on why the albums are amazing and just how less off we are now that Sir Christopher has passed on.