Lord of the Lost are a band that have been on my radar for a while now, but I know unfortunately very little about them. I checked out one of their older singles for a reaction video (find it here) and have since checked out a few more of their older bits on YouTube. However, this will be my first full album from the band. And what better way to close out on the last review of music from 2022 than with something vaguely new, ey? Let’s get into it!
The album’s opener and title track opens straight into Chris “The Lord” Harms’ low, powerful vocals. They’re slow and over a piano, throwing me off for a moment as I thought we were opening on a ballad. I was quickly disproven as a great industrial guitar riff comes in and Chris gives us a fantastic scream over the top. It drops back to the expected epic, slower gothic stuff in the verses, but picks up into the huge, almost power metal choruses.
The synths are a big highlight, somehow making it all even more catchy. Also, the record scratching was a very unexpected addition, but it sounded good! Also, the quick delivery in the second half of the verses reminded me a lot of Shinedown, for some reason. There’s so many different dynamics to this track, the screams adding maybe my favourite layer. It’s a great opening track and really gives the listener a good idea of what the band is about.
‘Leave Your Hate in the Comments’, while inherently a little cringy just from the title, has a GREAT heavy riff to open. Having said that, it’s a solid, fun track. It’s heavier throughout, being more of a metal track than anything else. The screamed chorus was also good, silly fun. The epic clean parts were also great. Somehow, this makes the playlist. They made a ‘fuck the haters’ track so good that I couldn’t not love it.
‘Absolute Attitude’ opens like an 80s synthwave track. I kinda loved it. It made it all very catchy and it felt massive when the distorted guitars came in for the choruses. Again, the harsher vocals were a highlight for the bridge, and it was if anything just as catchy as the choruses. The track has a great, positive message behind it too which was nice.
Another great industrial riff opens ‘The Future of a Past Life’. However, outside of that and Marcus Bischoff’s impressive guest vocals, it’s a lot of the same as we’ve already heard. The same could be said for the following track, ‘No Respect for Disrespect’ and other tracks like ‘Dead End’, ‘Forever Lost’ and ‘Save our Souls’. I really like this band and their style, but they do stick in their comfort zone for a good portion of this album. Not that I can blame them, it just means I simply have less to write about.
The presence of Andy Laplegua made ‘Reset the Preset’ a pretty fun, engaging and interesting track compared to a lot of the others on here. From the low, creepy Marylin Manson style vocal delivery to the kids choir and heavy-yet-catchy screamed chorus and the faster and faster vocals through the verses, it’s really cool to begin with. I have to admit the upbeat chorus felt a little out of place compared to the rest of the track, but it was still a damn good track once I got used to it! Playlisted!
Then you have tracks like ‘Leaving the Planet Earth’ and especially ‘One Last Song’ that are undoubtably the ballads of the album. Both are emotional, pretty deep tracks that definitely address some interesting issues and do so perfectly in the slower setting. Chris’ vocals and lyrics are clearly the main focus and highlight of the tracks, but that’s not to take away from how awesome the rest of the band are throughout, too. These are Lord of the Lost at their best, and the former definitely makes the playlist!
To close out, the band throw in a cover for good measure. Now, it’s not my favourite cover of Roxette’s ‘The Look’ (that would go to Candlelight Red), it’s a damn fun cover and Blumchen does a great deal to add to it in her performance. It’s a fun synth-rock/new wave take on the track and I had fun listening to it!
Overall: This was good! I’ve only recently gotten into this band, which can probably be seen in reading my review, but I like a lot of the different elements that they put into it all. There are some good track on here and some amazing individual parts. However, even after listening to a full album, something about this band doesn’t quite click for me, though I have no idea why. Still, it gets a very respectable score from me!
The Score: 7.5/10