3.21.2010

Charlemagne: 88-year-old Christopher Lee’s Metal Project

That Sir Christopher Lee, the British 88-year-old actor, is a living legend is beyond question. In his long career he has played some of pop culture’s most iconic characters: Dracula, Saruman and Count Dooku in Star Wars.

His voice is unique, vibrant, strong and ominous, and he has provided the voice for several games like Lord of The Rings: Battle For Middle Earth, Kingdom Hearts, and animations such as Valhalla, The Last Unicorn, The Corpse Bride, Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

Years ago he has already contributed with the bands Rhapsody (Magic of the Wizard’s Dream) and Manowar, and Inner Terrestrials, now, he has a new Symphonic Metal project, Charlemagne, in which he, accompanied by a group of talented musicians and a presenter, tells the story of one of the world’s most important historical figures.

In an interview on You Tube, Sir Christopher Lee says that: “It's fascinating for me, that at this stage of my life, I suddenly find that people are beginning to look upon me as a Metal singer... And judging... from the huge number of hits on the internet… everybody is very excited about this, I certainly am, but it's very unexpected."

"So to my surprise and indeed great pleasure, I suddenly found that there seems to be another string to my bow, and now we shall wait and see.”

Sir Christopher Lee says that he descends from Charlemagne through his mother’s family Carandini, but that’s just a coincidence and not the reason he has decided to start this project.

As far as what is already on the internet, the songs are powerful and well done, and the work is reminiscent of another music & storytelling album, the Rick Wakeman’s classic King Arthur & The Knights of The Roundtable. As for Sir Christopher Lee’s act, he’s amazing like always, with his singular voice and his decades of theatrical experience.

If you like Symphonic Metal bands like Leaves’ Eyes, Battlelore, Blind Guardian and others that mix legends from the past and great heavy melodious sounds, check it out.

For the record, Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne was a revolutionary king. He ruled the region that now comprises Germany, France, North of Spain, Belgium and Netherlands, for 46 years, between 768 and 814CE.

He had a great importance in the history of Europe, not only because he unified several regions, but because he tried to bring back some of the Ancient wisdom, by recovering Greek and Roman texts, he promoted the exchange of knowledge between cultures, scholars from all over Europe went to work for him, and at a time when most noblemen were illiterate, he himself studied and had his children and grandchildren study as well. His greatest frustration was that he never actually learned how to write.

Because of all that, the period of his reign is known as Caroligian Renaissance.

To know more about Christopher Lee’s project, Charlemagne, watch these videos, one with an excerpt from the album and the other of his interview, and visit the MySpace profile.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Lee

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlemagne

http://www.myspace.com/charlemagnemusical

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