Lord of Shadows is a musical entity that takes all the beauty, heaviness and splendour of doom and manifest it into a creation of epic unique proportions. The creation of lyricist, visionary and band leader, Shadows, their debut masterpiece Echoes of Yore assembles the talents of Mike Lamb (Sojourner etc.) and vocalists Aaron Stainthorpe (My Dying Bride), Heike Langhans (Remina, ex-Draconian) and Emilio Crespo (Sojourner) to create a romantic, haunting passionate piece of art that is as beautiful as it heavy. Echoes of Yore continues the juxtaposition of darkness and light that began with their debut Ep Extremum Vitae Spiritism Deere, the opposing forces that create an endless cycle of inspiration.
Mike Lamb: I wrote the music, and Heike/Aaron/Emilio did their vocals, as a way to frame Shadow’s lyrics. So the darkness and light was always just a natural outcome of trying to highlight the poetry and make sure it was front and centre, as this is Shadows’ band and it's a showcase of his work first and foremost.
Shadows: It is fairly complex, to compress in a few words, the conflicting forces inspiring our work. From my end, the lyrics and the concepts that have been the foundation of what Lord of Shadows represents today, there’s rather an endless cycle of inspiration, drawn on the music shores by my views on reality itself as well as my life experience.
The allure of doom music and its endless possibilities?
Mike: Doom has been my biggest influence musically, and it's been a deep part of my musical journey right from when I began playing. There's something about the beauty and grandeur of doom that you just can't replicate with faster genres.
Shadows: As Mike has mentioned, doom has always been my biggest influence, in both lyrical and musical field. There’s a pleasure of mind, like no other, in losing yourself within the gothic doom’s universe of torment and stillness. Nothing can be compared with the beauty of a sorrowful doom track when life throws at you its most painful trials...
With all your musical endeavours do you understand you path? Or is it a continual growth and evolution?
Mike: Not at all, they're quite compartmentalized and separate. Each of my projects has their own growth and progression internally, so they never step on each other, and overall I grow as a musician and songwriter with it. Sojourner and Remina are my only active projects and very different from each other, and Lord of Shadows is driven by Shadows so it's easy for us to work on it song by song as he hands me lyrics.
Shadows: Well, does anyone...? Is there a human being fully capable of declaring: I do, I do understand my place in universe and the path I walk! With that being said, indeed, as every musical project, Lord of Shadows grows and evolves at its own pace, and although each of us works in rather different fields, everything is well established, and I can say that we make an amazing team together. And as our projects are built on different styles, it’d actually quite easy to work on each song at a time. But of course, that requires a special synergy, which I never found before I met Mike and Heike.
Final thoughts and possible live shows to support the album?
Shadows: ‘’There’s not much to say, honestly. Music, doom, and our friendship, in special, it’s what drives us to work on future songs, and of course, future albums. As for possible live shows, that’s a subject for another time. We are currently working on new material and yes, of course we would love to play live, and when the time will come, we hope to see you there. Also, on this way, we want to send our greetings to everyone who has followed and supported our project so far and, thank you for being with us. Lord of Shadows has plenty more to offer!
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