CHRISTOPHER LEE — Metal Knight (review)

CHRISTOPHER LEE — Metal Knight album cover EP · 2014 · Heavy Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
1.5/5 ·
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Metal Knight (2014) is an EP release by noted actor turned heavy metal singer Sir Christopher Lee. The release was aimed to coincide with Lee's 92th birthday and is comprised of various cover songs remade in heavy metal versions.

Before I discuss the actual music on Metal Knight I want to point out that things aren't entirely what they may appear with this EP though. You see the first three songs are all edited versions of the last three, separated by a rendition of the famous song My Way, which is also an edited version of the one that already appeared on the previous EP release A Heavy Metal Christmas Too (2013). So on paper it's only really the last three of seven songs that have a chance to really offer up anything to followers of Christopher Lee's late life metal music career. Then of course is the little fact that Christopher Lee has released all these songs before on his pre-metal album Revelation (2006) and given the situation with Charlemagne: The Omens of Death (2013), where most of the vocals were lifted straight off of Charlemagne: By the Sword and the Cross (2010), I can't help but wonder if the same has not in fact happened on Metal Knight also.

Regardless of how Metal Knight did or did not come to be, I think it's fair to say that anyone who enjoys Christopher Lee's singing would be better off to just go with the flawed but fun in a cheesy way full-length Charlemagne: The Omens of Death, a metal opera where Lee is joined by a host of guest singers backed by heavy/power metal music. Metal Knight is enjoyable to a point but it simply does not have the charm of the album and the quality is a little up and down. The first/fifth song I, Don Quixote comes over as slightly messy due to the presence of semi-harsh vocals accompanying Lee at some points. Most of the rest of the EP is tolerable with French sung The Toreador March being the best of what can only be described as a poor selection for the music style, which is best described as symphonic influenced traditional metal.

Despite my earlier warning the full versions of the songs are, if anything, not as worthwhile as the edited cuts since the main feature of the full songs is narration sequences which just come over as incredibly cheesy.

I have a hellish amount of respect for Christopher Lee and have been a defender rather than a detractor of his late life metal career as early as the release of Charlemagne: By the Sword and the Cross, an album which despite its common branding of symphonic metal is, let's be honest here, much more of an orchestral release. While Charlemagne: The Omens of Death had some pretty glaring faults too, chief among them the situation with the vocals, I did end up really enjoying it. Metal Knight though is a different matter and I can't honestly justify more than 1.5 stars for this one.
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