2007 has been a busy year for guitarist Lars Chriss. Not only has he written and recorded the first Lion's Share album in six years, Emotional Coma, but he's also found the time to put together another band, namely Road To Ruin, and is about to release their self titled debut album later this month. Dougie caught up with the guitarist to find out more

Lars Chriss

Hi Lars, to kick things off would care to introduce your self and the other members of Lion’s Share to the readers of HardRockHouse.com?

LC - I’m Lars Chriss, guitarist and founder of Lion’s Share. Our new singer for “Emotional Coma” is Patrik Johansson who’s done records with Astral Doors, Wuthering Heights and Space Odyssey in the past. Sampo Axelsson is the new bass player. He’s done tours and written songs with ex Black Sabbath and Deep Purple bassist/singer Glenn Hughes. For the new album we had Richard Evensand from Chimaira, Soilwork, Therion on drums, but unfortunately he couldn’t be a permanent member since he was about to move to Australia to get married.

Who are and were your personnel heroes and influences?

LC - The band that started it all for me was KISS when I was about eight years old. They made me pick up the guitar in the first place and meant everything to me when I grew up. My favorite bands are KISS, Black Sabbath (especially the Dio era), Judas Priest, Rainbow and also early Def Leppard. My favourite album of all time is Black Sabbath “Mob Rules”, so obviously I’m very excited about the Heaven & Hell tour this year. We had the pleasure of playing with them at Sweden Rock Festival in June and they were awesome. My favourite guitar players are Michael Schenker, Gary Moore, Uli John Roth, Georg Lynch, Marty Friedman.

“Emotional Coma” is the bands fifth album, could tell us a bit the bands previous four albums and the evolution of the band's sound over those albums?

LC - Our first self titled album came out in 1995. I’ve always had a huge Iommi/Sabbath influence on my style and riffs so many compared that album to the Tony Martin era Sabbath mixed with a little bit of Dream Theater. We went even further on the progressive path for our second album “Two” that came out on Century Media in 1997. Around this time more and more bands started doing the prog metal thing so we went for a more straight ahead and darker sound on our third album “Fall From Grace”. This album is probably the one that is the closest to “Emotional Coma” of the old one’s. In 2001 we released “Entrance” which was even more straight ahead and more up tempo compared to the first three. In a way every new album is a reaction to the previous album since it never feels cool to repeat a formula. “Emotional Coma” is our comeback album after a six year break with a brand new lineup and a more guitar heavy sound.

How did you recruit the excellent vocalist Patrik Johansson?

LC - I heard an mp3 on the net right before his first ever album came out. I got in contact and he joined Lion’s Share in 2003 but we decided to not go public with it to avoid pressure from fans and media for a new cd at that point. I was on a break for a reason and wasn’t ready for the big circus just yet.

How is the typical Lion’s Share song written?

LC - Almost every song starts out with a great riff to build from. We’re a riff band so we try to make sure the music is great even before we put on the melody. For this album and for the last one’s I wrote most of the music and vocal melodies and Patrik wrote all lyrics. When Sampo joined he and I started writing together so I’m sure the next album will be even more a group effort with all three involved in every song. We have no set rules about writing though. All we care about is that the songs and albums turn out as good as possible no matter who writes what part or with whom.

Why has it taken six years between albums?

LC - Simply because I was totally burnt out and needed a longer break. I was taking care of everything so finally things caught up with me and I hit rock bottom pretty much overnight. Then we started writing a lot of songs and the lineup started to come together. I knew what kind of personalities and musicians I wanted in the band to help me reach the sound and direction I was heading for. We didn’t want to rush things. Since we were on a break anyways it made more sense to work until we were 100% happy with everything from the songs to production, cover art, logo and label.

How long did it actually take to write Emotional Coma and were any of the songs left overs from previous albums?

LC - I had a couple of ideas already back when I put the band on sleep in December 2001 like “Soultaker”, “Cult Of Denial” and parts of “The Edge Of The Razor”. We kept on writing in periods and picked the songs we thought fitted together the best on the album. I think we had about 23 demos to choose from when we went into the album recording sessions at the end of 2006. We recorded one more track that we never mixed called “TV Preacher”. Other than that we only have demos of the rest.

Lion's Share

Do you have any personal favourites on the album?

LC - Since we had so many songs to pick from, I don’t think there are any weak songs on the album. Maybe the first five on the cd is a little bit better than the rest, but this change from day to day.

How would you describe the bands sound?

LC - Classic, well played, well written, well produced Heavy Metal. Like a mix of Black Sabbath, Megadeth, Judas Priest with some modern influences in there like Rammstein, Lambretta etc. Many seem to think we are good at combining heavy and doomy riffs with great melodies and catchy hooks. The albums is pretty raw and dark but still very melodic. The album has this great “real band playing together” energy.

You also managed to persuade Bruce Kulick and Glen Drover to appear on the album, how did that come about?

LC - The studio where we did most of the demos was co owned by the former KISS Army president of Sweden, so when Bruce Kulick was in Stockholm to do a KISS Expo he suggested we invite Bruce to the studio to do a guest solo. I’m a KISS fan since I was 8, so of course I wanted a former KISS member on my record. Obviously Bruce liked the songs and cut a great solo for “The Edge Of The Razor”. He even did it on my guitar since the song is tuned down to D and he wanted to use the whammy bar. Glen Drover from Megadeth, I’ve known for a couple of years after working with his other band Eidolon. I asked if he could do a solo and he agreed. He did it over in Canada and sent us the file. They both did an awesome job and are great guys.

How did you hook up with AFM and do you have any plans to re-release your earlier albums, as they are difficult to obtain?

LC - I had kept my eyes on AFM for a couple of years and though this would be the perfect label for our kind of Metal and our forthcoming comeback album. Fortunately the A&R Markus and I have a common friend, so when we were more or less finished with the album he just asked if AFM would be interested, and luckily they were! This was great for us since we didn’t have to send out any demos or anything to any other labels. I’ve met the guys at AFM a couple of times and it feels like I’ve known them for years. Real cool vibe, like we are a big happy family. Couldn’t be more happy with our choice of label.

AFM wants to release a Best Of with re recordings by the new/current lineup first and then release the original 4 back catalogue albums. I would like to do something special with them as well, but at this point I don’t have the time since all my focus is on promoting “Emotional Coma”, Road To Ruin and start writing for the next Lion’s Share album. I own the rights to them all so when the time is right they will be re released.

What next for Lion’s Share?

LC - We have been doing some really great gigs this summer. Especially Manowar’s Magic Circle Festival was great for us. Germany is an important market and we played in front of 10 000 people there. Sweden Rock Festival was great too. Many fans both at the show and the signing session. We recently came back from Norway after playing Metal Heart Festival with Testament, Queensryche, UDO, Candlemass and others plus followed this up with a Swedish mini headline tour.

We’ve received a couple of offers so far for a full blown European tour. It’s all about timing and going out with the right package though so nothing is confirmed yet. Of course we hope to be able to go out with some bigger band and play all around Europe before the next album gets released.

We will spend the ending of this year writing for the next album since both we and our label would like to have the next cd out after the summer 2008 to establish the comeback feeling so to speak. We will have 2 songs on the new Manowar DVD from the Magic Circle Festival that’s gonna be out in November I think. Patrik will do press for Astral Doors and Sampo for RIIR so the Lion’s Share name will be present in the press which is a good thing. We will also have “Emotional Coma” released in Japan, Russia, South America and USA during the next 4 or so months. Things are looking pretty good for us right now and we’re extremely proud of “Emotional Coma”.

You've obviously been rather busy as not only has Emotional Coma just been released but you have another CD out under the name Road To Ruin, who exactly are Road To Ruin?

LC - It’s me and Sampo Axelsson from Lion’s Share. Matti Alfonzetti (ex- Jagged Edge, Skintrade, Scott Gorham etc), on vocals and Thomas Broman (John Norum, Hughes Turner Project, Electric Boys etc.) on drums.

Ah Matti Alfonzetti, how did you meet up and what is his input into the Road To Ruin song writing?

LC - I’ve known Matti since many years and always been a huge fan of his voice. He’s living in Stockholm like the rest of us so the choice was very easy. The whole thing started with me and Sampo writing the music and when Matti joined he wrote 95% of the melodies and all lyrics so it was a great team effort. We think the album came out absolutely great. Even better than we had hoped for in the beginning since this was the first time we wrote and worked together.

Road To Ruin

Why are releasing the Road Ro Ruin album under that name rather than as another Lion’s Share CD?

LC - Because Lion’s Share is a Heavy Metal band and Road To Ruin is more classic hard rock. We couldn’t have a song from any of those albums on the other band’s album. The styles are too different so this is why it makes sense to separate our influences onto two different bands.

Having heard the Road To Ruin CD it sounds very much like a classy blend of late 70’s early 80’s blues influenced hard rock, what is your take on the album?

LC - I agree with you 100%. We did it as a tribute to the bands and music we grew up with. I would say the style is a mix of Rainbow, Whitesnake, Deep Purple Mk3, Kingdom Come, Black Sabbath, Gotthard, Thin Lizzy.

Are you deliberately trying to play differently on the Road To Ruin album to the style on Lion’s Share?

LC - I assume you mean my guitar style so both yes and no. I have my own style and sound and I’m proud that people can tell it’s me playing even if they don’t know beforehand. Of course I play for the song but it’s me to 100% on both albums. I have a lot of different influences and it’s a privilege to have an outlet for both my Metal and Classic hard rock ideas.

Are there any plans for further Road To Ruin albums or live work with that band?

LC - It all depends on the reactions from the fans. If there’s a demand for another record we will do it. If we receive a good touring offer we don’t mind going out there and play these great songs live. The album is very live-ish anyways, so I think the songs would sound awesome live in concert.

And finally, the standard HardRockHouse question. Is there anything further you would like to mention that we haven't covered so far?

Obviously I would like to thank everybody that has supported Lion’s Share in the past. Hopefully you will check out both “Emotional Coma” and the Road To Ruin album that will be released October 26th on Metal Heaven. Please stop by both band’s web sites for news and other info www.lionsshare.org  and www.roadtoruin.org 

Many thanks for Lars for taking the time to speak with HRH. You can check out our review of the new Lion's Share album, Emotional Coma via this link and to read the Road To Ruin review you can click here