Christian Linderson

Christian Linderson
Background information
Birth Name	Christian Linderson
Alias	Lord Chritus, Chritus
Born	11 August 1967, Sweden
Genres	Doom Metal, Stoner Rock, Hard Rock
Instrument(s)	Vocals
Years active	1987 - Present
Labels	Hellhound Records, The Music Cartel, Active, Steamhammer, I Hate, The Church Within Records
Associated acts	Count Raven, Saint Vitus, Terra Firma, Lord Vicar, Goatess, Python

Christian Linderson (Also known as Chritus and Lord Chritus) is a vocalist based out of Sweden. Inspired by classic doom vocalists, he would be involved with seminal doom metal bands such as Count Raven and Saint Vitus, before notably joining the stoner rock band Terra Firma in the 1990s.

Currently, Linderson is the vocalist for the Finnish doom metal band Lord Vicar, a band founded by Kimi Kärki in 2007. Since starting with music in the late 1980s, Linderson had contributed four albums with Lord Vicar, along with numerous other albums with several other projects.

Biography

Count Raven

• For more details, feel free to view the Riffipedia page on Count Raven.

Beginning as Stornvarning in 1987 before changing their name in 1989 the band's founding members at the time were Fondelius, Eriksson, Pettersson and Linderson with the band initially a quartet. A year later, the group released its first album Storm Warning on Active Records while signing a deal with Hellhound Records. At the time of release, Stormwarning received positive reviews from the European metal press (4 K's in Kerrang!, 10/10 in Rock Hard, 6/7 in Metal Hammer) Not long after, Christian Linderson would depart from the band to join Saint Vitus.

In an interview with Rattle Inc., Linderson would speak at length about his contributions to the band's beginnings and Storm Warning. He had seen them as Stormwarning before joining and was notably influenced by the likes of Zeeb Parkes, Ozzy Osbourne and Johan Längquist. He also notably recalled the smooth recording sessions through May and June 1990, touring with Saint Vitus in support of the record and leaving the band due to "personal indifferences".

In an interview with Uncivil Revolt he had recorded vocals for the band's follow-up Destruction of The Void but had left after the sessions. He also noted that he was originally intended to join Penance before ultimately joining Vitus.

Saint Vitus

• For more details, feel free to view the Riffipedia page on Saint Vitus.

When Hellhound released the first album by The Obsessed, Wino would choose to leave the group to reform the band with Scott Reeder and Greg Rogers, thus leaving Saint Vitus.

Saint Vitus would recruit Linderson, whom would be rechristened as Chritus. With this new lineup, the band would sign with German label Hellhound Records and release the band's sixth studio album C.O.D. on 18 May 1992. To support the album, Saint Vitus would tour Europe with Cathedral in 1992 and the southeast USA in 1993 with Internal Void. Chritus would be replaced by original singer Scott Reagers in 1994.

In an interview with Uncivil Revolt, Linderson would state that he did enjoy his time with the band and noted he was basically hired on the spot. He was also notably kicked out when Reagers was set to re-join.

Terra Firma

• For more details, feel free to view the Riffipedia page on Terra Firma.

Terra Firma was formed in 1995 by Fredrik Lindgren (Unleashed) and Christian Linderson (Saint Vitus) to serve as a side-project from their bands at that time. After some changes early on, the line-up was solidified with Nico Elgstrand (Entombed) and Izmo Ledderfejs. The first demo Rock'n'Roll Superior came out in 1996, and was released the year after by Freedoom Records as a 7" single. Late 1996 a second demo session followed of which one song ended up on a split with Godscent, which was released in 1998 by Clear Blue Sky Records.

During two sleepless nights circa July 1997 the band recorded five original songs and a cover of "At The End of My Daze" for Bastards Will Pay - Tribute To Trouble. That December Terra Firma entered Das Boot Studios and began work on their first full-length album. However the band would instead release a single entitled Spiral Guru via American label The Music Cartel the next year, which featured a cover of Jethro Tull's "For A Thousand Mothers" as it's b-side.

The eponymous Terra Firma would see release in 1999 in early 1999 via Steamhammer (Europe), The Music Cartel (USA) and Nippon Crown (Japan). Having only done local gigs and the odd festival appearance prior to the album's release, Terra Firma would tour Europe throughout 1999 and 2000 alongside the likes of Cathedral, Orange Goblin, Roadsaw, Karma To Burn, Mammoth Volume, Dozer and Lowrider among others. The band also made an appearance at one of the inaugural editions of Roadburn Festival on 13 February 1999, alongside Orange Goblin, Cathedral, 35007, Beaver and Celestial Season.

Work would begin on a second album in 2000, recording at Dogpound Audio. The end result would be Harms Way released in 2001, supported by a six-date headlining tour. The band would also appear at the December 2001 edition of Roadburn Festival, supporting The Atomic Bitchwax and Masters of Reality. Little is known of Terra Firma beyond 2001 besides sporadic shows, their last being at Gothenburg's Fuzz Fest. Terra Firma would disband in 2003.

Lord Vicar

• For more details, feel free to view the Riffipedia page on Lord Vicar.

Following the release of Reverend Bizarre's third studio album III: So Long Suckers in June 2007, the Finnish doom trio would disband. Having some material left over and a further interest in doom metal, Kimi Kärki would form a new band based on his stage name Peter Vicar, christening this new project as Lord Vicar. According to an interview via A Blog in The Northern Sky, Kärki had begun planning the project as far as 2006 once he knew Reverend Bizarre was nearing their end. Kärki would recruit entirely new musicians for this project, including Jim Hunter (October 31, Revelation), Gareth Millsted (The Path Is Clear, Centurions Ghost, End of Level Boss) and Christian Linderson (Terra Firma, Saint Vitus, Goatess). In the same interview with A Blog in The Northern Sky, Kärki would explain how he found his future bandmates:

“	“I started planning this band already in 2006, after I knew for certain that my old band Reverend Bizarre was going to end. So in a way I looked into the future at the same time as we were doing the last recordings of RB. Chritus was indeed the first one I had in mind, I had seen him live with Terra Firma, when they supported Cathedral and Orange Goblin in Helsinki, back in the late 1990s. He was definitely one of the coolest frontmen I had ever witnessed, and I certainly loved his vocal style. The biggest problem was indeed to find him, as he had pretty much vanished from the scene, but with the help of Rendfield, the ex-drummer of Count Raven, I was able to reach him by phone. I then went to Sweden to meet him, and he agreed to be part of this adventure. We drank from the horn and sacrificed a bit to the one-eyed deity as well. Needless to say my joy was overwhelming, especially as Chritus turned out to be one of the nicest people I have ever met. After finding Chritus I then went public with my request for a drummer, and Gareth replied almost instantly. We had toured together when he played with Centurions Ghost, and I knew that he was both an excellent drummer and a great person as well, so that problem was solved. By the way he has relocated to Basel now, and actually works at least temporarily in Kuwait, so we have quite a challenge to keep things running properly at the moment, when it comes to gigs. Finding a bass player was more a problem at first, and in the first 7” we did we had a guest bass player - certainly only for the logistical reasons, being separated by the Atlantic - namely one Jim Hunter, known for his bass magic for While Heaven Wept, Revelation (nowadays that lineup is called Yet So Far), Twisted Tower Dire, October 31 and so on. After that Jussi Myllykoski suggested that he could be up to the task. He had been around in many of our and also other bands' tours, doing the driving, so he was already familiar with what was ahead. We gave the songs a go and his stripped down, extremely heavy playing style fitted like a glove to what I had in mind. And so we had a full lineup, which has quite a massive musical chemistry together. Because we live far and apart from each other, we mostly link rehearsals with gigs or recordings. We do not jam to get material, each song is pretty much arranged by the one responsible for it, before we rehearse."	”
	— Kimi Kärki, A Blog in The Northern Sky

With a lineup established and a new bassist replacing Hunter in Jussi "Iron Hammer" Myllykoski (Iron Hammer, Earthbound Machine), Lord Vicar would release their debut EP The Demon of Freedom on 27 March 2008 via I Hate Records. This would build to the band's debut album entitled Fear No Pain on 6 November 2008, gaining positive reviews in the doom scene. Lord Vicar would perform their earliest shows that same month touring alongside The Deep Blue for a string of shows culminating in appearances at at Dawn of Doom and Day of Reckoning.

Lord Vicar would tour further in support of Fear No Pain with two tours in 2009: An April 2009 with Revelation, Mirror of Deception and Lord of The Grave surrounding an appearance at Doom Shall Rise. The other tour would be in the fall alongside The Gates of Slumber with appearances at Dutch Doom Days and Metal Warning Festival. Further festival appearances going into 2010 would include Hammer of Doom Festival, Jalometalli, Doom Over Vienna, Dawn of Doom and a short UK tour with Alunah.

Work would begin on a second record in 2011, following a return to Hammer of Doom and a marquee show in Greece alongside Trouble, Candlemass, Ghost and Hell. The second album would be recorded in between 1st and 26th of August, 2011. Bass, drums, rhythm guitars and vocals were recorded in Red House, Turku, by Danil Venho and Henri Rouvari while engineered by Danil Venho. Acoustic guitars, guitar solos and Mellotron recorded by Kimi Kärki in Hyperborean Lighthouse. Finally it would be mixed by Danil Venho and Lord Vicar, mastered by Joona Lukala and ultimately produced by by the band. Signs of Osiris saw it's release on 31 October 2011 and see praise among the likes of Metal Kaoz (10/10), The Sleeping Shaman, Dr. Doom's Lair, Soundi (5/5) and Temple of Perdition among others. Also of note is Peter Vicar, also known as Peter Inverted, chose to go by his real name of Kimi Kärki, as he felt he "didn't need a mask anymore".

Lord Vicar would go into 2012 touring with Orchid and Sigiriya, working in appearances at DesertFest London and Roadburn Festival, followed by an appearance at Heavy Days in Doomtown. The next year would see a string of mini-tours and other festival appearances such as Stoned From The Underground. Aside from occasional and sporadic shows, Lord Vicar would largely go dormant for a time, with Sami Albert Hynninen briefly filling in the live bass role. The band would record at Noise for Fiction in Turku between October 2015 and January 2016, with Millsted and Kärki handling bass duties in the studio. Notably the band would make the album deliberately shorter than previous works, seeking to concentrate on shorter, punchier songs and fit the album on a single vinyl LP. The album itself was also stated to have a loose lyrical theme related to the pleasures and weaknesses of the flesh.

Gates of Flesh would see release on 17 June 2016 via longtime label The Church Within Records. Ultimately Lord Vicar's third effort would see praise from several publications and online review sites such as The Sludgelord, Metal Temple, Outlaws of The Sun and Metal Maniac among several others. Upon attaining a new bassist in Rich Jones (The Consultancy), Lord Vicar would perform at several festivals in 2016 and 2017, including Tuska Open Air, Doom Over Karalis, Blowup Festival and Hammer of Doom among others.

Following sporadic shows, releasing a solo album and at one point even living in the United States, Kärki would return to Finland and work at Noise For Fiction Studio between February and March 2019. In an interview with Uncivil Revolt, Christian Linderson details that the band lived at the studio quarters for the recording, bringing a genuine "here-and-now" feeling to the recording process. According to drummer Gareth Milsted in an interview with Culture Eater that the original plan was to do another shorter album alongside an EP but was changed to returning to longer albums, with a portion of the material dating back to his and Kärki's early years. Kärki would also confirm that a few riffs were old but the majority of the material was brand new and put together after the release of Gates of Flesh.

In late April of 2019 Lord Vicar would announce their fourth studio album in The Black Powder, along with a tour of Europe supporting the album with Thronehammer as direct support, followed by appearances at Storm Crusher Festival and Hammer of Doom. A music video for the song "Impact" also saw release around the same time. The Black Powder would see positive reception from several publications such as The Obelisk, Kerrang! and Distorted Sound Magazine among several others.

Goatess

Prior to Goatess' formation, the band had been known as Weekend Beast, founded in the early summmer of 2009 by Niklas Jones and Christian Linderson. Not much is known of the band's tenure as Weekend Beast but the project would become Goatess in August 2012 and their earliest known show on 20 October. The next year would see the band perform at Doom Shall Rise before even signing with a label.

Eventually signing with Svart and recording at Reflection Studio in Stockholm circa January, the band would release the eponymous Goatess on 5 July 2013. A release party would be hosted on 14 September 2013. Gaining buzz, Goatess would begin performing more frequent gigs alongside the likes of Iron Void, The Order of Israfel and Serpent Venom among the band's first shows in the UK among appearances at Roadburn Festival and Heavy Days in Doomtown. Work would begin on a second record in the Spring of 2015.

Goatess' second album Purgatory Under New Management would see release on 15 April 2016, with a tour of Europe surrounding it. Following a gig supporting High on Fire, a tour of Europe in 2017 and a gig supporting Count Raven, Linderson would amicably depart from the band. Niklas Jones would call an old friend in Karl Buhre, who would be announced as the new singer in December 2017.

Other Endeavors

Linderson would be briefly involved with Digital Devil, which was proclaimed to be a "Neo-Doom" project with Hellion.

Linderson would also be briefly involved with the Swedish doom metal band Python. Python would be founded by Christian Linderson alongside J. Mattson, K. Knogjern and Björn Andersson. Sometime after forming, a 7" single in the eponymous Python would see release on 12 October 2018. In September of 2019 Linderson would leave the group with female vocalist Maria taking over the lead role.

Bands

• Count Raven - Vocals (1989 - 1992)
• Saint Vitus - Vocals (1991 - 1994)
• Terra Firma - Vocals (1995 - 2003)
• Lord Vicar - Vocals (2007 - Present)
• Goatess - Vocals (2012 - 2017)
• Python - Vocals (2017 - 2019)
• Digital Devil - Vocals (Unknown Time Period)

Discography

With Terra Firma

• Rock n' Roll Superior (7" Single) (1996, Freedoom Records)
• Terra Firma / Godscent (7" Split with Godscent) (1998, Clear Blue Sky Records)
• Terra Firma (Studio Album) (1998, Steamhammer; The Music Cartel)
• Spiral Guru (7" Single) (1999, The Music Cartel)
• Harms Way (Studio Album) (2001, Steamhammer; The Music Cartel)

With Lord Vicar

• Fear No Pain (Studio Album) (2008, The Church Within Records)
• The Demon of Freedom (EP) (2008, I Hate)
• Lord Vicar / Griftegård (Split with Griftegård) (2011, Van Records)
• Lord Vicar / Funeral Circle (Split with Funeral Circle) (2011, Eyes Like Snow)
• Lord Vicar / Revelation (Split with Revelation) (2011, The Church Within Records)
• Signs of Osiris (Studio Album) (2011, The Church Within Records)
• Gates of Flesh (Studio Album) (2016, The Church Within Records)
• The Black Powder (Studio Album) (2019, The Church Within Records)

Other Releases

• Count Raven - Demo 89 (Demo) (1989, Independent)
• Count Raven - Indignus Famulus (Demo) (1989, Independent)
• Count Raven - Storm Warning (Studio Album) (1990, Active)
• Saint Vitus - C.O.D. (Studio Album) (1992, Hellhound Records)
• Abramis Brama - Rubicon (Studio Album; Vocals on "Guldgruva") (2004, Sweden Rock)
• Goatess - Goatess (Studio Album) (2013, Svart Records)
• Goatess - Purgatory Under New Management (Studio Album) (2017, Svart Records)
• Python - Python (7" Single) (2018, Lightning Records)

External Links

• Discogs
• Live with Vitus
• Interview with Rattle Inc.
• Interview via Uncivil Revolt
• Interview via Doom Metal Front
• Interview via Children of Doom

References

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