Bal-Sagoth
| Bal-Sagoth | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| origin | Yorkshire , England |
| Genre (s) | Extreme metal , symphonic metal |
| founding | 1993 |
| Website | www.bal-sagoth.freeserve.co.uk |
| Current occupation | |
| Byron Roberts | |
| Chris Maudling | |
| Paul Jackson | |
| Alistair MacLatchy | |
| Jonny Maudling | |
Bal-Sagoth is a British symphonic / extreme metal band from Yorkshire , England . The name comes from the short story The Gods of Bal-Sagoth by Robert E. Howard . The first demo recording was released in 1993, since then Bal-Sagoth have released three albums with Cacophonous Records and three with Nuclear Blast .
history
Byron Roberts wanted to start a band that deals with dark fantasy and science fiction . He was inspired by pulp horror and fantasy literature of the 1930s as well as baroque and arcane mysteries and Roberts' interest in ancient mythology and occultism . In 1993 he met the brothers Chris and Jonny Maudling and founded Bal-Sagoth with them. After playing a demo recording, the band was signed by Cacophonous Records.
Within five years, the band recorded their first trilogy, which consists of the albums A Black Moon Broods over Lemuria , Starfire Burning Upon the Ice-Veiled Throne of Ultima Thule and Battle Magic . To promote their trilogy, Bal-Sagoth went on extensive tours with, among others, Dark Funeral and Emperor .
In 1999 the band signed with Nuclear Blast and began composing their second trilogy, which began with their fourth album, The Power Cosmic . In 2001 Atlantis Ascendant was released , followed by the No Mercy Festival tour with bands like Marduk , Mortician , Amon Amarth and Vader and shortly afterwards a European tour. Her music was also often played on BBC Radio 1 by famous radio presenter and DJ John Peel .
In 2002 the band played at the Bloodstock Open Air and some concerts with Sabbath . In mid-2003 she retired to write her sixth album and only reappeared for an appearance at Wacken Open Air in August 2004. In 2006 her sixth album The Chthonic Chronicles was released .
style
music
Byron Roberts cites Thrash / Death / Black Metal of the 1980s and 1990s as the main musical influences , Jonny Maudling cites classical music, 1970s and 1980s bands, film music, The Police , Tangerine Dream , Queen , Pat Metheny , Richard Wagner , Igor Fjodorowitsch Stravinsky , Pjotr Iljitsch Tschaikowski , Olivier Messiaen and Gustav Holst , Chris Maudling James Hetfield from Metallica , as well as the thrash metal and death metal of the late 1980s and early 1990s, and Mark Greenwell Joe Satriani , Dream Theater and Slayer .
The debut album was based on Black Metal . On the successor, Starfire Burning upon the Ice-Veiled Throne of Ultima Thule , the guttural vocals were withdrawn compared to the predecessor and largely replaced by spoken passages, and the keyboards were mixed up louder. Drew Schinzel from Chronicles of Chaos described the music as "a bit pretentious". Chronicles of Chaos ' Brian Meloon described Battle Magic as "one of the cheesiest metal albums I've ever heard"; it sounds like a heavier version of Manowar or a metallized version of the music for Rocky IV . Contrary to the marketing as “Symphonic Black Metal” this album has little to do with Black Metal and the melodies are too happy. It only differs from the previous album in that the song titles are shorter. The Power Cosmic was both a mixture of the “cruel symphonic elegance of Scandinavian Black Metal with fantasy / science fiction obsessed lyrics and the icy, eerie nuances of their compatriots Cradle of Filth ” as well as an “intermediate thing ” between Rush , Immortal and Emperor , which is "both unnecessary and inedible" is described.
Texts
The world in the band's lyrics has its own history, cosmology , theology, etc. It spans several millennia, with “sword-and-witchcraft” stories in an “antediluvian” era, a multi-age historical period, and a future for science -fiction-oriented texts. The period dealing with recorded history is conceived as a parallel universe, an alternative reality that differs from the known only in a few crucial details. All of the stories are interconnected and different chapters of the same overarching saga; Exceptions are the song about the Silver Surfer as a tribute to Jack Kirby and Stan Lee and the one about Cthulhu . The lyrics are essentially based on a foundation of denied primacy, and the underlying motive of the stories is "quite nihilistic at heart." Some ancient cosmic deities return on all Bal Sagoth albums. Many of Roberts' texts are inspired by his own ideas about the origins of mankind and the nature of the universe. The texts also deal with certain political concepts, albeit in a "very allegorical and veiled way". Byron Roberts cites Robert E. Howard , HP Lovecraft , Edgar Rice Burroughs , CA Smith , Frank Herbert , JRR Tolkien , William Shakespeare , Arthur C. Clarke , David Gemmell and Stan Lee as main literary influences .
Discography
| Publishing year | title | Record company |
| 1993 | 1993 demo | In-house production |
| 1995 | A Black Moon Broods over Lemuria | Cacophonous |
| 1996 | Starfire Burning upon the Ice-Veiled Throne of Ultima Thule | Cacophonous |
| 1998 | Battle Magic | Cacophonous |
| 1999 | The Power Cosmic | Nuclear Blast |
| 2001 | Atlantis Ascendant | Nuclear Blast |
| 2006 | The Chthonic Chronicles | Nuclear Blast |
Web links
- Official website
- Bal-Sagoth at Discogs (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f BAND ( Memento of the original from August 14, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .
- ↑ Drew Schinzel: Bal-Sagoth - Starfire Burning ... .
- ↑ Brian Meloon: Bal-Sagoth - Battle Magic .
- ↑ Steve Huey: The Power Cosmic - Bal-Sagoth .
- ^ Paul Schwarz: Bal-Sagoth - The Power Cosmic .
- ↑ aVoid: Avant-garde Metal - Stories: Bal-sagoth - PHASE 1: 15 Years Of Blazing Swords, Crimson Rain And Majestic Vistas ( Memento of the original from March 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and still Not checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .
