Bal-Sagoth
Bal - Sagoth is a Symphonic-/Extreme-Metal-Band from Yorkshire in 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 have Bal - Sagoth three albums with Cacophonous Records and three with Nuclear Blast Release.
History
The early days
Byron Roberts wanted to start a band that deals with dark fantasy and science fiction. He was inspired by this 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 importing a demo recording of the band Cacophonous Records was signed.
Within five years, the band recorded their first trilogy, consisting of the albums A Black Moon Broods over Lemuria, Starfire Burning Upon the Ice- Veiled Throne of Ultima Thule and Battle Magic. For the promotion of her trilogy Bal - Sagoth went on extensive tours among other things, with Dark Funeral and Emperor.
In 1999 the band signed with Nuclear Blast and began compositions of their second trilogy that began with the fourth album The Power Cosmic. 2001 release Atlantis Ascendant, followed by the No -Mercy Festival tour with bands like Marduk, Mortician, Amon Amarth and Vader and shortly after a European tour. Their music has also been played repeatedly by the famous radio presenter and DJ John Peel on BBC Radio 1.
In 2002, the band played the Bloodstock Metal Festival and several concerts with the Sabbath. In mid-2003, she retired to write their sixth album, and appeared only for a gig at the Wacken Open Air in August 2004 again. In 2006 they released their sixth album The Chthonic Chronicles.
Music style
Byron Roberts is the main musical influences Thrash / Death / Black Metal of the 1980s and 1990s on, Jonny Maudling classical music, 1970s and 1980s bands, film music, The Police, Tangerine Dream, Queen, Pat Metheny, Richard Wagner, Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Olivier Messiaen and Gustav Holst, Chris Maudling James Hetfield of Metallica and 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 the Black Metal. On the successor Starfire Burning upon the Ice - Veiled Throne of Ultima Thule of guttural vocals were compared to the previous withdrawn and mostly replaced by spoken passages, and the keyboards were mixed louder. Drew Schinzel of Chronicles of Chaos described the music as " a bit pretentious ". Brian Meloon of Chronicles of Chaos Battle Magic designated as "one of CHEESIEST metal albums I 've ever heard "; it sounded like a heavier version of Manowar or a metallized version of the music to Rocky IV Contrary to the marketing as " Symphonic Black Metal" have this album little to do with black metal, and the melodies are too cheerful. From the previous album, it differs only in that the song titles are shorter. The Power Cosmic and was both a mixture of the " cruel symphonic elegance of Scandinavian Black Metal with fantasy-/science-fiction-besessenen texts and the icy, eerie overtones of their countrymen Cradle of Filth " as well as " hybrid" between Rush, Immortal Emperor, "it was both unnecessary and unfit for human consumption " are described.
Texts
The world in the lyrics of the band has its own history, cosmology, theology, etc. It includes several millennia, with " sword - and - sorcery " stories in an " antediluvian " time, a comprehensive multiple period historical period and a future for science fiction - oriented texts. The period that deals with recorded history, is intended as a parallel universe, as an alternative reality, which only in some crucial details differs from the known. All stories are interconnected and different chapter of the same overarching saga; Exceptions are the song about the Silver Surfer as a tribute to Jark Kirby and Stan Lee and about Cthulhu. The texts are based in essence on a foundation denied primacy, and the underlying motive of the stories is " in the heart rather nihilistic ". Some old cosmic deities return on all Bal Sagoth albums again. Many of Roberts' lyrics are inspired by his own ideas about the origin of humanity and the nature of the universe. In the texts, certain policies are treated, albeit at a "very allegorical and concealed means ." Byron Roberts indicates a major literary influences Robert E. Howard, HP Lovecraft, Edgar Rice Burroughs, CA Smith, Frank Herbert, JRR Tolkien, William Shakespeare, Arthur C. Clarke, David Gemmell and Stan Lee.