The Chthonic Chronicles

When I told Jonny Maudling, keyboardist and composer in Bal-Sagoth, that I thought of him as a musical genius, he humbly shook his head, not accepting that honorary title. Maybe he didn't want to believe or listen to an annoying, drunk loudmouth, or maybe he knows he's quite talented, or maybe he doesn't think too highly of himself. Regardless, my point made to him eight years ago still stands, as much as The Chthonic Chronicles still stands as a masterpiece beyond space and time, and one of the last albums I would rate above 90%. Strangely, it still feels as if this album was recently released, despite the fact it's celebrating its tenth (!) anniversary already; a decade later, this album still manages to entertain and even surprise (kind of...).

Bal-Sagoth has often been called a "love 'em or hate 'em" band, and unless I'm mistaken most people prefer to hate them (or at least dislike them, or find them tacky). Obviously I'm in the other camp, though I'm not blind to a few flaws here and there. With this sixth album, however, I find it hard to believe that anyone can actually hate or dislike the output: there's less cheese than on the previous albums, and each composition barring the introductory "The Sixth Adulation of His Chthonic Majesty" and the outro "Return to Hatheg-Kla" is a thoroughly composed, interestingly layered, exciting and different masterpiece that most bands can only dream of being able to bring to life.

Stradling between two rather disparate music genres - black metal and symphonic movie scores - Bal-Sagoth was always one of the more distinct bands out there, not least because of vocalist Byron Robert's approach to the material - he's more a storyteller than a vocalist, his wordy lyrics being stories set in a world not unlike the lands of the Hyborian Age, the world of Conan the Barbarian. He abandoned deep growls after the band's debut (to my eternal sorrow), but the harsh shrieked vocals remained along with his "storyteller mode", in which Byron talks rather than sings or growls, but doing so with a voice that perfectly captures the themes and topics of the lyrical content; there can be no doubt it would probably be awesome to have Byron as a gamemaster in a tabletop roleplaying game (you know, like Dungeons & Dragons but with more blood and guts and decadence). Tabletop RPGs are an obvious reference point along with Conan the Barbarian when it comes to the lyrics of the first half of the band's discography, while the latter half took to the stars, incorporating ideas from pseudoscience (like ancient astronauts), the occult, and, as the title of this album probably suggests, the Chthulu mythos (doggedly called Ktulu by Roberts).

A song like the brilliantly twisting "Six Score and Ten Oblations to a Malefic Avatar" is the perfect soundtrack to a Chthulhu movie (or RPG); but it also showcases what makes Bal-Sagoth so great in my opinion: The unique way in which their compositions are structured, where each second holds a new secret to uncover, coated in sublime and epic melodies and riffs that tonally have more in common with the works of Basil Pouledouris (the composer of the Conan the Barbarian soundtrack, among many others) than other metal acts. One could argue, and I do, that Bal-Sagoth play inherently progressive music, and again "Six Score..." is the perfect example of a track that is cohesive yet does not follow any common song structure. You just have to hear it to get it, I suppose; from the slightly horror-tinged introduction, in which Roberts narrates the story of a character discovering clues that will lead to "a colossal evil", to the pompous splendor of the first heavy part, to the almost death metal-like verses where Roberts alternates between shrieking and speaking, to a chorus using chord progressions you don't often hear in metal, to a wholly different section, and on and on it twists and turns, the music supporting the story the way film music supports the moving images - with the added bonus of being performed with fuzzy guitars, blasting drums, and wicked vocals. The song moves through many different parts, and each second is filled with something interesting; take the guitar lead at 03:17 - such a simple, but amazingly effective and sexy melody, and it is given only 10 seconds before the band moves on to the next part. You have to be pretty confident to not stretch this great moment further.

I'm using "Six Score..." to describe most of this album, but it isn't even among the top three tracks Bal-Sagoth offer up here. The Chthonic Chronicles sounds fresh, it sounds hungry, and above all it is a soundboard for all the amazing ideas Jonny Maudling had at the time of creation. Other bands could create an entire album out of "Six Scores..." alone, yet here you are treated to a whole slew of songs just as dense, original, and worthwhile.

The heaviest hitter might just be "The Obsidian Crown Unbound", with its military march and crushing riffage; even disregarding the lovely cheesy lyrics, the music itself manages to describe an ancient Imperial army, an emperor in doubt, a battlefield littered with corpses. This is of course the advantage of hooking symphonic music into the mix, but you kind of have to be Jonny Maudling to make it as pitch perfect as here. I just can't get over the fact that so many people don't give Bal-Sagoth a chance. At least try "The Obsidian Crown Unbound" a few times; at least admit that this is some well composed music. SHOW THEM THE TIGER'S CLAWS!!!

I could go on about each and every track's virtues here, but all you really have to do is check out the album for yourself. It is best enjoyed from beginning to end, as one long symphony divided into movements, never boring, always inventive, with some zany ideas here and there that perhaps didn't work quite as well (the first thirty seconds of "The Fallen Kingdoms of the Abyssal Plain" come to mind).

Even the entirely guitar-less "To Storm the Cyclopean Gates of Byzantium", which easily could have been part of a movie or computer game's soundtrack, is stellar in terms of melody and atmosphere.

It should also be mentioned that The Chthonic Chronicles might be the most furious and frenzied release by Bal-Sagoth, despite the ethereal beauty and relative calmness of certain sequences; there's a fair amount of blastbeats, chugging heavy riffs, and vocal insanity to satisfy those who need it extreme; and perhaps, despite the many symphonic layers and heart-tugging melodies, the album is too extreme for fans of power metal.

An almost perfect album, with a perfect production, with so many rich ideas, it still enraptures me to this day. I do admit I skip the intro and the outro, as they aren't particularly interesting. The band use intros, outros, and interludes on every release, but, surprisingly, the least interesting are found here, bookending the band's possibly best tracks. That being said, I love to death each and every album except The Power Cosmic so the bar is ridiculously high anyway.

If you haven't heard Bal-Sagoth for yourself, give them a chance. Get inside the music, and discover a realm of dark omens, ancient kingdoms, black-jewelled thrones and mighty thews, and, despite what some would have you believe, keeping it all together, some fucking sophisticated yet barbaric metal.

The Chthonic Chronicles is the latest album released by Bal-Sagoth, and is one of the best they’ve released in their career. I’ve listened all of their releases, except for the demo, and I say that they have been evoluting very fast. Some flaws here and there, but they’ve managed to correct this in this album. Bal-Sagoth has reached a new level with The Chthonic Chronicles, making more melodies, being more orchestrated and more symphonic. Byron finished this hexalogy in great style, but it’s not perfect yet.

Byron’s voice, as before, is spoken and screamed, alternating between the two in some tracks. The spoken voice looks less altered than in the earlier albums, which is good, and kind of bad. Good because it achieves more realism, and kind of bad, because it takes off some of Bal-Sagoth’s orchestral and theatrical characteristics, but it does not alter the quality of the album. The raspid, and screaming voice is louder and helps adding the black metal style to the songs. It’s also more powerful than it was on the previous albums. The Maulding brothers also do a great job in this album. Chris plays the guitar very skillfully, and the sound of it is heavier and crunchier than before. Jonny is one of the best keyboard players I’ve ever heard, and goes along with Chris, also playing the keyboard skillfully. It looks like a real orchestra instead of being played by one person by multiple recordings, and the result is good. As some symphonic black metal bands, the bass is almost inaudible, so I don’t really know what to say about Mark’s playing, although I expect it to be great. Dan Mullins is a great drummer too, applying fast beating to the songs, and fast blast beats like in “Arcana Antideluvia”. Unfortunately, he leaved the band for My Dying Bride, but he does a great job there too.

The album opens with the first of obligatory instrumental tracks in Bal-Sagoth’s albums, “The Sixth Adulation of His Chthonic Majesty”. It’s not quite an instrumental track, because of Byron’s little speech some time after the beginning, but it’s okay. Blasting off is the following track, “Invocations Beyond the Outer-World Night”, which shows how the band has progressed as all of these years have passed, returning triumphantly 5 years after Atlantis Ascendant. Great riffs, great lyrics, but there is something missing yet. “Six Score and Ten Oblations to a Malefic Avatar” follows, with more emphasis on the guitar at the beginning and the middle of the song, which ends kind of abruptly, leading to an haunting outro. Going on with an old story is “The Obsidian Crown Unbound”, which continue the telling of the tale that began on the Starfire album. It’s the most orchestral track on the album, with heavy symphonies and riffs, giving an early end to this story. Sad thing, I was beginning to like it. Anyway, proceeding,

Here is the outcast song of the band. Outcast because of its style. “The Fallen Kingdoms of the Abyssal Plain” begins with a rather strange symphony that it would fit a climax more than it would fit an intro. But then there is the techno sound. I felt like I was listening a track from the “Extreme-G” soundtrack, it’s very electronic. But I don’t avoid the song, I like it. Returning to the album’s normality is “Shackled to the Trilithon of Kutulu”. It’s the heaviest track of the album, representing the chaos of what would be a Cthulhu invocation. There’s a lot of chugging guitars and less symphonies. Just in this song. There has to be a calm track in every metal album, unless it’s grindcore or death metal, but that’s another thing. “The Hammer of the Emperor” is the “calm track” of the album. More like less heavy. It has more emphasis on instrumentality than the lyrics, or vocals, which are only the spoken ones. “Unfettering the Hoary Sentinels of Karnak” follows, being an prequel to “The Dreamer in the Catacombs of Ur” on Atlantis Ascendant, and also has that Egyptian feel, like the other track.

“To Storm the Cyclopean Gates of Byzantium”, another instrumental track. This time, it’s more what I would call “imperial”, always making me remember Star Wars or The Lord of the Rings. One of the most epic tracks they’ve composed. Ah, a Viking-like track. “Arcana Antideluvia” has that Viking feel, but in lyrics, as they tell of a voyage by the seas. Ends rather abruptly, but has already fulfilled it’s part on the album. “Behold the Crimson Vaults of Cydonia” is the last non-instrumental track, and is one great track. In my opinion, they should follow with the band, doing this style of songs, because they’re better for them. Of course this album and one or two before are excellent releases, but they’re moving towards a less heavy style, like an extreme power/symphonic metal. I don’t know if this is their target, but… Well, in short, I wouldn’t like the change very much. Just to finish, “Return to Hatheg-Kla” ends the album, also ending the cycle of the multiverse stories of Bal-Sagoth. More an ambient track than a symphonic, follows the haunting style of “Hatheg-Kla” from Black Moon. Well this ends my review of this album, and I hope that Bal-Sagoth get much better than they already are now. Can’t wait for the next album.

Okay, I've only relatively recently come across the mighty Bal-Sagoth, and that was after finally cracking out Sonic Firestorm again and reading Dave Mackintosh talking about his great time in the band. I decided, "What the hey, I'll look 'em up." The very first song I heard by them was Callisto Rising, and I was hooked. They are the first technically black metal band I ever heard, and to this day they are definitely my favorite. The so-nerdy-it-must-be-cool lyrics, the velvety narrator voice, the harmonious-then-buzzsaw attack of the guitars harmonizing with symphonic keys, and the drilling concussive attack of the drums, I love everything about them. I'm actually sad I didn't know about them much earlier so that I could wait for this one to come out, as it would probably make me like it even more.

That said, it should be obvious that I do enjoy this album. However, it's still a bit of a toss-up for my favorite Bal-Sagoth album between this and Starfire Burning. To try and explain it, I think Starfire had better-sounding and more memorable songs on the whole, but only slightly above this album, and I can't stop myself from metioning the production on the Chthonic Chronicles. It's rich, fat, and evil as all get-out. To me, the production is the best of any Bal-Sagoth album, and it definitely makes every song infinitely better. If Starfire was re-released with this production job, it would undoubtedly still be my favorite. Be that as it may, my favorite English Black Metallers did not put out a wimpy effort by any means on this.

This one starts with a typical Bal-Sagoth keyboard instrumental, except it has a spoken verse from Byron. Get used to 'em, you'll hear four of them on the album, and each of them is about three to four minutes long. That's not a problem, though, since the totally-cliched-yet-still-totally-true statement, "Oh, Johnny Maudling should make movie soundtracks," is still completely true. Every instrumental is atmospheric, epic, and suffocating in the amount of depth granted by the incredible digital production. Really, it's obvious that this is the sound they wish they had from the beginning.

Next come the songs with more complete instrumentals, and let me tell you, they OWN! I'm sorry for saying that, but I don't know any other way to say it. The band demonstrates a level of barely controlled ferocity seldom heard since Black Moon Broods Over Lemuria. They acheive a wonderful balance between the keyboards and guitars, and it succeeds in dragging the monster that is Bal-Sagoth kicking and screaming into clarity and fury. Never forgetting any part of their, "symphonic epic black metal," moniker, the band sounds incredibly focused. Speaking of focused, Byron has truly become a force to be reckoned with.

Byron's pen can truly be mightier then a sword when it crafts his wonderful, epic stories over Johnny's symphonic landscapes and Chris' ferocious strings. Byron's tormented shrieks have become stronger and more full, which I can tell you, I love after what I consider a lackluster performance from him on The Power Cosmic. His narrator voice is also deeper, and somehow even more smooth and dark. It could be argued that he uses spoken word passages too much, but I don't hear them used more or less effectively than in any other Bal-Sagoth work. I think it really helps support the Lovecraftian mood presented by the music, and works extremely well.

Overall, The Chthonic Chronicles shows the guys from Bal-Sagoth expanding their songwriting skills, technicality, and atmospheric mastery, and succeeds in combining them into a dark tapestry of epic and dark proportions. I truly hope this is not the final album from these masters of the craft, but if it was, it certainly would be great for them to go out on top. Truly the Star-Gods have returned to the zenith of their monolithic powers to cement their rule over the untrue and unworthy! Blodu Ok Jarna, indeed!

Highlights: Just look at the tracklist!

Formed in the distant days of 1989, Yorkshire, England based Bal-Sagoth has been a stalwart of the British extreme metal scene and is worshipped as a brilliant fusion of fantasy and metal by some, and is seen as a humiliating joke to others. I first came across Bal-Sagoth after the release of their second full-length recording, the hilariously titled, Starfire Burning upon the Ice-Veiled throne of Ultima Thule, which marked the departure of Bal-Sagoth’s more traditional death metal sound and introduced their style of sweeping, symphonic extreme metal (Bal-Sagoth is often classified as “symphonic black metal”, but outside of the raspy vocals, I feel there is little else that gives any indication of black metal). In theory, I should enjoy Bal-Sagoth; I really like sci-fi and fantasy, and I love metal, so it should be a perfect match. Unfortunately, unlike a band like Oxiplegatz (the side project of Alf Svensson, formerly of At the Gates and Grotesque), who I feel has perfectly blended science fiction and a subtle brand of metal, Bal-Sagoth has never risen above a guilty pleasure that I occasionally indulge in. Similar to most bands who strive for immense and epic soundscapes, Bal-Sagoth often tries to do too much with too little, which can result in an over synthesized and artificial sound. Furthermore, part of Bal-Sagoth’s draw to some is the massive, over-arching story that they are trying to tell during their albums. Again, this is something that could work in theory, but in practice it devolves into lengthy sections of songs being dominated by spoken passages played over the music.


Problems aside, even detractors of Bal-Sagoth recognize the musical proficiency displayed throughout Bal-Sagoth’s discography, and perhaps most impressively, Bal-Sagoth is one of the extreme few metal bands who compose all their music in the classical style of writing for the keyboard first, and then transferring the material to the other instruments.


I was initially attracted to Bal-Sagoth’s 2006 release, The Chthonic Chronicles because it seemed to be their most divisive album with listeners either hating the album or absolutely loving it. With this in mind, I approached my first listen to The Chthonic Chronicles expecting something new and hopefully original from Bal-Sagoth. Much to my surprise, I realized early in the album that this was not anything especially new or different for Bal-Sagoth, and the material contained in The Chthonic Chronicles seems to fit quite well with previous material. While the continuation of Bal-Sagoth’s style may be a welcome sound for some, I was somewhat disappointed to hear the same extensive spoken passages with raspy interludes, hollow sounding synths, and typically over-wrought ambient tracks. As with most of Bal-Sagoth’s albums, fans of other symphonic metal bands like Obtained Enslavement, Cradle of Filth, and Limbonic Art will likely find something they enjoy in The Chthonic Chronicles.


Every time that I’ve really listened to Bal-Sagoth carefully, I’ve always come away with the feeling that they are trying to do far too much, which in turn buries certain aspects of the music under the weight of synthesized organs, trumpets, harps, and a whole host of other synthesized instruments. This again leads me to compare Bal-Sagoth to Oxiplegatz, who similarly rely heavily upon synthesizers, but do so sparingly, thereby allowing the other instruments space and depth in the recording. Although they are sometimes able to bring together all of the sounds and instruments they use, too often Bal-Sagoth is not able to do so, and the result is generally little more than a mush of sounds in which the synths dominate and the guitars, drums, bass, and vocals are suffocated and partially (or wholly) lost. The two clearest examples of this in The Chthonic Chronicles are from the songs, “The Hammer of the Emperor”, and “Unfettering the Hoary Sentinels of Karnak”, both of which suffer from a lack of clarity and occasionally devolve into a pool of discordant noise. While I’m sure the temptation to add dozens of sweeping sounds is great, it would be in Bal-Sagoth’s interest to move away from the keyboard at times and focus more intently on getting greater range from their core instruments.


Similar to Bal-Sagoth’s other releases, The Chthonic Chronicles suffers from some occasionally serious conceptual and performance problems, but these issues are partially alleviated by the fun factor brought in by the fantasy theme. I have a certain perverse respect for Bal-Sagoth because their total dedication to the on-going fantasy universe they have created in their lyrics and their absolute insistence on using fantasy clichés that would make a LAPRer blush in their occasionally puzzling, but always humorous, song and album titles.


Though never perfect, Bal-Sagoth has managed to create a niche for themselves in the extreme metal underground where very few bands have dared to venture so far from the norm. Even though fantasy themes have been a part of metal since its earliest days, few bands have dared to go beyond fantasy cover art or Tolkien-inspired lyrics. Lyrics and storylines aside, Bal-Sagoth play a style of metal that is generally too reliant upon gimmicks and tricks to be truly memorable. Though I’ve listened to various Bal-Sagoth albums over the years, I can rarely identify one of their songs based upon its musical merits, though I’m always able to recognize the song titles and artwork that has made them infamous. While I respect Bal-Sagoth for their dedication and persistence, it seems that their dedication works against them at times, often to the detriment of their music. While the ongoing story and mythos of the Bal-Sagoth universe are interesting, it’s ultimately the music of Bal-Sagoth that needs to excel, and with without their music, Bal-Sagoth is just another collection of guys dressed up in the woods yelling “lightning bolt” at one another.

I enjoy a good concept album, I enjoy good thought out lyrics, it's just every now and that a band puts this idea of such a thoughtful message behind the music that the music stops being important to the band. Bal-Sagoth is band which have really lost their way in this, because this album is so overflowing with lyrics that there literally isn't enough music to hold them in. Really, I'd say about 60% of this album is spent on spoken pieces. These aren't little interludes, there is still music behind them, but the lyrics are just read from the page because if they were sung in any form of musical manner the album would run for about three days. It's just really annoying and distracting to have the singer stop the song and start reading every 4 lines. The music continues, so the song doesn't really stop, but it just kills the energy. The ratio is like 4 lines done properly, to about 12 spoken. The worst thing about this is that The Chthonic Chronicles would have been brilliant if it wasn't for the constant stopping. Not just good, or decent, but fantastic. The music, the atmospheres, the vocals are all stellar, and of course the lyrics are too, but I'll be damned if this album's lyrics just revolved around jizzing in toddlers eyes this album would be worth another thirty percent more with ease. Not because the lyrics would be better, because they wouldn't be, I just assume there wouldn’t be so many spoken parts.

This being my first taste of Bal-Sagoth I wasn't completely sure what to expect, lots of keyboards to the point of being overwhelming, and lots of symphonic wankery with little musical content were my best guesses. I was clearly very wrong with this album when it tries to be musical. This here album is full of high speed metal assaults, harsh screeching vocals, vicious blasts and aggressive as all hell riffs, sounding almost black metalish in their blistering rampage... For the 25 minutes of the album where the band feels like being a band rather a glorified poetry class. Sure there is a lot of keyboard stuff, trumpet samples and medieval sound effects, and they are loud and big, but they still don't take control of the music. In fact that stuff just makes the music sound even more powerful and majestic. It only really overpowers the guitars during the spoken word sections. That is to say, about 60% of the entire duration this release. Oddly enough, the thing that made me interested in the band, the lyrics, which are quite brilliant are what brings this album down. Not because they're of stupid subjects, or even because they're long winded and poorly worded, because they are truly brilliant, but because they cause these songs to have so little music direction that they lose all sense of flow.

While the album itself may not be a singular concept, every song has enough lyrics in it to be a concept album of its own. But even then, musically the whole experience is still usually of a similar style, each consisting of a mix of speedy almost black metal riffs, and slower rhythm creating riffs, each smothered in huge keyboards and symphonic effects, with either very solid harsh screams or goofy sounding spoken passages filling in most of the time, thus removing any chances for solos. Along with this there's a couple of ambient sections, each used effectively, and help create mood and atmosphere that these songs thrive off.

Ok, so far I've been praising the hell out of this album for the main part, so where are the other negatives? The fact is, I can’t find any other than the single problem I’ve already mentioned, there's honestly one reason and one reason alone I can't give this album a glowing review; too many spoken sections. Far too many. Basically, take a book on tape, and then take some very good epic heavy/power/symphonic metal, and switch between each of them every 30 seconds, and there you go; you have a rough idea of how this album functions. It doesn't help that Byron Roberts feels the need to put on his biggest, goofiest, lowest, most accented voice he can possibly do for all these sections. It makes some parts, such as the beginning of the otherwise fantastic "Six Score and Ten Oblations to a Malefic Avatar" laughable, or just plain irritating. It's difficult to explain just how annoying the constant use of these spoken sections can be, they come in a never-ending wave, and almost exclusively sound goofy.

I know, this sounds like I am being extremely harsh with my scoring, and in reality, I am being harsh. The music here is brilliant, the sound is original, it's quite intelligent music, but the negative that poisons this album’s veins is so noticeable and rampant that I can't ignore it. Hell, if he only did it a couple of times in every song, I could see myself looking past it, and giving this album the score that it's members deserve, but it's just too much. Give it a try if you want, if you like the spoken parts, you’ll love this album, but for me, it’s a bitter disappointment, taunting me with it’s brilliance beneath the obnoxiousness.

The Chthonic Chronicles is easily the best Bal-Sagoth album since Starfire Burning upon the Ice-Veiled Throne of Ultima Thule. The three albums in between (BM, TPC, AA) are good, but they suffer from being too happy and too unheavy, with a thin and weak production.

TCC is much heavier and much darker than the last three albums. The massive and heavy.

There is more focus on the guitars and riffs, and they carry a lot of the album, with the keyboards being mostly a background element. This is unlike the last three albums (perhaps especially The Power Cosmic) which were very much keyboard-driven. (I don't mind this, since I like keyboards. I am just describing.)

The lyrics are mostly Lovecraftian, stories of researchers who discover occult and terrible truths that Man Was Not Meant To Know. Generally, I don't like Byron's Lovecraftian stories. They are quite unoriginal and consist mostly of vocabulary masturbation. Still, they do manage to turn it into some great songs. But I much prefer the dark fantasy, Robert Howard inspired lyrics that were prevalent on the early Bal-Sagoth albums. This style is still featured on TCC on two songs, The Obsidian Crown Unbound and Ancana Antediluvia.

The notes and melodies played on the album may not differ all that much from the last few albums. The main difference, IMO, is the production and the atmosphere. The production, as mentioned, is heavier and more massive (but not as "raw" as the first two albums), and the atmosphere is darker, more "Chthonic", as opposed to the lighter, happier sound of the previous albums. In this respect, TCC more resembles the early BS albums.

It also seems to me that Byron's screaming vocals have improved. This is hard to explain, but he sounds more powerful and aggressive, whereas on The Power Cosmic and Atlantis Ascendant his voice sounds rather thin and hoarse. His spoken words sound much like they do on the last couple of albums. (In this particular respect, I prefer the way his voice was recorded/produced on the first two albums. They used echo and reverb in a special way on those albums that is not present on their later albums, including this one.) One annoying detail is that the spoken vocals are often very low on the mix, making it impossible to hear the words.

The instrumentals are quite atmospheric and contain good melodies. They are definitely better than the ones on Atlantis Ascendant (which kind of suck, IMO). They suffer a bit from being too long (most are over four minutes) without much happening. The best of the instrumentals is clearly To Storm the Cyclopean Gates of Byzantium, which is very epic (almost like Black Dragons Soar Above the Mountain of Shadows, my favourite BS instrumental). The intro, The Sixth Adulation of his Chthonic Majesty, is good and atmospheric and has something of a "Hatheg Kla" feel to it.

The highlights of the album are especially Beneath the Crimson Vaults of Cydonia and Invocations Beyond the Outer-World Night. Overall, I rate the album 9/10, or 90%: Excellent album. It doesn't quite have the power and atmosphere of the first two albums (which are both 10/10 in my book), but it is still undoubtedly a great album.

I have waited a long time for this album, entirely too long it seems. But Bal-Sagoth’s latest album has finally been bestowed upon us. I recall in either 2003-2004 that on the official Bal-Sagoth website under the news section that they proclaimed “The New Bal-Sagoth album will be released later this year to commemorate the 10th year anniversary of the band! Blodu Ok Jarna!” Or something similar to that effect. Anyways, it took them a little longer than expected, but I still love this band, and this album is a testament to their musical and story-telling abilities. This record is also the final album of a trilogy and marks the end of their record deal with Nuclear Blast, although the record is vastly different from either The Power Cosmic or Atlantis Ascendant.

For quite awhile I had considered Starfire Burning Upon the Ice-Veiled Throne of Ultima Thule to be the grandest and most bombastic Bal-Sagoth record released. I then later realized the error of my judgment and now hold that honor to what I believe to be the best BS album, The Power Cosmic. It is of my humble opinion that Callisto Rising is one of the greatest musical compositions ever produced, and the rest of the album is nearly as stellar.

Alright, sorry to go off on a tangent by rambling about The Power Cosmic… So, you may be asking yourself “What about the new album? Is it any good?” And the answer to that is a resounding “YES!” However, it is a bit different than what I expected. This album is definitely more of a step backwards in time for the band. This album is most closely related to Starfire Burning Upon the Ice-Veiled Throne of Ultima Thule. The keyboards are a bit less noticeable in the mix of this album. The guitar riffs seem to be the dominant instrument here for the first time since Starfire Burning... It’s not to say that the keyboards are missing. I’m just saying that the guitar tends to be the basis and root for the song with the keyboards taking a more noticeable accompaniment style to the guitar. I remember in an interview that Byron had stated that most of their newer albums (from Battle Magic on) were mostly composed with keyboards as the primary instrument with the guitar as a reinforcing instrument. Another subtlety I’ve noticed about this album is that I can actually understand and even follow a lot of what Byron is talking about. In previous albums he used pretty abstract/fantastical language in his lyrics to describe the events and it can be nearly impossible to understand everything that is going on by just listening to the lyrics. (You have to read the lyric book a good deal of times to fully grasp what’s going on in the story.) But in this album it’s pretty self-explanatory and straightforward lyric telling.

There has been enough eager anticipation (for me at least) for this album to deserve a pretty lengthy review; therefore I’m going to do a song by song analysis to go along with the rest of the album review:

1. The Sixth Adulation of His Cthonic Majesty: Typical Bal-Sagoth album intro song. I don’t think is has as much grandeur as the introduction to Starfire Burning Upon The Ice Veiled Throne of Ultima-Thule, but it’s a good start. It’s also distinctive in the fact that it has a spoken dialogue part. It’s been awhile since I’ve listened to the first Bal-Sagoth album, but this may just be the first intro song to have a spoken part. There is also a lengthy drum beat that reminds me of the song Blood Slakes the Sand at the Circus Maximus off of Battle Magic.

2. Invocations Beyond the Outer-World Night: Starts off with some power chords and some typical keyboards that sound like horns. One of the first things I noticed is that when Byron uses his black-metal style of vocals he spits out the lyrics rapid-fire fast unlike anything I’ve heard previously in Bal-Sagoth. This evolved style of his black metal style vocals are the norm for this album. Even the spoken dialogue parts tend to sound a little bit different from Atlantis Ascendant. I think Byron puts a little more inflection into his voice than previous albums, or maybe it’s just me. The drums also use a typical black metal style blast beat with the snare and hi-hat, instead of using a ride (or other) cymbal. I really liked Dave Mackintosh and his style of drumming, but Dan Mullins is great too, albeit more like a black metal drummer. I suppose that is because it fits the style of the album better.

3. Six Score And Ten Oblations To A Malefic Avatar: Starts off with some dialogue that you can easily follow. Byron talks about the rediscovery of the Cthonic scrolls and how they lead to some colossal evil. There is also a nice lead guitar and double bass drumming. Later there is a really badass section with more of the lead guitar taking the fore with the drums and keyboards providing accompaniment. Probably one of my favorite moments in the entire album.

4. The Obsidian Crown Unbound: Here we have the continuation of the Obsidian Crown trilogy from Starfire Burning... Very epic sounding track as it should be and continues the tradition of the original song very nicely.

5. The Fallen Kingdoms of the Abyssal Plain: Now here we have a typical instrumental keyboard Bal-Sagoth song smack in the middle of the album. But somehow it’s different from any other Bal-Sagoth keyboard-only song I’ve ever heard. There is a very interesting melody about a minute into the song which is very different from other things I’ve heard from the band. It’s still very fantasy sounding, but not in the typical Bal-Sagoth sense.

6. Shackled to The Trilithon Of Kutulu: Another fine song done in typical Bal-Sagoth fashion. Its got some pretty crazy swirling keyboard sounds at the beginning and has a great chunking riff that oozes with badassery at around 40 seconds. Some more lead guitars, some more blast beats, some more double bass… You get the picture.

7. The Hammer of the Emperor: A slower paced song compared to the rest of the album, but still good nonetheless. Some parts are pretty catchy. There are also quite a few higher tempo parts on this song as well.

8 .Unfettering The Hoary Sentinels Of Karnak: Yet another well crafted song, but by now the song structure and familiarity of the album has firmly entrenched itself on my musical senses. Therefore I can’t really give many originality points for this song, but its fine by its own self. The only interesting parts are the palm-muted triplets on some higher notes, and some very disjointed/syncopated rhythms that don’t really come together well enough.

9. To Storm The Cyclopean Gates Of Byzantium: Holy shit! Another keyboard instrumental!? Has the world gone totally insane? Yes, it’s true folks, this is another keyboard instrumental. Usually there would be one more keyboard instrumental at the end of the album which would usually have been the 10th song on the album, but there is still a few more songs to go after this. The song is more typical Bal-Sagoth stuff. Not as catchy as say, Black Dragons soar above the Mountain of Shadows, or The Epsilon Exordium, but still mighty fine stuff.

10. Arcana Antediluvia: Starts off with some dialogue which is admittedly pretty boring at first. Then holy smokes this song completely destroys everything! I would have to say this is one of my favorite songs on the album. It’s got this crazy sounding swirling keyboard part then goes straight into a heavy, palm-muted riff that I like a lot. Some more excellent triplet riffs come in a bit later.

11. Beneath The Crimson Vaults Of Cydonia: The final song before the final keyboard outro. Starts off with some very black metal styled riffs and drums. Slows down a bit and speeds up. More of the same, but still very good.

12. Return to Hatheg-Kla: More of an ambient sound than a traditional epic styled keyboard instrumental. Still very interesting, although not very memorable. I usually don’t bother listening to this song, and for me the end of the album is track 11.

So there you have it. A little departure from the traditional song placement of most Bal-Sagoth albums where there are 10 songs with an intro, middle, and outro keyboard instrumentals. This album has 2 more songs with an additional keyboard sequence. This album is the darkest since Starfire Burning… and is a welcome return to form for many. I still don’t think this album is as good as either The Power Cosmic or Starfire Burning… but it is a great album and comes highly recommended for new fans and old fans alike. You won’t be disappointed with this album. The production sounds great, though I suppose I shouldn’t really make a comment on it since I only have the album downloaded from Soulseek. I do plan on buying the album within the next few weeks at the local metal shop when I have more money. I haven’t based my rating for this album on the production at all because I have to take into account the fact that the production may be less than what it would be on CD. However, it still sounds great.

I came to expect this to be the most phenomenal Bal-Sagoth album ever released, partly because it had taken so long to create, and partly because of the hype. This album is VERY GOOD, however I couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed because it wasn’t the grand opus I had expected, therefore the rating suffers a little bit. It still comes highly recommended.