gadlor's Full Review: Chthonic Chronicles * by Bal-Sagoth
Those who are familiar with the art of Bal-Sagoth know that they take the everyday, ho-hum world of metal (replete with chain-mail bikinis, wholesale slaughter and penetration of orifices not meant for intercourse, rapacious vikings, and corpse-painted Satanists) and accelerates it to new and grand heights of ridiculousness.
Based out of England, Bal-Sagoth has been churning out lyrically burdensome epic metal since 1994. They have a flair for the obscenely absurd that can only be looked on with awe, and all attempts to duplicate it have failed.
The most notable thing about Bal-Sagoth's music is its undeniable pull on the listener willing to put away their silly delusions of reality. The vocalist, known simply as Lord Byron, alternates a watery howl and a powerfully deep narrative voice which adds in no small part to the grandeur one can revel in. The second part of the music which listeners will quickly pick up is the fact that symphonic keyboards dance in and out of frenetic guitar and lightning-quick drumming.
Interestingly enough, the music itself is not truly catchy. I have found that often, catchy albums wear out their welcome quickly, when the melody has become trite and boring. Albums like this rely on a more discordant meshing of music, making the listener appreciate the album more and more with each run through its antedeluvian heart. This work is similar to Amorphis' Eclipse in that respect.
Instead, the melodies are rather slow to reveal themselves (especially in the first half of the cd), opting to slowly disrobe in all their splendor rather than posing like a cheap showgirl. When the songs do come to their fruition, they are ripely full of evil. The lyrical focus of the cd "The Cthonic Chronicles" is on finishing a six-album long cycle of fantasy debauchery full of malevolent demons, cruel and mad gods, empires and magicians clashing on land and in space. Like some collective nerd world-wide wet dream, the narrative and epic style employed plucks a chord in the cheese-ridden heart of any who has ever enjoyed science fiction or fantasy. I cannot even begin to do justice to their lyricisms, so let me just mention that "Six Score and Ten Oblations to a Malefic Avatar" is one of their song titles - in all seriousness.
Throughout the corpulent, demonic mass of this CD there are no less than four instrumental numbers, and while composed of nothing more than a keyboard they are equally (if not more) satisfying to my musical gullet than the others. The keyboard player (Johnny Maudlin) has an aptitude for recording his instrument in a way that sounds not at all cheesy when composing what are essentially orchestral tracks. Indeed, without his talents I feel that the music of Bal-Sagoth as a whole would be unremarkable. Admittedly, without the well-written guitar or Byron's unique vocals, this work would fall short of the enormously inflated gem that it is.
I run competitively in college for my school, and often before races I desire some sort of musical power flowing through my loins (well, my veins, really, but loins just sounds cool) before I race. Not often are you entirely mentally ready to put your body in the sort of pain required to race well, and I find that I often gravitate towards Bal-Sagoth and other sorts of epic cheese to aid me. It feels like I am gearing up for battle when I am about to compete, and the howling of Byron Roberts aids me in the manner of a page, adhering my epaulet to my shoulder.
Indeed, there is little other feeling that Bal-Sagoth's artistry can inspire. Often has my roommate referred to them as barbarian metal, and indeed I think Theoderic himself would prefer Bal-Sagoth to nine other leading metal bands. In the past, their music has often sounded rougher than other similar bands such as Amon Amarth or Turisas, and with good reason: the drums were often tinny, the guitar rather sparse in rhythm section, and the vocals didn't have much force behind them. The Cthonic Chronicles is miraculous in that the music has much more depth than has ever been seen by this band. The drumming still lies a little low in the music but the combination with rhythm guitar hits with nuclear force.. Lord Byron's vocals have turned more towards a stacatto and forceful howl, spitting out weird mysticisms with rapidity. In dealing with Lovecraft's creation Cthulhu, Bal-Sagoth picked the correct style for this album. It is much more chaotic and dark than previous albums, flailing in many directions in their heavy riffing and howling, barraging the listener with musical depravity before allowing melody to shine through.
I have two favorites that have wormed their way into my cranium, burrowing deep into my frontal lobe. "The Fallen Kingdoms of the Abyssal Plain" is one of the aforementioned instrumentals that starts out with pomp and grandeur and languishes into a strange atmospheric chant, with dreamy keyboard tones dancing throughout. The fellows know how to write material that sounds appropriate as a backdrop to a grander universe than ours, where a brush with a god or an empire may seem commonplace.
The second is "The Hammer of the Emperor," one of their more melodious moments on the album. I would say that it surpasses others in epic-osity - but on a scale of 1-10, where 1 is not epic at all and 10 is dragons screaming blades of fire at demon-wizards while asteroids rain down upon the battlefield, it's pretty much all epic. The guitar work on this song is transcendent; the tone just soars upwards throughout the music. I could happily retire to my chambers with this song as my companion night after night and be content.
The Cthonic Chronicles is not the most initially listenable of albums, nor does Bal-Sagoth go down smooth. That, paradoxically enough, makes the whole ensemble worthwhile. Out of their sextet of unbelievably bizarre albums, this one is quickly approaching the position of my favorite. After this album, one can but hope that the rumors of their retirement are but that.
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