Bal-Sagoth: Starfire Burning Upon the Ice-Veiled Throne of Ultima Thule (1996)

Yep, that title is a mouthful.  That is just the tip of the iceberg for the weirdness in this album.  Bal-Sagoth is a deeply weird and unique band, which will be described later on.  I have been familiar with Bal-Sagoth and all of their weirdness for some time.  Suffice to say, you kind of have to be in the mood to listen to one of their albums.  I wondered if the band had always been so weird, so when I had an opportunity to pick up one of their earlier albums, I took it.

This is Bal-Sagoth's second album, and yes, they have apparently always been weird.  The music is damn impressive, an epic-feeling take on black metal.  The music is bombastic and triumphant, with big riffs and lots of keyboards.  The album starts off with some keyboard-laden majestic fanfare before kicking off into the first real song on the album, which showcases the band's black metal influence, well at least in the early riffs.  From there it takes on the more typical epic, melodic sound.

The weirdness of Bal-Sagoth, and their most identifiable characteristic is the vocals.  Bal-Sagoth's vocals are performed in two distinct styles.  The first is a somewhat typical raspy screech that is normal for black metal and often performed when the music is considerably more aggressive.  The second though is a baritone-heavy spoken style, used to narrate the story line and sounding like someone telling scary stories around the campfire.  It is a very unique aspect that sets Bal-Sagoth apart.

The lyrics tell a story and basically read as a book with complete paragraphs and sentences, rather than song lyrics.  It just so happens that it is put to music.  Even the song titles are long-winded.  The first song is called "To Dethrone the Witch-Queen of Mytos K'unn (The Legend of the Battle of Blackhelm Vale)".  And that is one of the shorter titles.  The story combines dark fantasy, science fiction and horror elements.  One day I will actually sit down and read the damn thing to try to figure it all out. 

As I said, this is not for everyone and it is something that takes a lot to get used to.  It is a very unique sound for a band.  This is however, one of the better albums I have heard from Bal-Sagoth, and once one gets used to the bizarre nature of the band, it is rewarding.