Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One word...EPIC, 10 April 2006
Bal-Sagoth. Well well well.
This is the first album i have ever purchased by these mad fantasy creating, war metal brandishing Northerners.
What a buy !!! I once read a review of the film Conan the Barbarian (not to be confused with the substandard follow up, Conan the Destroyer). It said "This film would be laughable, embarrassing and not fit for human attention, if it were not for the fact that in its creation, a plausable story has been born, and in its conviction, its utter self belief, it pulls of the job of coming across as epic, exciting and worthy of praise."
Maybe Bal-Sagoth read this review before penning and then recording "The Chthonic Chronicles". Because that same description could be used to sum up this album.
In its conviction of playing, it stands up like a metal clad warrior and screams, "listen to me in all my pomp and gradure and worship me for my ideas and feeling".
Simply put, this album is a rolling story of epic fantasy. If you like Black metal, and fantasy books, you'll bloody love this !!!
If you don't like either, i can only be honest and say that you will probably groan, maybe even laugh when you hear it. But thats fine. Each to their own.
I think Bal-Sagoth have done a magnificent job of painting great stories over a canvass of operatic orchestral music, warrior voiced narration and of course (and probably most importantly) very catchy, evil black metal.
I'm so glad of the chance to break out of the agendas of the extreme metal genres, be they gore, violence, satanism, politcal injustice etc...
With this album in your player you can forget all that for a while and just revel in a well told fictional story, arranged around some brutal black metal. Its like reading non-fiction for ages, you need to go and have a bit of escapism into a good story book occassionally. Bal-Sagoth offer that escape.
The even beter thing is I can look forward to buying the other 5 albums that make up the Hexology.
The world needs more bands like Bal-Sagoth, who are not afraid to break with trends, and write something they want to write for the pure fun of it.
Its only unfortunate that Extreme metal is so inaccessable to 99.9% of the population, as it would make a great film score for a big bombastic epic fantasy.
Great stuff.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Top Notch, 24 Mar 2006
By A Customer
This is the sixth album from this English quintet and I have to say its an absolute masterpiece. The production duties this time were helmed by keyboard player/composer Jonny Maudling at the "Waylands Forge" studio and his production skills shine through. Also the frontman Byron sounds clearer and more audible than previous efforts. Although this is definately a Bal-Sagoth album,it also has a touch of something new going on (maybe because of the production). With awesome guitar playing and catchy riffs and a brilliant new drummer, this makes for a riveting ride with unforgetable melodies and songs you'll be dreaming about. If this is a taste of whats to come from the outfit the future looks bright.
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7 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Battle hymns for the 21st century, 19 Mar 2006
All hail Bal-Sagoth! First, last (and possibly only) purveyors of baroque, black, battle-metal, I've had a soft spot for them ever since the gloriously titled "Starfire Burning Upon The Ice-Veiled Throne Of Ultima Thule" album back in 1996. Madder than a very mad thing gone a bit mad, this is their first album in 5 years and is the culmination of the epic Bal-Sagoth hexalogy. That's right - hexalogy. I'll pause here while the media studies students rush for their dictionaries....Back? For good? (want you back, want you back for good). Anyway, metal empires have risen and fallen since the last Bal-Sagoth release, 2001's "Atlantis Ascendant", but little has changed in their world. We are obviously specks of dust in the eyes of our masters, and our concept of time matters little to them. Now, whether they actually thought back in 1994, that they would produce a hexalogy over 12 years matters not, it's their game and we have to play by their rules. Frankly, you're going to love it or hate it, as they rampage across 12 black metal fantasy tracks, replete with dramatic keyboards and occult lyrics (one assumes with more than a nod to H P Lovecraft) - after all, they are named after a Robert E Howard story, and have utilised lots of Lovecraft, Howard and Lin Carter story lines over the years. And who else thinks Thongor was the best Conan rip off ever? They've been working on this since mid 2003 and the time and effort put into it shines through as it sounds magnificent from the quasi classical opener, "The Sixth Adulation Of His Chthonic Majesty" to the magnificent riff drippingly good "The Obsidian Crown Unbound" on into the ultimate battle hymn, "To Storm The Cyclopean Gates Of Byzantium". Bombastic, terrifying, apocalyptic and maleficent, this is the soundtrack to the sword and sorcery epic to end them all.
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