Recently, black metal in the UK has truly developed a consistent scene with bands like Fen, A Forest of Stars and Wodensthrone acting as the vanguards of a new movement. However, before these bands, one of the most uttered names both at home and internationally in the UKBM scene was Bal-Sagoth. In the past few years, the fantasists have kept a low profile but why? Mainman Byron Roberts explains why he considers the band to be in semi-retirement.
In 2006, Bal-Sagoth released their last studio effort, entitled ‘The Chthonic Chronicles’ on one of the biggest metal labels Nuclear Blast. The album was very well-received by the metal community and an international showcase of UK black metal. “We haven't been writing any new material, because we have yet to decide whether to carry on for further albums. I think eventually you will see the other members of the band branching out into various other projects, as realistically Bal-Sagoth won't last forever. I suppose you could say that Bal-Sagoth is in a state of semi-retirement, which wouldn't actually be too far from the truth! So essentially, the band has just been playing a handful of shows per year since our last album "The Chthonic Chronicles" came out in 2006,” Roberts notes. “Over the last five years, we've played in countries such as Finland, Norway, the USA, Portugal, the Czech Republic, etc. It hasn't been a deliberate decision to avoid playing the UK, it's just that no suitable offers had really come in until recently.”
Given the bombastic and grand sound Bal-Sagoth exude on record, it can be incredibly difficult to replicate the music live. Opinions on Bal-Sagoth shows vary widely, dependent on the quality of the sound and the knowledge of the sound engineers at the time. “It's impossible to accurately recreate the multi-layered sound of the albums in the live environment. We just have to settle for getting it as close as is humanly possible within the overall confines of the live show. That's partially why I've never been satisfied with our gigs over the years. I personally don't think there's any need to play this stuff live. Every time we play a show it perhaps erodes a little bit of the magic this band has. I would hope that the energy of the live experience might go some way to make up for it, but there's only so much you can do. Quite honestly, our material is not designed or written to be performed accurately live. Bal-Sagoth has always been more about the album experience; sitting back with the stereo on, booklet in hand, with the listener getting lost within the sonic universe of our discography.”
Unlike many metal acts, Roberts admits that Bal-Sagoth’s strength is not in the live show. The prominence of the lyrics in the band substitute for this though; each album is a conceptual piece, concerning itself with fantasy and sci-fi worlds conceived by Roberts himself. “The whole concept for the band was essentially built around the lyrical content. I had many of the lyrics written and the albums planned our years before I even met the people who would eventually end up being in the band. I came up with the band concept around 1989, but back then, seemingly no one was interested in being part of a high concept metal band with fantasy and sci-fi lyrics. That was the height of the whole socio-political thrash and death metal band surge, and it just wasn't "cool" to want to start a band dealing with mythological and fantasy topics. It was a real problem finding people willing to give the idea a chance. Eventually a guy I knew called Mac introduced me to some people he had been jamming covers within their bedroom. They were looking to start a serious band too, and to cut a long story short, Jonny and Chris ultimately agreed to be part of the Bal-Sagoth project. Only then did the music start being composed.”
With such dedication to the lyrics that are written over a period of years, it seems unusual that Roberts expresses these stories through music as opposed to a medium that would allow him to limitlessly narrate, such as a novel. “The reason I wanted to tell these stories via music was because of my love of black and death metal, and fantasy & sci-fi literature. Fusing those two loves seemed like a good idea at the time. The whole idea was that the band would be an extreme and symphonic musical project which would be underpinned by this elaborate lyrical universe. Originally, it was also driven by a desire to create the kind of music and lyrics that I myself would like to hear and read as a fan, because there wasn't much of that kind of stuff around back then. Pretty much everyone opposed the idea at some point, even people in the band itself, believe it or not! But eighteen years and six albums later, here we are.” Persistence is obviously the key for Byron. He states: “The other members aren't really reading enthusiasts, to be honest, and they certainly aren't big readers of fantasy, sci-fi or mythological books. I'm sure they eventually read the album booklets once they get copies of the CDs, but they generally don't take any great interest in the lyrical side of the band, and never have. And that's fine with me, because the lyrical side is exclusively my domain anyway.”
With a power-struggle between the music and the lyrics, it is worth considering how the songs are written and which aforementioned aspect is the priority. “When we write albums, I'll give the composers an outline of the kind of stuff I need for each song. Sometimes it will be a very broad outline, merely mentioning the overall mood required for a piece. Other times, for the "flagship" songs, it will be a much more detailed outline listing the events of the story and so forth. A lot of the time Jonny just comes up with something unconnected to an outline and just submits it to me, and I then decide which lyrics are best suited to that particular composition. More often than not, the actual final lyrics are kept a secret from all the other members of the band until the mixing process is underway! So, ultimately, our way of writing songs is a mixture of collaboration and isolation, and that's the Bal-Sagoth method.” A method that is unlikely to change if Bal-Sagoth decide to continue with new material but for now, it’s all up in the air and all dedicated fanatics should catch the live shows because nothing is set in stone for these symphonic black metallers.
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