THE INCEPTION OF BAL-SAGOTH By Byron Roberts Byron Roberts came up with the idea for Bal-Sagoth around 1989, designing the band’s logo shortly thereafter in 1990. The band was intended to be an extreme, symphonic black-death metal project built around an elaborate fantasy/sci-fi and mythological lyrical concept, with all of the songs being thematically linked as part of an overall unified saga. Byron wrote the majority of the Bal-Sagoth lyrics and laid out the concepts for all the stories and albums during the years 1990 to 1991, devising all the characters, places and events which would constitute the entire conceptual framework of the project. Byron named the project “Bal-Sagoth” after a story by one of his favourite authors, Robert E. Howard. The story was titled “The Gods of Bal-Sagoth” and was first published in 1931. R.E. Howard and his contemporary H.P. Lovecraft were two of Byron’s favourite authors, and the pulp fantasy, science fiction and horror of the 1930s was a primary inspiration for Byron’s lyrical universe, along with many other literary sources. Unfortunately, Byron had difficulty recruiting musicians with whom to launch the project. None of the people he approached were interested in starting a fantasy themed black-death metal band, as that period was characterized by being the closing days of the socio-political thrash era, and the heyday of gore oriented death metal. Nevertheless, Roberts continued his search to meet suitable musicians who might be interested in becoming part of the Bal-Sagoth project. In 1993, an old friend of Byron’s by the name of Alistair MacLatchy suggested that he meet some people he’d been jamming cover versions with on Sunday afternoons. Apparently, they were looking to start a serious band, but had no original material, no band name, and no clear vision as to the kind of music they wanted to play beyond the fact that it would be metal orientated. Roberts saw this as another potential opportunity to start the Bal-Sagoth project, and was introduced to Chris Maudling, Jonny Maudling and Jason Porter during the summer of 1993. Unfortunately, despite Byron’s hopes, this was not destined to be the grand realization of the Bal-Sagoth project. MacLatchy did not like the band name “Bal-Sagoth”, nor the symphonic black metal style which Roberts had in mind. Additionally, he did not like the fantasy based lyrical theme, preferring a more contemporary socio-political approach. Additionally, neither of the Maudlings were at all familiar with the kind of music which Roberts cited as influences for Bal-Sagoth, and had not heard of any of the bands which he mentioned. Nevertheless, Byron continued to jam with them in the hopes that at some point he may be able to implement the Bal-Sagoth project. As a result, Roberts suggested an alternative name for the non serious band, “Dusk”. Rehearsals commenced and material was duly written during the next two months or so, but neither Roberts nor the Maudlings were particularly pleased with the songs, nor the direction Dusk was taking. Before long, MacLatchy was asked to leave the band for a number of reasons. Roberts immediately scrapped the name Dusk, and again asked the Maudlings if they were interested in the Bal-Sagoth project. He played Chris and Jonny material by bands such as Emperor to illustrate the musical potential of symphonic black metal. Jonny, a trained painist, was intrigued by the material and by Byron’s suggestion of implementing keyboards prominently into the band’s sound. Chris too was interested in the approach. As a result, they duly agreed to begin writing music for Bal-Sagoth. And so, in late summer of 1993, Bal-Sagoth was finally unleashed upon an unsuspecting world. The band began composing songs, the ultimate result (now some seventeen years later) being a celebrated six album discography currently available from Cacophonous Records and Nuclear Blast.
Posted on: Tue, 08 Jul 2014 09:24:14 +0000