BAL-SAGOTH — Starfire Burning Upon the Ice-Veiled Throne of Ultima Thule (review)

BAL-SAGOTH — Starfire Burning Upon the Ice-Veiled Throne of Ultima Thule album cover Album · 1996 · Symphonic Black Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
Warthur
This is the album where the Bal-Sagoth sound really began to take shape. What's presented here is a combination of competent but unremarkable black metal with a strong influence from power metal - to the point where if you just listened to the transitions between the black metal patches you'd think you were listening to narration from a power metal album.

Going so far as to include themes from Basil Poledouris' classic Conan the Barbarian soundtrack here and there, the band are obviously committed to their vision of creating a style of black metal owing more to sword and sorcery than Satanism and suffering; if that sounds like a good idea to you, you'd probably find this interesting, though black metal fans who are absolutely averse to power metal would probably be happier staying away.

On top of that, whilst I'm sure Bal-Sagoth's early style was a major depature back in the 1990s when black metal purism was at its strongest, these days far more daring and successful exercises in genre-mashing are taking place, so if you really like the idea of blackened power metal or powered-up black metal this may feel like a lukewarm affair that doesn't go far enough with its fusion of the styles.
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