Warthur
Bal-Sagoth are back on form with The Power Cosmic, which expands their palette of subject matter to take on science fiction of the sort depicted in the Silver Surfer and other Jack Kirby comics from Marvel. With tighter compositions and less intrusive narration than Battle Magic - as well as better production values - the album succeeds at reinvigorating the Bal-Sagoth sound and emerging at last from the long shadow Robert E. Howard's fantasy work cast over the band's works, and with this expansion of their SF/fantasy subject matter comes a somewhat more varied and sound. Bal-Sagoth are not everyone's cup of tea - sometimes they aren't even mine - but this time around they've moved in the right direction, though the cleaner production does make their "power metal style, black metal attitude" formula a little bit too transparent.
