BAL-SAGOTH — Battle Magic (review)

BAL-SAGOTH — Battle Magic album cover Album · 1998 · Symphonic Black Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4.5/5 ·
Mjöllnir
Once their inimitable style was solidified on the previous album, our new great kings of pomp filled extreme metal had only to temper this blade to realise its true potential. This they did with their third epic, “Battle Magic”. Though lacking the power of “Starfire Burning...” with a thinner sound on almost every front, in exchange everything is more cohesive and centred. Keyboards mesh with the basic metal instruments sometimes so entirely that you forget where this band’s sound is rooted, though the tremolo riffs and maddening drums erupt to the forefront enough to pull you back to black metal ground.

Conan the Barbarian-esque flourishes are still here, with more cheesy cosmic “moments” and breakdowns held together by the marching band style of the rhythm section. Byron Roberts continues to mix the haughty narration and black metal rasps, with the same success as before not to mention adding weight to the still highly entertaining fantasy lyrics. The format of the previous album is copied almost exactly, though the songs mostly have a different feel. There’s a keyboard track to start, straight in the middle and one to finish as before for instance. The second part of “The Splendour of a Thousand Swords....” (I’ll let you finish that one!) is present with their longest song title ever (another endearing eccentricity)

Love “Blood Slakes the Sand at the Circus Maximus” with its expansive and sweeping classical and film score character meshing superbly with fist pumping epic metal to create 8 unforgettable minutes with no need for any concise, manic speedy metal. I also adore “Return to the Praesidium of Ys” where Byron exceeds himself with manic narration and symphonic structure spiralling ever onward to the heavens.

You’ll have to abandon any set concept of how black, or even extreme styles of metal in general, should sound and just let yourself get absorbed to enjoy it. The effort is more than worth it, I can’t recommend this band enough!
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