A Black Moon Broods Over Lemuria - Bal Sagoth

Bal-Sagoth is today well known for their epic symphonic Metal. While the band's debut album still fits this description, it is a very different album from all the later Bal-Sagoth albums. "A Black Moon Broods Over Lemuria" is by far the most sinister Bal-Sagoth album. The guitars, that form the backbone of the music, are rooted in fairly straight forward death metal stylings, with the occasional hint of doom, and even a hint of the typical Bal Sagoth lead guitar melody lines. There are plenty of keyboards, but unlike later Bal-Sagoth albums, the keyboards are not trying to emulate a symphonic orchestra. Plenty of synthetic string sounds are used, but ...  Read the complete review

(Okay, don't ask me why the image for this product is completely wrong). Bal-Sagoth's debut is a much darker and heavier affair than anything the Yorkshiremen would release later, rooted in a more traditional black/death metal style with elements of doom minimalism and introducing traits that would later become the band's stereotype, particularly Byron Roberts' epic, Lovecraftian narratives. The emphasis is still almost entirely on the lyrics here, the lyric booklet that comes with the album being a tome of comparable density to War and Peace even when printed in ludicrously small type, but extreme metal fans will likely find more to appreciate in the music ...  Read the complete review