INTERVIEWS

August 2001 - Interview by Nick "Volrath the Fallen"

Hail mighty Byron! How goes the fray there? What are the plans of Bal Sagoth these days?
Greetings from the mighty Bal-Sagoth. We are currently honing our weapons, preparing for our next great campaign. Additionally, preliminary work on the sixth album has now commenced.

The "No Mercy Tour" is over. How was this tour for Bal Sagoth? Tell me your experience touring with all those extreme metal bands like Mortician, Amon Amarth, And Oceans etc.
Yes indeed, the No Mercy tour was cool. It was our first tour since the legendary 1997 European tour with Emperor, so it was good to get back out there into the live environment once again. The crowd responses were very good, especially in Holland, France and Italy. We played very early most nights, which was somewhat unacceptable, as many of our fans arrived AFTER we had played and therefore missed our set. But we hope to get back out to Europe later this year and play some more shows... including Greece.
We got on pretty well with all the bands on the bill, which is always important on a tour. We had a special alliance with Mortician from the USA, with whom we left a trail of carnage and empty beer cans all across Europe!

Let's talk about your latest opus, "Atlantis Ascendant". Are you satisfied with the sales till now?
It will be a few months before we get any firm information regarding the sales of the new album, but there have certainly been countless magazine and radio interviews conducted to promote the new opus, and it has received more radio airplay than previous albums, even here in the UK. Ultimately however, sales do not concern us. We create this baroque dark art for ourselves, and for the elite few Bal-Sagoth fans around the world who truly understand and embrace our darksomely magical soundscapes.

In "Atlantis Ascendant" you follow the musical parts of "The Power Cosmic". I think that many of your supporters would like a more barbaric sound like the old albums ("Battle Magic" and "Starfire Burning"). Tell me about that...
Each Bal-Sagoth album is a different chapter of the same overall saga, and each album, although characterized by varying aural elements, is unmistakably recognizable as a Bal-Sagoth opus. The new album does contain elements from all the previous records, whilst simultaneously adding a myriad new twists and turns for the listener to experience. The core of Bal-Sagoth will always remain unchanged, and all the celebrated elements of Bal-Sagoth's sound, be they bombastic, dark, horrific, brutal, barbaric, cosmic, astral, victorious etc. will always be present to some degree in every album. Ultimately, every Bal-Sagoth fan has their own particular favourite album of ours, and all those albums are of course part of our legacy and our canon, being part of the great saga.

Did anything strange or fun happen during the recordings of "Atlantis Ascendant"?
We discovered a great many old artefacts in the labyrinthine cellars of the Academy, including a rather old and rusty breastplate and shield, and we learned that a natural spring ran beneath the building.

You are cooperating with lot of artists to create a beautiful layout for your albums and your site. Do you think that this is important for a band?
Yes, I think that artwork is very important for a band, which is why I work very closely with our artists to ensure that all our artwork perfectly reflects the thematic nature of Bal-Sagoth. I always provide our artists with detailed summaries and directives concerning what images and events require portraying in the artwork, and I provide character designs to make certain the characters are depicted as I envisioned them. Our Official Artist Martin Hanford is possessed of an unrivalled talent and enthusiasm for our conceptual nature, and his work is amongst the best in the fantasy field. Soon, there will be a collection of stories which I have written set within the Bal-Sagoth lyrical universe, illustrated by Martin Hanford. Additionally, Hanford will continue to provide exclusive artwork for our award-winning t-shirts... and there are a few special Bal-Sagoth projects in the works, details of which I will disclose soon.

There are a lot of myths about Atlantis. Tell me about it from your point of view.
The myth of Atlantis has been something which has fascinated me for as long as I can remember. I am captivated by all those ancient myths and legends of antediluvian lost civilizations and the various cultural and historical conotations associated with them. Atlantis has been a theme which has been very prevalent in the Bal-Sagoth lyrics since the inception of the band, and in the antediluvian fantasy universe which I have created, my own fantasy oriented incarnation of Atlantis is one of the world's primary locations and the centre of a great and advanced imperial civilization. Perhaps one day definitive evidence of the existence and location of Atlantis shall be found, and on that day, a great supernova of enlightenment shall illumine all mankind.

You are an original and absolutely unique band. What other bands do you think that are closely to Bal Sagoth music?
None whatsoever! We are entirely unique, without equals or rivals! There is a touch of magic about Bal-Sagoth which no other band could ever hope to emulate.

Have you ever though of creating an album without vocals with just pure Bal Sagoth bombastic music, something like an astrical and epic sountrack?
It has long been an idea of mine to create a side project which would deal primarily with the symphonic side of the music, very film soundtrack oriented, no guitars or drums, utilizing varied sound effects and orchestral arrangements, with some spoken narration, and perhaps a cast of extras playing the parts of the various characters. This project would be a similar to a truly symphonic film score, telling a story with a direct narrative set against a musical backdrop, and would take listeners on a grand and epic journey in a similar yet strangely different way to Bal-Sagoth. Perhaps one day I will make this side-project a reality.

Give me a characterization for each of your albums with just one word.
"A Black Moon...": MALEVOLENT
"Starfire Burning...": MAJESTIC
"Battle Magic": BOMBASTIC
"The Power Cosmic": ASTRAL
"Atlantis Ascendant": FANTASTIC

Have you fulfilled your dreams as a musician?
Dreams are very fleeting and ethereal entities... in many ways implementing Project: Bal-Sagoth and being able to make the idea a reality was the fulfilment and realization of a dream in itself... particularly when you consider the obstacles I had to overcome in the process, and the deluded naysayers whom I took great pleasure in ultimately proving irrevocably wrong!

Tell me your favourite metal albums and your favourite soundtracks.
Some of my favourite metal albums:
Bathory: Blood Fire Death
Celtic Frost: To Mega Therion
Morbid Angel: Altars of Madness
Iron Maiden: Piece of Mind
Manowar: Kings of Metal
Some favourite film soundtracks:
Star Wars, Conan the Barbarian, Jaws, Aliens, The Good, The Bad And The Ugly, Last of the Mohicans, Superman, Omen III, etc...

What can we expect from Bal Sagoth in the future?
Global domination as I implement my worldwide Bal-Sagoth New Imperium!
We hope to get out to Europe for some more shows later this year, including shows in Hellas, and then perhaps play some gigs in North America. Following that, the recording of the historic sixth Bal-Sagoth album will begin, and the saga will be brought to a cataclysmic climax!

That's all Byron! Thanks for the interview! Let's finish with a message to the supporters of Bal Sagoth and with your favourite lyrics.
Hails to Nick for this interview, and for the great unofficial Greek Bal-Sagoth website! And hail to all the supporters of Bal-Sagoth in Greece who are reading this! Keep your blades sharp, and we will hopefully unleash some live carnage upon thee later this year!
Embrace the legendary power of Bal-Sagoth... pledge your swords to our crusade and march with us beneath our blazon to ultimate victory! BLODU OK JARNA!!!!!!!
 

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