The band incorporates black metal influences and symphonic elements into an overall grandiose canvas, with the elaborate lyrics of Byron Roberts painting a picture of battles in an antediluvian age where Atlantis had not yet been destroyed and the continents were still joined in a Pangaean mass. A predominant feature is the use of epic keyboards played by Jonny Maudling who composes and arranges the music. The guitar, drums and keyboards work together as an integral entity rather like a symphonic work. The vocals of Byron Roberts are a mixture of spoken word and black metal screams making the songs more like stories set to music than anything else. The stories are told like a play, with many characters (or groups of characters, speaking in unison) exchanging dialogue. Byron uses different vocalizations and effects to set them apart. The songs frequently have very long titles. Byron intends to release some short stories and novellas based on his lyrics and also some graphic novels created in collaboration with the artist Martin Hanford.
They currently have six albums out. The music for the latest one, "The Chthonic Chronicles" was recorded and produced at Jonny Maudling's studio "Waylands Forge", while the vocals were recorded at Academy Music Studio, the same studio where the band's previous five albums were recorded.
Invocations Beyond the Outer-World Night
Bal-Sagoth Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Many thousands of years ago, they ruled the globe
But the pressing fist of great power carried a heavy price
and now their dominion has fallen beyond time and shadow
Look now, to the interior world
The Explorer:
Ah yes, this ancient map (its true origin unknown
won in a game of cards at Portsmouth docks
a fortuitous hand indeed! (This could eclipse even Blackthorne's discoveries in Antarctica!)
Wagered by a grizzled mariner (in whose weary rum-addled gaze gleamed the knowledge of something far greater)...
Twin axial portals to the inner reaches
one at the very polar pinnacle of the world
the other hidden beneath the lost ice-bound megalopolis!
(See also: "In Search Of The Lost Cities Of Antarctica")
Seeking answers to the cryptic riddles of the universe
Secrets of the blackest (most impenetrable) deeps of the umbra
Wreathed in frozen shadow and ice-bound peril
Subterrene halls of horripilated wonderment
Tatsumaki Maru voyage north, ever north!
Cleave a path through the massing Arctic ice
Agleam with all the colours of the aurora
Far beyond Ny Alesund lies our goal
Wreathed in frozen shadow and ice-bound peril
agleam with all the colours of the aurora
The portal to the tenebrous cryptic core of this world's subterrene inner sanctums
Invocations and ideograms (dreams of the Xtaxehedron?)
Conjuration of the inner world's (tenebrous) denizens
And their star-spanning progenitors, spawned beyond the outer-world night
Hail Klatrymadon, Ave Zuranthus
Arise great Kur' oc, come forth, lord Guul-Kor
Zul'tekh, Xuk'ul
Ka-kur-ra, Xothan-Kur
Kur' oc, Guul-Kor
Azor Vol-thoth
These darkling subterrene dominions
astir with strange and terrible beings
sired by entities whose genesis
was far beyond the nighted void of our own outer-world!
The legacy of the First Ones, spawn of the Mera!
But, it is here written that one day
when even the War of the Lexicon
and the cataclysmic Great Chaos War have faded to naught but distant memory
a great conflict shall be waged between the forces of Order
and the dread avatars of the Z'xulth
Vile fiends of the Outer Darkness, They-Who-Lurk-And-Breed-In-Limbo
The Dewllers In Eternal Shadow unleashed through The Gate To That Which Lies Beyond!
The Black Galaxy disgorges its malignant horrors!
Mankind shall suffer inestimably at the hands of these sinistrous
black titans of maleficent Chaos!
Ebon ziggurats and monads beneath the earth
A Vril-Sun rising!
These stygian pitch-black vaults are filled with batrachian devils
Dire crystalline watch-dogs of the chasmed deeps
(For the gleaming jewels of truth are not without their protection)
Vril-gorged adamantine fiends of the threshold
Spawn of the ersatz interior sun
(Behold, a vast plasma-fuelled crystalline illuminatory orb, a vril-sun rising!
And marvel at the colossal terra-forming machineries of the First Ones!)
Quaere verum
Sic itur ad astra!
The Testament Of The Winds:
Far, far beneath the surface of this coruscating sphere
at the very core of our mysterious globe, lies
the true path to man's dark destiny beyond the heavens
The lyrics of Bal-Sagoth's song Invocations Beyond the Outer-World Night paint a picture of exploration and discovery, as a group of adventurers seek out the secrets of the interior world that lies beneath the earth's surface. The song speaks of the ancient rulers of the world who fell from power, and the subterrene sanctums and inner reaches that are now filled with strange and terrible creatures, sired by entities spawned beyond the outer-world night. The lyrics suggest that there is a great conflict brewing between the forces of Order and the dread avatars of the Z'xulth, which will see mankind suffer at the hands of sinistrous black titans of maleficent Chaos.
The explorer in the song speaks of a map won in a game of cards, which shows twin axial portals to the inner reaches - one at the polar pinnacle of the world, the other hidden beneath a lost ice-bound megalopolis. The explorer and his companions sail northwards in search of these portals, seeking answers to the cryptic riddles of the universe and the secrets of the blackest deeps of the umbra. The song ends with the Testament of the Winds, which speaks of the true path to man's dark destiny beyond the heavens, lying at the core of the earth.
Line by Line Meaning
Many thousands of years ago, they ruled the globe. But the pressing fist of great power carried a heavy price, and now their dominion has fallen beyond time and shadow. Look now, to the interior world...
The powerful beings of the past ruled the world, but their power came at a great cost and their reign is long gone. The focus now is on exploring the inner world.
Ah yes, this ancient map (its true origin unknown... mayhap even crafted by the same vaunted cartographer as the infamous Piri Reis map itself?) won in a game of cards at Portsmouth docks... a fortuitous hand indeed! (This could eclipse even Blackthorne's discoveries in Antarctica!) Wagered by a grizzled mariner (in whose weary rum-addled gaze gleamed the knowledge of something far greater)...
Twin axial portals to the inner reaches... one at the very polar pinnacle of the world, the other hidden beneath the lost ice-bound megalopolis! (See also: "In Search Of The Lost Cities Of Antarctica")
An ancient map, whose origins are not known, won in a game of cards at Portsmouth, is believed to be valuable. The map shows two portals to the inner world - one at the polar pinnacle and one beneath the lost ice-bound megalopolis.
Seeking answers to the cryptic riddles of the universe,
Secrets of the blackest (most impenetrable) deeps of the umbra,
Wreathed in frozen shadow and ice-bound peril,
Subterrene halls of horripilated wonderment...
Searching for answers to the mysteries of the universe, the explorers venture into the deepest, darkest and most impenetrable parts of the world. They encounter danger in the form of ice-bound perils and they find astonishing wonders in subterranean halls.
Tatsumaki Maru voyage north, ever north!
Cleave a path through the massing Arctic ice,
Agleam with all the colours of the aurora,
Far beyond Ny Alesund lies our goal.
The explorers head north on the Tatsumaki Maru, cutting through the Arctic ice that sparkles with stunning colors of the aurora borealis. Their goal lies far beyond Ny Alesund.
Wreathed in frozen shadow and ice-bound peril, agleam with all the colours of the aurora,
The portal to the tenebrous cryptic core of this world's subterrene inner sanctums.
The explorers find the portal to the dark and mysterious core of the subterranean inner world, which is surrounded by ice-bound danger but shines with the colors of the aurora borealis.
Invocations and ideograms (dreams of the Xtaxehedron?),
Conjuration of the inner world's (tenebrous) denizens,
And their star-spanning progenitors, spawned beyond the outer-world night.
The explorers use magical incantations and symbols to interact with the mysterious beings of the inner world and their alien ancestors who came from beyond the darkness of the outer world.
Hail Klatrymadon, Ave Zuranthus,
Arise great Kur' oc, come forth, lord Guul-Kor
Zul'tekh, Xuk'ul
Ka-kur-ra, Xothan-Kur,
Kur' oc, Guul-Kor,
Azor Vol-thoth
The explorers address and call upon various supernatural beings of the inner world by their respective names.
These stygian pitch-black vaults are filled with batrachian devils,
Dire crystalline watch-dogs of the chasmed deeps,
(For the gleaming jewels of truth are not without their protection...)
Vril-gorged adamantine fiends of the threshold,
Spawn of the ersatz interior sun. (Behold, a vast plasma-fuelled crystalline illuminatory orb... a vril-sun rising! And marvel at the colossal terra-forming machineries of the First Ones!)
The subterranean vaults are home to dangerous creatures like batrachian devils and crystalline watch-dogs. However, there are valuable truths to be uncovered that are worth protecting, and the explorers encounter even more dangerous beings, spawn of the ersatz interior sun, and find a massive artifact, a vril-sun, which was used by the First Ones for terraforming.
The Testament Of The Winds:
Far, far beneath the surface of this coruscating sphere, at the very core of our mysterious globe, lies
the true path to man's dark destiny beyond the heavens...
According to the Testament of the Winds, the true path to humanity's dark fate beyond the heavens lies deep within the earth at the core of the globe.
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Byron A. Roberts, Jonathan Maudling
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind