UK’s symphonic BM powerhouse Bal-Sagoth are ready to kick out the jams for 2013.
For starters, the Yorkshire-lads will re-release their debut offering; their 1992 demo… ‘demo’. Replete with a booklet and bonus tracks, this gem from the tape trading days is finally seeing its official release on CD. Vocalist Byron Roberts comments:
“Our original 1993 demo was never officially packaged and released, instead I simply made it available via the old tape trading networks to anyone who sent me a blank tape. That was partially because the demo was never properly completed. I had a lot of stuff in mind for it, such as sound effects interludes, a symphonic intro, and adding more keyboard parts and spoken vocal passages. Unfortunately, we were funding the recording ourselves and we ran out of time and money in the studio, so I had to abandon the notion of all those extra embellishments. Ultimately I added an intro to the demo taken from the 1987 film “Masters of the Universe”, and also included some sound effects from the old BBC Radiophonic Workshop “Death and Horror” sound effects album, just to add some atmosphere. Over the years, I’ve always wanted to give the demo a proper release. So, that will finally be happening soon. It will be a limited edition CD, with an expanded lyric booklet, artwork, some rare alternate mixes, and a few interesting bonus tracks from the vault. The integrity of the original raw and incomplete recordings has been retained, as I figured it was important to maintain them as an unaltered frozen moment in time; a window through which fans can view the band as we were in 1993, undertaking recordings with little experience, rudimentary equipment, and no budget. Luckily, Cacophonous Records saw the potential in those primal recordings and offered us an album deal, and our debut album “A Black Moon Broods Over Lemuria”, recorded in 1994 at Academy Music Studio, is a representation of what those early tracks should and would have sounded like.”
The band is planning a return to the stage stages of UK and Europe in due course. They will, however, have to wait for bassist Alistair, who has been undergoing chemotherapy and radiotherapy for the past nine months, but is expected to make a full recovery. May it be a swift one!
Lastly, keyboard-warrior Jonny Maudling and guitarist Chris Maudling have launched a side project with Dyscaphia axeman Tarkan Alp. Carrying the name of Kull, the tunes are billed as symphonic black metal.
