Customer Reviews

Power Cosmic

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Cheesy, maybe. Corny, perhaps. But utterly irresistible. Bal Sagoth's "The Power Cosmic" is a record that never has a boring moment, never lets down, always maintains the same level of intensity and completely satisfies any fan of melodic black metal. If you like the music of Dimmu Borgir, Emperor or Thy Serpent, and also enjoy some recent Power Metal in the vein of Rhapsody, this is for you. Bal Sagoth displays the same kind of high speed, double-bass drummed style, and the epic, symphonic keyboard melodies that can be found on any of the earlier mentioned bands. The difference is that Bal Sagoth doesn't strive for heavy and unholy darkness like its BM peers, but for grandeur and beauty. Instead of trying to plunge you in evil and desperation, they make you feel exultant, joyous. The entire album is like a musical travel, something to expand imagination and hope. That is no to say it is some kind of happy Stratovarius act, not at all. It has all the furious intensity of any evil BM band, but oriented differently. I know there's some people who find Bal Sagoth easy to ridicule because of their heroic-fantasy-sci-fi quality, and I started to listen "Power Cosmic" with prejudice. But it vanished right away. All my scorn melted like butter. For me it was impossible not to go along for the ride, and enjoy each song like a kid who has just discovered metal. I recommend this with all my heart, because I find there's nothing in this album I can say I didn't like. Oh, perhaps most of the vocals keep a James-Earl-Jones-narration style that don't work very much (I would prefer a typical BM shriek), but who cares, with all the astounding music going along with the voice. Hands down, it's the best, most inspiring record I've heard in a long time. Buy it, buy it, buy it.

After recieving the most recent installment of the Bal-Sagoth story I was in supreme awe of The Power Cosmic. For all true epic barbarian warrior king Gods travelling throughout the many dimensions of the multiverse.

Ignore the one-star reviews lisen to he 'useful' 5 star reviews. Although this is quite cheesy, it's an extremely clever storyline, about heroes and such. The keyboards comtemplate with the drumming perfectly. The guitars are heavy and the symphonics are amazing. Music-wise, this album is great.

Yes this IS a concept album telling a story! You can't give it 1 star because of the lyrics. Half the time with black/death metal songs you can't even tell what the lyrics are, because of the shrieking/growling. The story is not a main priority compared to the music. I wouldn't class Bal-Sagoth as black metal band; melodic/symphonic black maybe, but besides the occasional shrieking there are no Satanic lyrics. It's better off classed as 'Melodic death metal.'

It doesn't get any better than this. Bal-Sagoth is utterly unique... A combination of melodic black metal with a backing symphony (Johnny Maudling on keyboards), James Earl Jones-style vocal narrative and lyrics straight out of a Conan novel. It's a fantasy epic set to music, with blaring horns, crunchy guitars, soaring strings, and some of the goblins have singing parts.

I've read the other reviews, and yes, it sounds like Darth Vader music, and yes, it has fake trumpets and such. But you know something? This CD is SO FULL of talent, they DON'T NEED real trumpets and stuff. This album is brilliantly done; a masterpiece. It's no where NEAR the level of Metallica and this 'pop metal'...it's far far beyond... If you like fantasy, and you like metal, then LISTEN TO THIS CD. Their release before this, "Battle Magic" (1996/97) is based aruond medieval fantasy, while this one is based around a space/stars theme. Check out BOTH albums...BAL-SAGOTH is fantastic!

Don't disrespect Bal Sagoth.. this and Battle Magic are their two best albums, and are unlike anything any other band that I've heard has ever done. Musically they are very tight, the rhythm guitars and drumming in particular are very impressive, and the horn sounding keys set a mood unlike any other. The Professor Xavier vocals may take some time to get used to, but I think they are cool.. very unique.

yes, this album is a bit corny. if that turns you off completely, stop here. if you think you might be able to live with it, then to you i submit this simple review. this album is a collection of songs often well connected that tell some sort of story about conflicts between gods and the like. the music itself has a baroque-ish feel to it. there are many synthesized parts that support strong melodic lines and weave in and out of the main focus. the music here is competently written, comprehensible and ambitious. they do fall short at times of their intended goal, but such tracks as 'callisto rising' and the 'empyreal lexicon' prove their competence; one might almost consider them somewhat "prog-ish" in approach here. the technical proficiency is not spectacular anywhere, nor is the singing (james earl jones style narration and some black metal screeches) but rather it is clear, clean and professional. a fine album overall.

All Bal-Sagoth album's are pretty equal in my opinion. The Power Cosmic is my favorite one though. This band only make masterpieces. symphonic epic black metal with science fiction and also dark atmospheric lyrics with concepts. Greatly put together. Hail BAL-SAGOTH........

I'll be blunt - Bal-Sagoth is not a band for everyone. I don't particularly see a point in judging the lyrical content of black metal bands simply because the average person can't understand what's being shrieked anyway (of course, average people don't listen to black metal anyway), tho admittedly, the storyline woven throughout The Power Cosmic, and, for that matter, Bal-Sagoth's entire discography, makes for an unusual but refreshing listening experience, giving their songs meaning. I find myself easily attached to bands who use their music to tell stories, regardless of genre (my 3 favorite being Rhapsody of Fire, Coheed and Cambria, and Bal-Sagoth), and as such, it didn't take much to convince me that this album needs to stay in my car for the next few months.

I say give the "cheesy" lyrics a chance; it's a story. Sure, it's not as "kvlt" as worshipping Satan and the usual similarly distasteful (IMO) lyrics found throughout extreme metal in general, but it's a huge step up compared to Immortal's lyrics, which as far as I can tell mostly involves complaining about the weather and killing things and the Mighty Ravendark. Don't get me wrong, I like Immortal, but to be honest, their lyrics can be totally disregarded in favor of enjoying the music as a whole, because, quite frankly, I find Immortal's lyrics to be borderline silly occasionally, and I urge anyone who can't get into Bal-Sagoth's lyrics to try doing the same. I can see where people can't quite get into the various mythos that Bal-Sagoth weaves in and out of their lyrics, but that shouldn't detract from the amazing musical experience they bring to the table. Besides, there's no rule that says metal lyrics can't be taken as humorous. If you disagree, then you probably need to go listen to some Dethklok.

Lyrical content aside, the instrumentation is astounding, which is to be expected. Bal-Sagoth is symphonic black metal at it's best. This album trades out the typically dark and creepy atmosphere that seems to be the norm and instead sets more of an epic, confrontational feeling (think John Williams meets Strapping Young Lad and you're on the right track) that fits the lyrical storyline of the album. Each track, to me, is memorable, though in my opinion the standout tracks are The Empyreal Lexicon, Callisto Rising, and the final track, The Thirteen Cryptical Prophecies of Mu.

All in all, The Power Cosmic is a strong album. As good as Bal-Sagoth is, I'm rather suprised I discovered them stumbling through Wikipedia entries as opposed to finding them through one of my metal-loving friends. Looks like I have a band to introduce people to.

And out of curiousity, one of the other reveiwers says that Bal-Sagoth should get a life. They're artists, like any other band. I guess that means all bands, and effectively all artists, should also get lives? Or just the bands he doesn't like? I guess you have no life if you write lyrics about something that someone else doesn't like.

Tis is a fine with a meaning to it, although I think Battle Magic has a production. The songwriting was also better on Battle Magic. I highly recommend this album over some other bands that do barbaric stuff like Ragnarok (the viking band) but still this needs a little work then it would be perfect. Try to find battle magic before listening to this.