A well-worn classic of the Lovecraftian genre, the Chthonic Chronicles is the third entry into Bal-Sagoth's Mythos trilogy, presented here in defiance of traditional Euclidean mathematics and conventional notions of chronological coherence. For those unfamiliar with the works of Bal-Sagoth, they perform bombastic, baroque, and mind-altering pretentious Black Metal backed by a symphony and choir, with traces of T.S. Eliot's inspired gibberish in the lyrics. This is the total opposite of one's homemade one-man black metal music, obscure in both meaning and origin. Bal-Sagoth lays every note and whisper bare with its razor-sharp crystalline production and elaborate self-created mythology. Nonetheless, this remains an imminently likable and charming album, seemingly unaware of its own ridiculousness and therefore free of artifice and sneering irony.
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