Dungeon Facts
@dungeonfacts
Dungeon enthusiast and dilettante.
The cryptic observer who clearly sees the whole board while playing by an entirely different, unknowable set of rules.
It was probably a big shareware compilation, but the first CD I remember having was King's Quest V.
@asterionhex.monster good morning, there was a neat bug in my garden
I have a replica of that boddhisatva on my mantle! It's my favorite exhibit at the Nelson-Atkins.
Turns out that "eat every enemy and block with face" is a viable Ironclad strategy. #sts2 #slaythespire2
Mechs are great and all, but the best Homeric adaptation has already been done
I didn't exactly collect comics (we got big packs of leftovers that were sold in bulk at Sam's Club) but I remember the very first comic I owned was one I got from a local arcade after winning a bunch of skeeball tickets. I wouldn't call it formative, but in retrospect it makes a lot of sense.
Their final album, The Cthonic Chronicles, is the most polished. It's straightforward Lovecraft, with an icy, terrifying atmosphere of mystery and discovery. In many ways their best work, but the excesses of the other albums are so lovable it's hard to pick a favorite for very long.
Atlantis Ascendant is a distillation of all the things that make Bal-Sagoth so compelling. Ancient gods and magic civilizations battle for control of a doomed world! Abbatoir guitars and spacefaring synthesizers enshrine tales told in a fireside basso voice that turns to eldritch shrieking.
Their 4th album, The Power Cosmic, shifts narrative gears to comic book science fiction, featuring enormous space gods, planet-searing warfare, and galactic stakes. The guitar riffs are razor-sharp compared to the intricately brutal style of previous albums, reaving sonic carnage with precision.
Battle Magic is more sword and sorcery, and sounds a little campier than the previous album, partly due to the heavier synthesizers and audio production. This album has much more spoken word vocals that make Bal-Sagoth so unique, more like an ancient bardic story than a pure modern song.
Many people think their best work is the second album, the character-limit-destroying Starfire Burning Upon The Ice-Veiled Throne of Ultima Thule. A sword-and-sorcery epic, leaning into a symphonic edge than before, but delivering a ferocious confluence of imagination and composition.
Each album feels different, as they shift in theme and musical style. Their debut album, A Black Moon Broods Over Lemuria, is gritty black metal with a chilling symphonic sheen, more thematically tied to witchcraft, dark gods, and the awakening of slumbering evil. It's my least favorite.
Sharing one of my favorite obscurities, Bal-Sagoth. A band named for a Robert E. Howard short story, their albums are sprawling epic fantasies, from grimdark Conan-esque battle anthems to cosmic horror science fiction enovella. The lyrics and liner notes for their albums are like novellas.
It was either them or the thri-kreen if the choice is birds or bugs