Bal Sagoth - The Empyreal Lexicon - Live (2of3) London 2011

[JamesGod08]

Finally Let me make it clear, I'm not blaming any one; I'm blaming every one. Byron, the rest of Sagoth, and the fucking gay sound boy all made major mistakes IMO. The support guys are not exempt because they accepted a role they were totally unfit for, when there were guys who could have done it much better in the crowd, but were kept out of the loop (trust me I know). *FACT!* Perhaps best no vocals at all. Colossal fail on all parts, end of.

[porln]

@porln I may be drawing a conclusion only from the things I have seen/heard here, but - this would have been completely different if Byron just said 'guys, my throat is fucked, what do we do?' that afternoon. Not pointing a finger - there may be a perfectly good explanation for everything - but it would have helped.

[JamesGod08]

@porln 3-4 songs in and still mega thrown off? They aren't even moshing to the beat half the time properly, and you reckon he knew the lyrics but just had stress? I don't buy it. They didn't ask anyone except backstage people they "knew", who didn't know any of it. This is small time not sellout stadium stuff. Should have asked those who knew it best - the crowd. So much for camaraderie.

[porln]

@JamesGod08 Dude - I dont reckon, I know. Not sure about Ethereals vocalist, who admittedly does the majority - I dont know him at all. Do you think 'any fan from the crowd' would be able to pull off a convincing extreme vocal performance, regardless of whether they could recite Byron's lyrics in a heartbeat? Also - the band were clearly thrown off due to Byron's disappearance - not blaming them at all but they got a lot of stuff wrong in this show themselves.

[burzumbooth]

they were stressing because they lost byron and didnt even know there lyrics to there own songs .. they were looking on there iphones was classic

[voorish]

is this venue in a bar or something?

[porln]

Some perspective for this show - I'm in the band Phyrexia with Elliot (vocalist on the left, we opened at this gig) - both guys had 2 minutes notice when it was clear that Byron wasnt coming back. Dont know the other vocalist, but Elliots a big Bal Sagoth fan and knows a lot of their lyrics. Being asked to sing for a band so suddenly would throw anyone off, especially for a band with lyrics like Sagoth's. Before cricitizing the vocalists, ask yourself who is really at fault here.

[Asmodeus8797]

@inefernalrties Like that would have made a difference to the sound? No.

[infernalrites]

@Asmodeus8797 Byron was absent when Bal-Sagoth were due to soundcheck, despite being present at the venue earlier! So yes actually it did make a difference. Overall though, the atmosphere at the gig was good and the vocalists from the support bands made good efforts.

[Asmodeus8797]

@infernalrites No, my point is that even without the vocalist, the sound man should have been able to give a decent sound for the show. The level of everything was out. The sound man was not familiar with the band, thats the point Im making.

[Saruman007]

who the fuck is that on keyboards? That doesnt look like Johnny maulding.

[Asmodeus8797]

@Saruman007 yes it is!

[NeglectedField]

I think given the circumstances it went wonderfully. The band played good as ever and even if nobody could nail the lyrics start to finish, the atmosphere was great. They seem to be kind of a hapless band but I'll always be behind them.

[jdnoidea]

1 - Byron went down all the way from Sheffield to London, and only realised he was sick while at the venue? Then disappearing, and not answering his phone?

2 - The sound was shit, because the soundguy was a 12 year old emo kid.

3 - They wanted someone on stage with them they knew. U think they should have just randomly picked some from the crowd who said they knew the lyrics?

Please think before you judge. This whole thing is not their fault, who were there. It's the fault of who wasn't.

[JamesGod08]

If you are man enough and it's v. important, you go sick or not, and try see if you can do it. Not ideal but it could have happened. The Saggoth lads knew who was at the gig, they could have approached anyone, (all the current/former Mithras guys for a start) even before they got on stage easily. They should know them good enough by now. But even a bloody random fan who knows the music could have done it far better than this. Perhaps egos got in the way of logical decisions.

[Hreidmarr9]

@JamesGod08 Bands practise before gigs. He didn't know his voice was f'kd, only realised when he got to London? I feel sorry for them for having a weird vocalist like him. But I'm not gonna blame or attack them, despite the circumstances they did a good show and I had fun. Just cuz it wasn't a typical Sagoth show, it was still a good show.

No-one could have done better with a vocalist goin missing in the LAST MINUTE. I bet they were nervous and couldn't even concentrate on the music properly.

[Asmodeus8797]

@Hreidmarr9 He actually DID know his voice was fucked, he'd had to miss several rehearsals in the weeks before the show apparently, hoping it might recover. But it didn't.

[yawgmothfluffy]

@JamesGod08 Actually, members from the tour & support *were* rampantly running through the crowd to find people who knew the lyrics, and the Mithras vocalist declined the offer very firmly back stage - true story. He later got up for half a song which he was confident in.

You're incredibly quick to judge. Some of the guys that got up that night were pretty dedicated Sagoth fans. Ever taken a look at Sagoth lyrics? They're not exactly the easiest things to recite.

[JamesGod08]

@yawgmothfluffy Not blaming the Sagoth lads entirely but, they made a bad situation much worse. The support vocalists did not know the music at all. They could have got on the bloody mic and just asked around... there were people there (fans and musicians alike) who could have recited the lyrics backwards and done the screams too, but were not in on the inside problems to help. It would have looked no different, but sounded 1000 times better, been WAY more fun than watching 3+ guys killing it.

[Despoilerful]

@JamesGod08

hi im the vocalist who stood in.

yes you are right in what your saying but things were to chaotic that night and chris, jonny mac and wak were too stressed out and asked me to do the vox 4 whole thing with the aid of elliot from phyrexia. we didnt want it turning into a free for all. the whole thing was badly run and organized by the promoter and the 12 yr old sound engineer. suffice to say i will never play at the purple turtle again. it was either we do what happend or cancel

[Asmodeus8797]

@JamesGod08 They should have just done it as an instrumental set. That way they could have played for the full time, and I know that I would have been singing along in my head anyway, like most of the other fans.

Those stand ins, okay great, they stepped up and tried it, but it would have been better without them. They clearly did not know the songs, no matter what anyone says.

[Despoilerful]

@jdnoidea

thank you. i was the vocalist who stood in. i was only trying to help my friends out after they were abandoned. byron did leave then venue and didnt tell anyone about his problem or the situation. a solution could have possibly been arranged without undue stress or worry to all involved. it was either cancel the show or give the fans something rather than nothing. im sorry i dont fil byrons shoes but me and elliot did our best to help a very bad situation.

luke

vocalist

ethereal

[infernalrites]

sound would have been better if Byron hadn't walked off when they were supposed to soundcheck :s

[voorish]

Holy fuck thats a bad sound! Thats too band that their real singer was sick that night.

I think the sound man probably didnt know the band's sound so much.

[Asmodeus8797]

I was there, and yeah it was a total mess. The sound was absolutely terrible, and they didnt play well. (yes, just an instrumental set would have been better than stand ins who didnt know the words). Oh well. :(

[139mp138]

Shame.