Byron Roberts

Byron Roberts
Byron Roberts of Bal-Sagoth on stage in Bradford, England, 2002.
Background information
Also known as	Byron, Lord Byron, Byron A. Roberts
Origin	Sheffield, England
Genres	Black metal, death metal
Occupation(s)	Vocalist, lyricist, songwriter
Instruments	Vocals
Years active	1988–present
Labels	Cacophonous, Nuclear Blast
Associated acts	Bal-Sagoth
Website	byron-a-roberts.co.uk

Byron Roberts, also known as Byron A. Roberts, is the vocalist/lyricist and founder of the British symphonic extreme metal band Bal-Sagoth. Originally hailing from Yorkshire, England, and also holding full Canadian citizenship, due to many years spent living in Ontario and Quebec, Roberts graduated from Sheffield Hallam University with an Honours Degree in English, writing his final year thesis on the genres of pulp fantasy, science fiction and horror, and more specifically the works of H.P. Lovecraft. Roberts originated the band's concept, and writes all the lyrics for Bal-Sagoth, having performed the vocals on all six Bal-Sagoth albums to date as well as the band's 1993 demo.

Roberts came up with the idea for the band Bal-Sagoth around 1989. For years, he had been seeking suitable musicians with whom he could collaborate to realise his grand vision of forming "a sublimely symphonic black/death metal band swathed in a concept of dark fantasy/science-fiction and ancient myths & legends." However, none of those he approached were willing to commit to the endeavour. In 1993, after several aborted attempts to launch the project, he was introduced to the musician Jonny Maudling and his brother Chris Maudling, who were at that time jamming cover versions with their friends, and who were also looking to form a serious band. Rehearsals followed, and some months later, after a minor line-up reshuffle, the formal inception of Bal-Sagoth took place. The band began composing songs, the ultimate result (now some nineteen years later) being a six album discography currently available from Cacophonous Records and Nuclear Blast. For a more extensive account of the band and its releases, see Bal-Sagoth.

Drawing inspiration from such writers as Robert E. Howard, H. P. Lovecraft, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Frank Herbert, J.R.R. Tolkien, Shakespeare, Arthur C. Clarke, Clark Ashton Smith, David Gemmell, George Lucas, Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, Roberts set out to create his own dark and baroque fantasy universe, with tales told through the medium of extreme metal albums. He named the band Bal-Sagoth in honour of one of his primary literary inspirations, the writer Robert E. Howard, whose story "The Gods of Bal-Sagoth" had first appeared in the legendary pulp fantasy magazine Weird Tales during the 1930s. Sometimes dubbed "The Multiverse" and/or "The Omniverse", Roberts's lyrical world is an extensive landscape of fantasy/science fiction, ranging from intergalactic tales of rogue gods and cosmic empires, to historical epics and high adventures, to sword and sorcery style sagas. The stories of the lyrical world are all connected to a greater or lesser degree, and are roughly divided into several different eras. The first era is the "antediluvian" epoch, during which most of the sword & sorcery style stories take place. Tales occurring even earlier than this, such as when the planet Earth consisted of the megacontinent Pangaea, are also usually grouped into this broad chronological categorisation. Then there is an era covering recorded human history from ancient times to roughly the end of World War II, during which Roberts's historical stories occur. Thirdly there is a future era, which roughly dates from the year 2104 all the way to a timeframe many thousands of years in the future, and it is during this epoch that the science-fiction oriented stories take place. Key inspirations for the vast canon are arcane mythology, ancient history, legends, and the occult. The world of the lyrics is a vast place spanning countless millennia, and is chronicled in Roberts's forthcoming A-Z Glossary Mk. II, dubbed simply "The Lexicon".