Artist: Lord
Country: France
Label: Northmoon Zephyr Productions
Formats: CD
Year: 2026
Anyone who thought, upon seeing this release, that Lord, a fairly obscure and by many now forgotten French Black Metal band that existed roughly between 1995 and 2005, had made a comeback, is mistaken. Still, there’s no real reason to be disappointed, because ‘Proclamation Of Balthar Enthroned’ is genuinely new material. New to us, that is, because this is an album written in the early years after the turn of the millennium that has since remained on the shelf. An unreleased album, in other words.
Following Lord’s debut album ‘Behind The Curtain Of Darkness’, which enjoyed considerable success within French underground circles in 1998, fans were keenly anticipating a new album. However, that did not happen. At least not as people were expecting it. The band came up with a 2-track demo in 2000, which was initially meant as an appetizer for what would later become the band’s sophomore record.
Work had already begun on that album, and at some point it was finished and ready to be released. But by then, the band had developed a strong aversion to the Black Metal scene of that time. That was the era when bands like Dimmu Borgir, Cradle Of Filth, and Emperor were moving to major labels, getting massive airplay on MTV, and even playing at mainstream festivals. This rubbed Lord the wrong way, as they didn’t believe that was the intended purpose of the genre. As a result, the album, which was completely finished, was set aside and they started over from scratch.
The fact that this caused the entire process to be delayed slightly was a necessary sacrifice that had to be made. The result, ‘Hell’s Fucking Metal,’ released on CD in 2003 via Weird Truth Productions, leaves no doubt that the French band meant business. The older sound, which was full of atmospheric melodies and keyboards, had been completely discarded and replaced with a thunderous Black/Thrash Metal mix. There was literally nothing left that reminded one of the past. The original sound, slightly romantic, medieval and full of gothic elements, had vanished for good.
Yet, here it is, some quarter of a century later, the lost and forgotten meant-to-be-second album of Lord. Apparently it was entitled ‘Proclamation Of Balthar Enthroned’ and when we compare it to ‘Behind The Curtain Of Darkness’ it is clear that this was actually a way more of a logical successor than ‘Hell’s Fucking Metal’ was. You could say that ‘Proclamation Of Balthar Enthroned’ sounds pure and authentic, but given the above, that’s just stating the obvious. What it does, however, is bring back the zeitgeist of the late 90s and early 00s. Although less classical than Dimmu Borgir, less ingenious than Emperor and less theatrical than Cradle Of Filth, this album fits the “millennial”-bill perfectly. With its prominent use of keyboards, clear Heavy Metal structures and guitar leads, it actually fits best amongst the Italian bands of that era: Evol, Theatres Des Vampires and Graveworm. There is also a hint of Salacious Gods (The Netherlands) and Catamenia (Finland) to be detected, particularly due to the interplay between the guitar and the keyboards.
It is not an album that stands tall today and I don’t think it would’ve done that at the time. The first album was released by the very small British Eldethorn label (also responsible for early releases of Neglected Fields, Ewigkeit and the British Ragnarok), so with that label’s narrow distribution and promotion networks, Lord, at the time, was mainly known within the French underground scene. The band’s international “fame” and recognition came later when internet became bigger and it was easier to exchange music, also the relative success of ‘Hell’s Fucking Metal’ made people go back down Lord’s discography. But both first albums, including ‘Proclamation Of Balthar Enthroned’, do not belong to the best of those Melodic Black Metal albums of the time. That doesn’t mean they didn’t play a significant role, because beneath the top acts that everyone knows, bands like these are crucial to the further development of a genre. This was certainly the case in the French scene; many of the bands that subsequently rose to prominence and are still active today drew inspiration from a band like Lord. That historical significance alone makes the release of this album worthwhile; it allows us not only to hear how things might have turned out for Lord, but above all to reflect on this story once again.
