Baltak

Band members

Line up
- Gorgoroth (vocals, guitar, bass, programming)

Former members
- Alexander (bass)
- Lord Aerveron (drums)

Website

Formed

Sydney, NSW, 1995

Band information

Baltak is the Sydney-based black metal vehicle for Gorgoroth. The band name is taken from the Macedonian word for a battle-axe and all of Baltak's albums deal almost exclusively with Macedonian history. In keeping with this, the lyrics are also in Macedonian.

Baltak's sound on the first few albums is extreme symphonic war metal with incredibly jarring, shrill vocals that are almost unlistenable beyond most limits of taste but nevertheless the band has attracted a strong cult following. Gorgoroth's hardline political views on race and ethnicity have divided opinions and the inaccurate and bigoted manifesto that accompanies the second album was heavily criticised and even led to the establishment of an anti-Baltak movement at one point.

In 1999, Gorgorth spent considerable time in Europe and while there colloborated with Italian band Mortifier on the Buio Omega project. Kral Na Dva Svetoj was released in 2000 and Gorgoroth joined Canberra black metal band Avathalor as bass player while continuing to work on further Baltak releases. He left Australia in 2002 with a view to continuing Baltak in Europe; while there he completed another Buio Omega album and recorded with German black metal band Saxorior, whom he also signed to his Battlegod label. Gorgoroth has since returned to Australia and released a fourth Baltak album, Makedonski Boj, featuring higher standards of production and songwriting than previous efforts. It was also the first since the debut to utilise a real drummer. The 2004 single release is a limited edition vinyl issue featuring previously unavailable material.