Album title: Bathory
Artiste: Bathory
Genre: Black Metal/Thrash Metal
Year: 1984
Label: Tyfon
Producer: Quorthon, The Boss
Chronological position: Debut album
Notes:
Album chart position: Are you fu
cking
serious? A Black Metal album in the charts???
Singles: None
Lineup:
Quorthon: Vocals, guitar
Stefan Larsson: Drums
Rickard Bergman: Bass
Review begins
If there's one thing Bathory are famous for round here, it's for allowing our own Batlord to misread the name on the album and thus come up with his own username. Hey: it's easy to do! Those crazy Gothic letters, eh? Apparently famous by accident, Bathory's breakthrough came when they were included on a Black Metal compilation album after one of the bands had pulled out, and as a result of hugely positive feedback got to record their own album. This was it, and it led to a career spanning twenty years, and changing from Black Metal to Viking Metal (which Bathory are said to have invented) as they became favourites among the extreme metal community.
This was recorded, literally, in a converted garage, so I don't expect any great overall sound, perhaps taking the term lo-fi to its epitome, but let's see how it sounds thirty years on. I've heard some Bathory, but it's been more on the Viking Metal side of things, so this will be my first real acquaintance with their original and much rawer sounds. Cellos? Nope. Flutes? You kidding? Mandolin? Not on your life, mate! And it opens with every sound that has become a cliche in Black Metal: pealing bells, sound of wind and rain, thunder as “Storm of damnation (intro)” kicks us off, very atmospheric and dark, kind of almost atmospheric black metal, and I'm assuming at this point an instrumental. Yep, it is. “Hades” then ramps up the proper black metal influences, but my god (sorry Quorthon!) that production is just awful! I can hardly make out what the guy is singing, and though this is often the case with black metal, that's usually due to the singer's style - screech or growl or hiss or snarl - but here I'm sure I would be able to understand the vocals if I could hear them properly.
The drums sound like someone is hitting tin cans, though at least the guitar is front and centre. Good fast powerful headbanger for sure, giving Slayer a run for their money here, but it's hard to pick out anything specific about the track. Fretwork is excellent, but now it's over and we're into “Reaper”, where at least the drums sound fuller and stronger, and in fact yeah, I can hear the vocals fine now. Well, they come and go. I like this one better than “Hades”; at least I can make out what the song is about here. Not sure if “Necromansy” is meant to be spelled that way (Wiki says it was a mistake due to Quorthon running out of press-on letters, but I guess it's become known as that now) but it rocks nicely, and with somewhat less of an edge than “Reaper”. Some really nice riffs here and a great melody. Fantastic solo at the end.
Didn't Elton John do a cover of this? No? Must be another “Sacrifice” I'm thinking of then.
Man, this rockets along like a good thing. Makes Motorhead sound slow and plodding and Slayer lethargic. That missing C in his Letra-set (TM) comes up again for “In conspirasy with Satan” which hammers along on rails of fire, punishing guitar and pounding drums, the vocal evil as all Hell. Another excellent solo, possibly one of the best on the album so far, and into the appropriately-titled “Armageddon” which destroys all before it. Quorthon's voice is a little lower-pitched on this, not a growl or anything close but definitely a lower register. The dark pealing bells return, accompanied by a slowing heartbeat to usher in “Raise the dead” with a Sabbathy riff to open, then it rocks and boogies along like nobody's business, and I think this may be my favourite track on the album. Love this. This is more the thrash metal side of Bathory, I guess. Love the solo.
That leaves us with two tracks, but one really, as the closer is only seconds long. “War” just goes for the throat, taking no prisoners and ploughing a furrow across your brain that will make it impossible for you to sit still again. You
have to headbang to this song: it's mandatory. Sure it's simple and almost throwaway, but it's such fun! How can you resist? Then we have as I say a few seconds of ambient noise to close in “Outro” and we're done.
TRACK LISTING AND RATINGS
Storm of damnation (intro)
Hades
Reaper
Necromansy
Sacrifice
In conspirasy with Satan
Armageddon
Raise the dead
War
Outro
Afterword: It's all a little raw and unfocussed for me, and hard to get at any actual real tunes, so hard to praise this album that much. Having said that, it's an impressive debut for something that was pretty much thrown together, and with better production or remastering this could have turned out to be quite an album. As it is, it's a cult favourite and a legend among black metal devotees, so I'm not going to say anything negative about it.
Rating: 