Bathory: Albums (1984-87)

Bathory: Albums (1984-87)

It seems that I've not made a single post about Bathory yet! That oversight will now be rectified. In short: No Bathory = No Black Metal.

That's just a widespread opinion that I share, not an established fact.

I know that Venom managed to coin the phrase two years prior, but it took the genius of Bathory's Quorthon (Tomas Forsberg) to turn the phrase into something more than just playful word association; Quorthon gave it life. Bathory shits on Venom from a great height after a week-long diet of prunes and porridge - metal prunes and substantially heavy porridge.

If you're a Venom fan and want to counter by saying that perhaps No Venom = No Bathory, then I won't argue because the jury is (and likely always will be) out on that. But to me, Venom are like Spinal Tap with studded wristbands, in comparison. Bathory is a Storm of Damnation, a Wind of Mayhem, etc.

01. The self-titled début album Bathory (1984) is a primitive blast of distorted guitars, repetitive drums, and fuzzy vocals that sound like they were recorded inside of a dead tree. The purposeful lack of finesse doesn't diminish its power. Instead, it's the very thing that defines it. When viewed in an historical context, it's a truly landmark release that both set the template and paved the way for Norway to subsequently explode with much more blackened creativity.

02. The Return... (1985) followed a year later. It's a furious progression in the same vein, with an equally dark atmosphere. The production is a little more polished than before, but with little impact on the rawness of the sound, thanks in part to the level of sketchy musicianship - personally, I feel that just adds to the whole. If you listen to the track Total Destruction you'll be able to hear what Mayhem stole from Quorthon, and what Varg took for Burzum, and probably something of what every other Black Metal act worth their ritual salt took as inspiration.

03. I think Under the Sign of the Black Mark (1987) was the first Bathory album that I ever heard, many, many full-moons ago. Like the previous two albums it has an intro that's designed to set a chilling tone, which is followed by a full-on assault of furious noise, but track #03 is something different: Woman of Dark Desires, named after the same Hungarian Countess from which the band took its name, is slower in tempo but still powerful, with an austere grimness. The remainder of the album is just as great, but the highlight for me thereafter is the longest track, Enter the Eternal Fire, which feels a lot more experimental, and can be seen as a direct line to the more epic-inspired compositions that characterise the next era in Bathory's evolution...