Bathory: Albums (1988-91)

Bathory: Albums (1988-91)

I once heard someone describe the Blood Fire Death (1988) album as a collection of quality songs. The description is certainly valid, but it's also a vast understatement of the truth. BFD is a ground-breaking, momentous human achievement, the importance of which cannot be overstressed. Like the eponymous début album, it delivered something unprecedented that made everyone else sit up and take notice.

The thundering intro, the use of acoustics, the Viking symbolism, the choirs, the cleaner vocals, the pounding drums, the torturing wail of the electric guitars, the Pure Fucking Armageddon heaviness of it all was something that the world hadn't experienced before. In short, it changed the face of metal and made Quorthon a living legend.

And then came Hammerheart (1990), and the Allfather did rejoice, for if you listen to the Bathory albums chronologically, like I've been listing them, you can discern Quorthon evolving from one genre he perfected to another genre he perfected. On Hammerheart he slowed the guitars and vocals down, dropped the pitch, and somehow perfectly translated the imagery of Norse Mythology into musical form. He created the epitome of modern Viking Metal.

Even now, almost thirty-five years later, I've yet to hear anything within the genre surpass the album. Quorthon played every instrument himself. His limited vocal range was never so perfectly suited to his music than on the opus. Odin listens to Hammerheart when he faps.

Twilight of the Gods (1991) continues and expands upon the Viking-themed sound. As the title suggests, it's greatly inspired by classical compositions; he even uses Holst's Jupiter suite.

It's soaring and epic, poetic and lengthy. The opening trilogy is one of the most beautiful pieces of music Quorthon ever produced. Yes, beautiful, not blackly-heavy. It has pounding drums and a sense of grandeur but is far removed from his older cavernous sound. His acoustic guitar summons visions of ages past and his drums could guide longboats to distant shores.

Twilight was set to be the Bathory swansong and it would've been a fitting farewell, but subsequent albums followed, some of which are pretty damn awful in comparison.