Bathory - Bathory (1984)^{Release ID: 626}

Ah, Ratlord.  Where would we be without thee?

It could be claimed, perhaps - at a push - that we might have had Scandinavian Black Metal without Bathory.  I don't know how that's supposed to work, but I'm sure some bright spark's come up with the idea in the past.

Mayhem's incoherent ramblings notwithstanding, for most of the '80s there was really no-one else performing recognisable "black metal" in Scandinavia.  Bathory come out fully fledged (in a manner of speaking) with this debut record - somehow the production (on CD at least) is even worse than their previous appearance on "Scandinavian Metal Attack." But the production is not so bad as, say, Von or Burzum.  This album sounds like it was recorded in a garage in a chasm in a cave.  In a void.  In a garage.  Some kind of garage-ception going on, anyway.  Tinny guitars - a generally thin sound - but audible bass, drum components can be told apart, the vocals creep in through the mix with reasonable audibility.

To say that this is a "poorly recorded album" would be unfair - it definitely has a budget sound and feeling, and very little has been done in terms of production.  But in comparison to the obnoxious mess that will later become "raw black metal," this is clean like Def Leppard.  Everything is audible - including the mistakes - more importantly, the ATMOSPHERE of the record stays on point all the way through.  Come on.  Do you really want things crystal clear and polished when you're listening to songs called "Necromansy," "Raise the Dead," and "Reaper"?  No, you want it to sound part-rotten, part-gravedust, part-insanity, part-occultism.  Which means murky, obscure, grating, grinding, even brittle.  That's how I'd describe this sound.  In a word: perfect, for what it seeks to achieve.  And, of course, the blueprint for many thousands of albums to follow in subsequent decades...

Musically, this is perhaps one of the least "Scandinavian" black metal records out there.  Bathory would come to pioneer the "Scandinavian approach" to riff-smithing in later albums, most notably Under the Sign of the Black Mark and Blood Fire Death.  The bulk of this debut seems to consist of (nowadays predictable) speed/proto-thrash riffs, drawing heavily from the likes of Venom, Mercyful Fate and Iron Maiden, Saxon, possibly even early Metallica and Slayer if the demo tapes reached Sweden.  But even while one can draw parallels with these other acts, Bathory remains Bathory throughout, even on this debut.  Quorthon could nick pretty much anything from any band and make it his own, contextualise it within the field of his own musical expression.  That's the genius of Bathory, and why this, their most "predictable" record (I have to use quotation marks there, because even for those initiated into black/speed there are surprises on this album), is still a unique and compelling offering.

The drumming on the album is competent.  Mostly d-beat, with the occasional lapse into slower rhythms.  There's no "blast beats," and off the top of my head there's no triplet rhythms (part of the "epic sound" of later, esp. Viking, Bathory).  It's just straight up, punk-influenced speed metal rhythms, if you want to think of it like that.  Not so much to write home about, other than that it's endearing. Perfectly serviceable - can't complain on the drumming front.  Production on drums is maybe not so good, but as above, that kind of works in the album's favour all told.

As for bass playing... Well, it's there.  The bass occupies some slab of low-mids on this record.  If it isn't going through a distortion pedal, the amp's gain is up at 10.  Bass lines usually follow the riff - pretty standard for speed metal - again, not so much to write home about.  Both the bassist and the drummer would quit (or "be quitted from"?) the band following this album, so, perhaps that says what it needs to say.  But as it is, these were the personnel for this debut, and they perform fine enough.

Specifically, the bass and the drums leave a lot of space for...  The guitars.  Quorthon is a good guitarist.  I've heard people debate this, and complain that his "shred style" is more of a mess than it is a masterpiece.  Well, I disagree...  I think he communicates a lot of emotion through his guitar playing, and I think this "chaotic approach" is part of that.  The riffs we've already described - kind of rocky, lots of 4ths being used.  Occasionally those lovely lower-string trills you get in speed/thrash, hammer-on/pull-off legato lines that give it a bit of pizzazz.  The solos are juvenile, sure, but heartfelt, with the rudiments of proper solo structure emerging out of this chaotic "landscape impressionism" approach.  Less musical motif, more emotional resonance...  As above - personally it's a style I like, some might prefer the Kings/Hannemans/Mustaines of the world, with more of an emphasis on... You know.  Notes and scales and such.  But I doubt anyone could claim that the solos on this record don't "fit."

Now, for the vocals...  Again, something I very much love about this record.  Quite at the forefront - and, in the context of the time, one of the earlier applications of this particular style of "singing," if you want to call it that.  Really, it is more growling on this record.  But not a deep death growl - more the growl of a wolf, a mid-range grating.  Lyrics are delivered precisely, often in staccato rhythms, which is not necessarily easy.  There are some rock'n'rollisms, something like ad-libbing from time to time, reminiscent (?) of Dio and such - very well placed here.  Obviously in all regards Quorthon got better as he went on, but considering this is their first full-length outing, the performance on this record is spectacular.  For a debut, this is very professionally done, as far as the performance itself is concerned.  The production is maybe a bit of a distraction on that front...

Now, as for the music itself.  Well, there's a lot of "repeated material," in a way, on this record.  As well as motifs, rhythms, and styles which are reprised on later records.  But I tend to judge these things "as they were at the time," so, in the context of no other Bathory material - well, this is pretty robust, in terms of composition.  There are the fast songs, dominating much of the album's playing time, which all revolve around various applications of speed metal style - albeit with an emphasis on keys and modes that feel "dark" and "evil," something Venom were still getting to grips with two albums into their own career.  Here it's full-fledged from the get go (presumably as a result of listening to Venom records!).  These faster tracks all work together - I'm sure they could be strung into one song and people wouldn't necessarily notice.  Good, working speed-metal fare.

And then there are the slow songs, which everybody knows end up being the most memorable ones (because they have longer to impress themselves on the mind!).  And these are really good on this album, definitely the beginnings of what will later be recognisable "Epic Bathory."  Raise the Dead is echoed in Call From the Grave (much as it is in itself an echo of the Venom track "Buried Alive"), and Necromansy is a comfortable mid-paced track, very interesting modulation between the verse/pre-chorus riffs.  Say what you will about production, playing, even vocals... Musically, this is a robust record.  Lots of internal relationship, thematic evolution through the record, the sense of a consolidated and considered ethos/intent expressed consistently through these songs.  They knew what they were going for.  It doesn't get much better than this, except when artists expand their palettes (and the lengths of their albums) - which is exactly what Bathory did over subsequent releases.

All in all, I'm giving it 4.5/5.  The .5 is docked because, personally - sacrilege, I know - the intro is way too long.  I often listen to music while out and about doing things, so it's not so engaging for me to listen to three minutes of intro!  But, it is a classic in its own right, and deserves its place on the record (and all the other records....  Talk about thematic consistency).  Without the intro, this might be the best early black metal EP out there.  As it is, it's one of the best early black metal (mini-) LPs, and absolutely required listening for anyone interested in learning about (never mind writing) black metal as a whole.  Say what you will about Venom - they might have bagged the name and the basic premise - Bathory was the band that really developed the sound, sense, ethos, atmosphere of the genre.  This record was absolutely necessary for pretty much everything we enjoy from '90s Norway/Sweden.  So, for that alone, it's a top record in my view.

If I can make any recommendations - pay through the nose to get an original vinyl, or use occult secret tech-techniques to download the vinyl rip from youtube or some other streaming service.  The CD rips are not so good, sound-wise!  Easy to compare on youtube, you'll see what I mean.

An inestimably important album in metal history, built on the dreams and ambitions of one man.

Tomas Forsberg was born on the 17th of February, 1966, in Hägersten, Stockholm. He died on June the 3rd, 2004, in Hässelby, Stockholm. If the name isn’t known to you, it’s possible you have very little interest in what is commonly known as black metal and viking metal. I say possible, rather than certain, because Tomas was known by another name for the majority of those 38 years. It’s a name that will unquestionably be forever associated with metal music and in particular, the formation of at least two of its many subgenres. I’m getting ahead of myself however, as this story begins when he was simply known as Tomas, a fifteen year old punk living in Sweden and who had a deep affection for music. Not the type of pop and disco music (think ABBA) that the majority of the Swedish population was interested in at the time, but heavy stuff from outside of Scandinavia. He’d had an interest in music and had tried his hand at it since the age of 9, but his fondness for Sex Pistols, The Exploited and KISS had left Tomas with no doubt that being some sort of rock musician was his ultimate dream. In 1981, the opportunity to get an inside view of the music industry arose, and Tomas took it eagerly. The story goes that a practical vocational guidance teacher at his school found a vacant position at a small record company where Tomas could gain some work experience and hopefully, in the process, straighten up his less than positive school results. The company was called Tyfon, and it’s here that Tomas would do general office duties, including making coffee, typing letters and packing boxes, for around six hours a week. It’s also here that Tomas would see music being recorded first hand for the first time.

During the same period, Tomas was involved with short-lived bands Agnosticum and punk outfit Stridskuk (which is Swedish for War Cock), but neither managed to release anything before splitting up. Other forms of music had started to attract his attention, with three British bands in particular leaving an indelible mark on the Swede. Heavy metal legends Black Sabbath and Motörhead held an almost permanent place in his stereo, their position only usurped by GBH’s City Baby Attacked by Rats, an album lent to him by a friend. With these new influences fresh in his mind, Tomas began to formulate his own ideas for a band, inadvertently amalgamating the gloomy darkness of Black Sabbath, the metallic drive of Motörhead, and the high energy punk of GBH. Attentive readers might have noticed that there was no mention of Venom in that list, despite the fact that many over the years have assumed that the satanic imagery and dirty metal sound that band produced at the dawn of the eighties must have had some influence on Tomas’ music (they even had a song called Countess Bathory and their debut album had a goat head in the shape of a pentagram on the cover). He claimed many times throughout the last two decades of his life that he never experienced Venom until late in 1984 (a few months after the release of the Bathory debut), so the constant mention of the band from Newcastle irked him no end. That being said, not everything Tomas said to the media could be taken as fact, as he often planted seeds of untruth (particularly regarding his real name) into interviews in some humorous social study of gullibility. There’s every chance he was lying about Venom too, but I guess we’ll never know for sure.

In 1983, at the age of 17, Tomas travelled around Stockholm, pinning up “musicians wanted” notices in record shops and music stores. These notices called for anyone interested in forming a band that would play music “in the Exploited, GBH, Motörhead and Black Sabbath style”. Just after lunch on Wednesday the 16th of March, 1983, Tomas would meet up with two interested young men outside a local music store in Kungsholmen called Musikbörsen. Their names were Jonas Åkerlund, an 18 year old drummer, and Frederick (Freddan) Melander, an 18 year old bass player. The two of them had recently played for traditional heavy metal band Die Cast, but were keen to see what this new entity was all about. The three of them clearly got on well enough, so decided to head into a basement to play some covers. It’s here that Tomas, with his newly painted black Ibanez Destroyer, Freddan, with his red and white Rickenbacker, and Jonas, with his pieced together drum kit, cranked out metal tunes at high volume, despite the basement having no sound-proofing whatsoever. They were so impressed with their efforts that the last hours of this first day together were spent toying with ideas for stage names each of them could take on. As with so many Swedish bands they listened to, it was decided they should choose Americanized monikers, and stacks of humorous suggestions were made at the time. In the end, Jonas chose the ridiculous sounding name Vans McBurger (a combination of his favourite sneakers and restaurant franchise), while Freddan was determined to be known as Hanoi, apparently not giving any explanations for this choice. Tomas however couldn’t think of one he liked at the time, but would come across one soon enough. It’s probably not the one you’re expecting though!

The name Tomas chose for himself was Ace Shot. Not a particularly evil sounding name for one of extreme metal’s most legendary figures, and thankfully not one that would be attached to the man for very long. Its origin however is fairly amusing, and gives us some insight into the teenager. While he was struggling at the time to find a name for himself, he was having no such difficulty in bedding women he met at clubs. One obviously satisfied girl (at least that’s the way Tomas describes the event) commented after he’d had his way with her that he was a real “kanon skjut”, which translates as cannon shot. After informing Jonas and Freddan of this label the next day, they immediately began calling him by that name, and realising it might actually stick, Tomas desperately tried to find something that wouldn’t entail the jesting of his mates. He began looking through his records for inspiration and found his answer in the works of Motörhead. Amalgamating the tracks Ace of Spades and Sharp Shooter, he came up with the name Ace Shoot, a name that would still lend itself to the private joke he shared with his fellow band members. Somewhere along the line it would be shortened to Ace Shot, which is the name Tomas went by all the way up to the recording of the debut album. With the individual naming ordeal out of the way, Ace Shot, Hanoi and Vans McBurger realised there was another name they were going to need if they were ever going to leave the confines of their rehearsal basement. They needed to find a name for the band! Thankfully this turned out to be a far easier process, particularly as Tomas was adamant there was only one name that was ever going to be attached to the band he started. Bathory!

Around a year prior to forming the band, Tomas had spent some time in London with a friend. Given his attraction to all things dark and mysterious, it’s unsurprising that he visited a horror themed wax museum during this trip. There was one particular display that caught his eye, for more than one reason it has to be said. Reclining in a bathtub filled with blood, in the middle of a medieval styled chamber, was a naked woman. Above the tub were three more naked women, hanging upside down suspended from chains, blood running from their slashed throats. Although the sight of naked female forms was enough in itself to captivate the 16 year old Tomas, the ghastly scene would have even more impact on him. The woman in the bath was labelled Countess Elizabeth Báthory and as soon he arrived back in Sweden, Tomas began researching who she was and how she was connected to such horrific imagery. A short summary of what he would have discovered is as follows: Elizabeth Báthory was born on the 7th of August 1560 on a family estate in Nyírbátor, Hungary. The Báthory family were of Hungarian noble blood and rose to significant influence in Central Europe during the late Middle Ages, bringing forth several Princes of Transylvania and one King of Poland. Legend has it that the family’s origins go back to the year 900, when a warrior named Vitus set out to fight a dragon, which lived in the swamps next to the castle of Ecsed. Vitus killed the beast with three thrusts of his lance and was rewarded for this victory with the castle itself. He was also given the name Báthory, which translates as “good hero”, by the people who resided there. Of course, none of this is true, and the family’s roots have officially been linked back to the 13th century, but the real story that would be connected to this family is just as unbelievable!

It was around 1602 when rumours started to spread across Hungary, with talk of missing adolescent girls striking fear into the common people. Murmurs that Countess Báthory was somehow involved in their disappearance were ignored by the court; possibly due to the power the Báthory family held as much as any thoughts that these accusations were merely wives’ tales. These whispers increased in fervour over the years to the point where King Matthias had no choice but to assign György Thurzó, the Palatine of Hungary, to investigate. Thurzó and his notaries began collecting evidence in March 1610, and would gather testimony from 300 witnesses over the course of the next nine months. According to all this testimony, Elizabeth had started luring the daughters of local peasants to Csejte, with promises of well-paid work as maidservants in the castle. There she would torture the girls to death, with witnesses naming severe beatings, burning or mutilation of body parts, freezing, surgery, starvation and sexual abuse, as the main forms of atrocity. It was also testified that Elizabeth had since moved on to killing the daughters of lesser gentry, who were sent to her gynaecium by their parents to learn courtly etiquette. On the 30th of December 1610, Thurzó travelled to Csejte Castle and arrested Báthory and four of her servants, who were accused of being her accomplices. It’s reported that numerous girls were discovered locked up at the castle, with one dead and another dying. While King Matthias called for Elizabeth to be sentenced to death, Thurzó convinced him that acting as such would disgrace a noble and influential family, so it was decided that she would be kept under strict house arrest instead. The four accomplices would not be so fortunate!

Dorota Semtész, Ilona Jó, Katarína Benická, and János Újváry were all put on trial on the 7th of January 1611. Semtész, Jó and Újváry were found guilty and condemned to death. They were burnt at the stake, but not before Semtész and Jó had their fingers torn off with hot pokers (Újváry was deemed less culpable for some reason and therefore beheaded prior to burning). It was thought that Benická had been bullied by the other accomplices and was therefore sentenced to life imprisonment rather than death. While all this went on, Elizabeth remained under house arrest, walled up in a set of rooms, where she resided for the remaining 4 years of her life. She died on the 21st of August, 1614, at the age of 54. She was never tried, and to this day there are those that believe she was a victim of politics, rather than the sadistic Blood Countess that history suggests. However, if the testimony of witnesses is to be believed, Elizabeth Báthory tortured and murdered some 650 young females over a period of around 25 years, which would make her the most prolific female serial killer in recorded history. Given that the accomplices admitted to at least 36 murders, and that castle personnel estimated the number of bodies removed to be around 200, there’s every chance that Elizabeth Báthory did actually commit the horrifying atrocities that appear to the average person the stuff of fiction. The only part of the legend that has turned up in countless movies and books (not to mention wax museums) that is certainly fictional is the bathing in blood motif, as there’s nothing in the historical documents to suggest this occurred. Regardless, the name Báthory will forever be associated with torture, murder and blood, which is why Tomas thought it a perfect name for his newly formed metal band.

Now that each member had an alter-ego and the band itself a name, there were only a couple boxes left to tick before Bathory could be considered ready to get down to business. The first box was ticked when a logo was produced, although it would take two attempts to get it right. The first effort used the Koch Fraktur font, clearly attempting to mimic the Black Sabbath logo, but this was replaced with a second effort just a few months later, this time using the Old English font. It was decided that the logo looked best in capitals, and the band immediately made homemade stickers and drew it everywhere with black marker pens. The second tick box was more troublesome, with Tomas believing Bathory would need more members if they were ever going to be considered a real metal band. He never thought of himself as a vocalist and sang at rehearsals for no other reason than there was no-one else available. He also knew that he could never pass as a lead guitarist, which is something he felt should be part of every metal band. Over the first few months of rehearsals, there would be no shortage of interested musicians, many of which were really quite talented. The problem was that as soon as these guys saw the paraphernalia in the basement (hanging chains and inverted crosses) and read some of the satanic themed lyrics, they ran out of there as though their life depended on it! Vocalists were particularly difficult to get to the audition stage, as Tomas would always show them the lyrics to tracks like Satan My Master and Sacrifice to see whether they were up for it. They never were! In fact, Jonas and Freddan were also not completely comfortable with the dark themes Tomas was toying with, and began requesting he write material in the vein of Iron Maiden.

This would be the first sign that line-up trouble might be approaching for Bathory, and the differences in musical taste between Tomas and the other band members became more and more obvious during the remainder of 1983. Tomas wanted to push the boundaries of brutality from not only a lyrical perspective, but also a musical one, and the other guys were never comfortable with it, instead wanting to emulate their heroes such as Judas Priest and Maiden. When Jonas and Freddan went on vacation to London over summer, instead of putting Bathory on hold, Tomas took the opportunity to bring in the involvement of two individuals he knew would have no problem with the themes and speed he desired for Bathory. These two musicians (bass player Rickard "Ribban" Bergman and drummer Johan "Jolle" Elvén), who Tomas had played with previously when part of Stridskuk, would partake in what was the first proper Bathory recording (excluding the terrible cassette recorded rehearsals). Recorded live in a rehearsal room with fairly low quality equipment, four tracks (Sacrifice, Live in Sin, Die in Fire and You Don’t Move Me (I Don’t Give a Fuck)) were recorded across two reels. Note: Unfortunately the first of these reels was lost over the years, but both Die in Fire and You Don’t Move Me (I Don’t Give a Fuck) can be heard on the Jubileum compilations that were released in 1992 and 1993. When listening to these early surviving tracks, it’s clearly apparent how much of an influence Motörhead (and dare I say Venom) had on the songwriting, but the macabre themes, the demonic vocals and the filthy rawness of the sound gave it a nastier tone, hinting at what was to come. The four tracks were not released in any way at the time, but Tomas was stoked to finally have something tangible to show for all his efforts.

He was more motivated than ever to take Bathory to the next stage, but unsurprisingly, things went downhill as soon as the original band members reunited after the break. They always had a great time together, but could never agree on what direction the band should take, with the end result being that no progression occurred. It seemed almost certain that they would all go their separate ways in the near future, and that Bathory would be put to rest. Fate had a different plan however, with an opportunity falling in their lap just as the guys were considering calling it quits. Tomas had recently gone back to work at Tyfon Records for 8 to 12 hours a week, more for the connection to the music industry than for the money. In January 1984, the label began planning a metal compilation to be released later that year. Of course there was no way Tyfon would consider including the unheard of band that their office hand just happened to be part of, especially when they had other bands on their label they were desperate to gain exposure for. The album would include five heavy metal bands, with each of them contributing two tracks. The bands were Oz, Trash, Spitfire, Zero Nine and another Finnish act that had to pull out at the last minute due to army duties. All of a sudden there was an empty slot on the compilation, with very little time to find a suitable band to fill it. Realising the rare opportunity right in front of his nose, Tomas pitched his own band as the perfect solution. Describing their sound as “rough and demonic stuff” and not having a demo that actually included the three members of the line-up, it’s safe to say that it’s extremely unlikely Bathory would have been part of the release, yet Tyfon had no other viable options. They were in! (There’s another more likely reason why Bathory got the gig, but more on that later.)

On the morning of the 23rd of January 1984, the band arrived at Elektra Studio to record their two tracks for Scandinavian Metal Attack. They had no car between them so apart from Tomas’ guitar, they’d not been able to bring their own gear, and would have to use the equipment that was set up in the studio. The tracks they were going to record were not so much selected as they were the only ones remaining after ruling out those they didn’t want to play. Since their inception they had written a total of eight original tracks, being Satan My Master, Witchcraft, Live in Sin, Dirty Woman, Sacrifice, The Return of Darkness and Evil, You Don’t Move Me and Die in Fire. They figured Live in Sin and Dirty Woman were a bit too “fuck you”, You Don’t Move Me and Die in Fire were more punk rock than they wanted to be seen as, and they’d never been completely satisfied with Satan My Master and Witchcraft. That left Sacrifice and The Return of Darkness and Evil as their weapons of choice to unleash upon an unsuspecting world. The guys had no studio experience obviously (apart from Tomas’ employment) and had to be told repeatedly not to jump around like madmen the way they normally did at rehearsal. Another issue they faced was that they’d always ended The Return of Darkness and Evil with minutes of chaos and feedback, so when it came time to finish the track, the guys all looked at each other with no idea of what to do. As a result, the recording just stops with no proper close at all, a problem that would be resolved by adding a guillotine chopping sound just as everything comes to an abrupt end. Other effects were added at the same time such as female screaming and backward recorded vocals, adding to the nastiness and atmosphere that already emanated from the work of Bathory.

With Bathory’s part of Scandinavian Metal Attack recorded, all that was left to do was wait until its official release some two months later, yet it became clearer than ever during this period that regardless of the response, Bathory was not going to be able to continue in its current form. They all decided that their goals and interests were far too different to go on and called it quits. In fact, Jonas and Freddan moved to London and play no further part in the Bathory story (Jonas would go on to be a successful film and music video director, working with artists such as The Prodigy, Madonna, Lady Gaga, Metallica, P!nk and Britney Spears)! Tomas was uncertain as to whether or not he would look for replacements, especially given how difficult it had been to find anyone suitable in the past. All that was about to change however! In March 1984, Scandinavian Metal Attack was released in a batch of 3000. This quickly sold out, so another batch was produced, and then another and another. By May, the compilation was Tyfon’s highest selling release and just about every review and piece of fan mail was screaming one name. Bathory! Tyfon certainly weren’t going to miss the opportunity that had presented itself, and quickly moved to secure a deal with the band. Tomas had to inform the label that Bathory didn’t in fact exist anymore, but on hearing of all the interest in the band as a result of the compilation, he was determined to find new members and signed the record deal. It was decided that Bathory’s debut album would be recorded in June, which left very little time to fill out the band, but thankfully Tomas had been working on several other tracks that fit the vision he had for the band’s sound.

Tomas began his search for musicians by going back to his former Stridskuk buddies, Ribban and Jolle. Jolle declined the offer, stating he would be on vacation in Thailand at the time of the recording, but Ribban eagerly accepted. Tomas then began to ask around to see whether anyone knew of a decent drummer that could fill the remaining slot. The name Stefan Larsson came up, who had played for a band called Obsklass. On hearing a cassette of Stefan performing, he decided he was a good fit and hired him, meaning Bathory once again had a full line-up There was however one more thing Tomas wished to do before they got down to business. Not being happy with the name Ace Shot, and with the two friends he shared the private joke with now gone, he decided to change it while it wasn’t too late. While reading a book describing satanic rituals, Tomas had come across a list of dark princes (demons) that had apparently been banished from heaven and were now in service to Satan. There was one name in particular on that list that he felt was perfect, and it would be this name that Tomas would forevermore be known as to fans and media alike. It was Quorthon! It’s worth mentioning that there were two other names on that list that would catch his attention, being Vvornth and Kothaar, but they would not show up in the Bathory story for a few years yet. Since both Ribban and Stefan were merely helping Quorthon record the debut album and not necessarily part of the band’s future, it was decided that there was no point giving them stage-names, nor would they include any photos or make mention of any members at all on the finished product.

Quorthon, Ribban and Stefan had only one rehearsal prior to recording the debut album, and that occurred on the 22nd of May 1984. Fortunately for fans, the band thought it would be worthwhile recording two tracks on the day using the primitive equipment on hand, including a four track mixer, a couple of amps and four microphones positioned around the room. These two tracks were Witchcraft and Satan My Master, both of which were intended to be part of the full length, but which never made it. These tracks can both be found on the Jublieum III compilation released in 1998, and are particularly notable for the brutally raw vocal performance of Quorthon. Three weeks later (the 14th of June to be precise) and they’d find themselves in a studio named The Garage, which was a perfectly suitable name for what was at one stage an actual garage. Costing the equivalent of around US$600 at the time, The Garage was not really a full-blown recording studio. It was more intended as a rehearsal and demo recording facility, being situated at one end of a private house. It contained only an 8 track table, two small recording machines and a switchboard, and it took the band quite a while to get a sound anywhere near what was required for a metal album. They were forced to do some fairly improper techniques to achieve their goal, including recording the bass directly into the switchboard and playing the result back out through a 20 watt amp, and even attempting double bass drums by putting their single bass drum on a cardboard box and hitting it with sticks covered in cloth. Worst of all was the fact the band could only afford one reel of two inch studio tape and one reel of quarter inch tape. This meant they were forced to record the album at half speed, which resulted in a humming and buzzing noise all over the recording.

The majority of the material that ended up on the album had been written by Quorthon just prior to entering the studio, and some of the tracks were not even close to being fully realised. A fair amount of effort was put into just piecing bits together and expanding on basic ideas during the actual recording process, so certain parts ended up quite different to initial expectations. The intro is a good example of this, as all the band knew is that they wanted to make a dark imitation of Black Sabbath’s classic opening to their self titled debut. Just as Black Sabbath did, Bathory used wind, thunder and church bells to set the album’s atmosphere, but unlike the gloomy, gothic scene the Brits work suggested, the Swedes went after a more sinister and evil mood. By setting the church bell (a recording of London’s Big Ben) at half speed and giving the wind and thunder a far harsher, more threatening tone, Bathory succeeded in their task. They were so happy with the result that they decided to run the intro for its three minute entirety on the album, instead of the thirty seconds they’d originally intended prior to recording. Second track Hades was another incomplete track, being just a bunch of chords with next to no lyrics when they entered the studio. These bits and pieces were expanded upon during the first days’ sound check and by the time the guys had found a sound they felt was adequate, they had a completed work. Once again, the band was really pleased with the result, and a decision was made that Hades should be the track that would follow the intro and introduce the album proper. Quorthon later suggested this decision was based on the excitement that came from having a fresh new track rather than on quality, but it turned out well enough nonetheless, being a suitably intense opening to proceedings.

Third track Reaper could on the one hand be considered one of the tracks written just prior to recording the album, but its roots go back to 1983. It’s actually a heavily modified version of Witchcraft, which is the real reason that track didn’t also appear on the full length. It’s not all that apparent when listening to the tracks side by side, but Quorthon obviously felt there was just a bit too much similarity to get away with including both. I’m always reminded of Megadeth’s Rattlehead when listening to Reaper, which I guess shows how much of a role speed / thrash metal plays in early Bathory. The addition of fourth track Necromansy, another newly created piece, is probably most notable for the misspelling of the song title. There’s a story behind this that suggests it wasn’t simply a case of Quorthon struggling with the English language and putting an “s” where a “c” should have been. He is quoted as saying the track was always supposed to be called Necromancy, but when it came time to design the album layout using Old English rub on letters, they realised they were missing the letter “c”. This resulted in Necromancy becoming Necromansy and In Conspiracy With Satan becoming In Conspirasy With Satan, which didn’t overly concern the band as they thought no-one would ever notice as the words remain the same when spoken aloud. Personally I have my doubts about this explanation as it seems very unlikely that they would manage to not only include both required “c”’s in the song title Sacrifice before misplacing the letter, but they also managed to include one other “c” in the word Necromansy itself. It’s more likely that Quorthon misspelt the song titles and made up a story to explain his blunder somewhere along the line.

The fifth track on the album is Sacrifice, a track the band had performed so many times prior that they could have played it in their sleep. This confidence unfortunately resulted in a fairly rushed version where the guys obviously tried to play it as fast as they could. When comparing the album version to the one found on the Scandinavian Metal Attack compilation, it’s apparent that Sacrifice works much better when performed at a more restrained speed, which is something Quorthon himself later admitted in interviews. It still remains one of the highlights of the album and a classic Bathory tune, even in its inferior state. There’s not a lot to say about the next two tracks In Conspirasy With Satan and Armageddon, other than that both were fairly old tracks, having been written around the time the band entered the studio for Scandinavian Metal Attack. The inspiration for Armageddon came from an 11th century painting that Quorthon came across when perusing a book on religious history. The image of black horned devils with pitchforks and wings tormenting the damned in hell sparked the youngster’s imagination, and he decided to write lyrics from the torturer’s perspective. This was fairly typical of the inspiration for Quorthon, and despite the rumours that he was a Satanist that spent his time drinking blood in caves, the lyrical content found in early Bathory was entirely inspired by movies, comics and paintings. After years of watching horror movies such as the Halloween series, Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist, reading comics like Vampirella, Dracula and Shock, and flicking through medieval paintings and woodcuts in the local library, Quorthon needed no assistance in finding the dark atmosphere and horror themed lyrics he required.

Eighth track Raise the Dead was one of the most recently composed tracks, and is another good example of Quorthon’s inspiration. He’d recently seen a Hammer film in which the final scene had a man waking up in a coffin at his own funeral, and once again decided to write a song about what this experience would be like. The track starts with the sound of fading church bells (presumably as the coffin is lowered into the ground and covered) and a human heartbeat signifying that the “deceased” is in fact still alive. So intrigued by this idea was Quorthon that he returned to it a couple of albums later with Call From the Grave. Raise the Dead is really the first example of mid-paced Bathory, with the rest of the album moving at a vigorous pace, but thankfully given its quality, it wouldn’t be the last. The next track, War, certainly can’t be considered mid-paced, being a full throttle speed metal assault that leaves the listener beaten and bruised. Not only is it the final track on the album, it’s also one of the last ones written prior to recording. The whole thing came together after Quorthon was practicing playing an acoustic guitar glissando over and over again as fast as he could. Add some distortion and venomous religious medieval painting inspired lyrics and there you have it. All that’s left to discuss is the short ritualistic outro that closes the record, which Quorthon thought bookended things quite nicely given the aforementioned intro. On its own, this little atmospheric piece is fairly innocuous, but it would go on to close Bathory’s first five albums, albeit re-recorded in most (if not all?) instances to fit the sound of each album. The total time spent recording all ten tracks came to 56 hours, but the resulting album runs for only 26 minutes.

Bathory’s debut album was in the bag so to speak, but there were still plenty of decisions to make before it could hit the shelves. First and foremost, it was always intended that the album would have a name of its own. The name chosen was Pentagrammaton! If you don’t recognise it that’s because it was discarded just prior to designing the cover when several people mistook it for Pentagon. A little bit of research reveals that Quorthon, rather than making it up, must have come across this word while looking through religious texts at the library. I’ll quote straight from Google here as this is by no means my area of expertise. “The pentagrammaton (Greek for "five letter name") is the speculation (developed in mystic/occult circles beginning around the late 16th century) that taking the Tetragrammaton YHWH and adding a Hebrew letter ש shin in the middle of it — or יהשוה — results in the name of Jesus. However, the historically accurate Hebrew/Aramaic form of the name of Jesus is ישוע (shortened from earlier יהושע) — note the `ayin consonant ע at the end.” In other words, Quorthon was trying to be a smartass by calling the first Bathory album Jesus in a cryptic sort of way. After this plan was dropped and he didn’t have any other ideas that he liked, a decision was made that the debut album would be self-titled. As it turns out, Belgian black metal band Enthroned decided to use the word as the title of their eighth full length album in 2010. With the album title sorted, it was time to design an eye catching cover that encapsulated the themes held within. As you’ve probably guessed by now, that process also came with challenges to overcome, not to mention some controversy.

It was originally planned that the debut album cover would contain the stock standard Baphomet image, being a goat head contained within a pentagram. This obviously made sense given the original Pentagrammaton title, but it’s fairly fortunate that they chose not to go ahead with it given that’s exactly what Venom had done some three years earlier for their debut Welcome to Hell. I guess it could be argued either way that Quorthon was therefore definitely inspired by Venom, or that this is evidence he’d indeed never heard (or seen) Venom’s infamous early eighties albums. Both arguments are pure conjecture. After the decision to self-title the album, the pentagram was moved to the back of the album and a new image was chosen for the front. This is where the controversy starts! Quorthon has repeatedly stated that he created the goat head image that eventually adorned Bathory’s debut by taking various images from horror comics and making a collage. In his words, “a single monstrous goat like face was glued together from a collage of eyes, a nose and a mouth cut out from several horror comic magazines. Liberal amounts of tipex and black ink was used for masking and adding a few details such as the torso, fur, elongated ears and horns.” This, I’m afraid to say, is clearly a lie, and brings into question a lot of other statements made by Quorthon over the years. The image was lifted directly from a book by Erica Jong called Witches, which was published in 1981. The picture in question can be found on page 81 and was drawn by American illustrator Joseph Smith. To make matters worse, the little demon figure that appears on the back of a lot of Bathory albums was taken from an image in the same book.

It could be argued that many metal bands have used artwork over the years without crediting the artists that created them, but Quorthon’s blatant lies about the origin of such a renowned piece of work is more than a bit embarrassing. Anyway, that doesn’t end the story of the album artwork by any means. Quorthon had read somewhere in one of his books that the colour gold had magical power. He’d gathered that silver was a colour of goodness and light, but the magic of gold could be used for both good and evil purposes. It was therefore decided that the goat image should be in gold on a black background. Unfortunately, while discussing the idea with the printers, it turned out using gold was extremely expensive, so they asked the firm to use the closest plain colour to gold. On ripping open the first box of completed copies a couple of weeks later, Quorthon would be horrified to find his beloved debut album was adorned with a canary yellow goat. Given a shortage of funds had been the cause of the issue in the first place, it’s not all that surprising that the band was unable to get them reprinted, particularly as they’d taken the more cost effective option in getting 1000 of them printed (their choices were 300, 500 or 1000). As hideous as this first batch appears, these days they sell for a stack of cash, particularly if autographed. Fans should beware though that there are many fakes out there, created by cons looking for a quick buck. Just to add salt to the wound, the band quickly realised they’d failed to list the intro title (it’s called Storm of Damnation) or the outro on the layout description they gave to the printer, a mistake that wouldn’t be rectified until a CD version was released many years later.

There are a few other items of interest to be found when perusing the album layout. Firstly, side A (Hades through to Sacrifice) was labelled Side Darkness and side B (In Conspirasy With Satan through to War) was labelled Side Evil. Secondly, instead of finding Tyfon Records written across it, there’s another label name that to this point hasn’t been mentioned. Both Bathory and Tyfon knew that the band’s material was unlike anything else on the roster, so when Quorthon approached management requesting permission to form a sub-label just for Bathory releases, they were happy to oblige. Quorthon chose the name Black Mark and set about designing the label that would appear on the album. This also gave the band the opportunity to have their own product number range, so naturally they decided to use 666-1 for the debut. Another noticeable alteration is the studio listed as the place of recording. The guys didn’t feel that The Garage was an appropriately named studio for an album of this character and so went about coming up with a better one. Once again the answer would come from one of the books Quorthon had been reading at the time. In it were descriptions of battles between angels of light and demons of hell, with the outcome leaving the demons beaten and “scattered along the shore of Heaven”. The imagery struck a chord with Quorthon who, figuring The Garage was where he and his cohorts did battle against good, renamed the studio The Shore of Heaven. They quickly realised this was too much of a mouthful and changed it to Heavenshore and this studio name would forever be associated with Bathory!

Before moving onto just how important Bathory’s debut album was (and is), there’s one more controversy that deserves a mention. Anyone that’s ever looked at a Bathory album will see the words “Produced by Quorthon and Boss”. So who is this Boss character and what connection does he have to the band? The unquestionable answer is that Boss is Börje Forsberg, owner and founder of Tyfon Records. But over the years, rumours began to crop up regularly that Boss was in fact Quorthon’s father, not only due to their surnames being the same, but due to the close relationship the two parties had over such a long period of time. Quorthon continuously denied this rumour in interviews and the official Bathory site denies it outright suggesting there is only twelve years difference between them, that they look absolutely nothing alike, and that the rumour is a result of how much the two travelled together between 1986 and 1991 promoting Bathory albums. Quorthon further explains that he stuck by Tyfon (Black Mark), despite being popular enough to go somewhere with far greater reach and monetary potential, because Boss believed in him and the band when others did not and therefore deserved his loyalty. As it is now commonly known, this is another case of Quorthon lying for no apparent reason. Boss is in fact twenty two years older than Quorthon and, since his death, has openly spoken up about the fact that he is indeed his father. I can only think that the two of them denied it for so long so that people wouldn’t assume that Quorthon only ever got to work at Tyfon, not to mention score a spot on Scandinavian Metal Attack and subsequently get a record deal with the label, because his father was the “Boss”. These fabrications (along with the rest) unfortunately make anything Quorthon ever stated publicly difficult to trust.

In the end it matters very little if Boss was Quorthon’s father or not, just as it changes next to nothing if the cover artwork of the debut was stolen and uncredited. Whether or not Venom played a role in the formation of the sound is also a discussion of little value at the end of the day. Once Bathory’s self-titled debut album was released on the 2nd of October 1984, their place in metal history was set in stone. Anyone listening to it for the first time now might struggle to appreciate how incredibly exciting, not to mention blasphemous, its sound was in an extreme metal scene really just getting underway. Many will suggest that Venom and Hellhammer are the godfathers of black metal, but while Venom may have helped coin the name with their second release in 1982 (entitled Black Metal) and Hellhammer certainly assisted in taking audible darkness to a new level, there’s no question in my mind that Quorthon is the true instigator of this great genre. Others such as Mayhem, Darkthrone and Immortal would soon take what he started to far more serious and intense extremes, and many of the common features of what we now consider true black metal (tremolo picking, blast beats etc.) were not actually present in his work, but the atmosphere, imagery, lyrics, energy and most noticeably the vocals all played a massive role in the formation and evolution of the genre. The album also once again spread the name of Bathory throughout Europe (nearly 400 years after Elizabeth did the same), inspiring thousands of wannabe musicians to consider the darker side of music as a serious alternative to the cut and paste forms of rock that reigned at the time. Just as importantly though, it encouraged Quorthon to continue on with Bathory, making this lengthy tale of ambition and success merely the first chapter of an epic, two decade long journey.

Venom planted the seeds of Black Metal with their simple, Satanic, and raw style that aimed to be as fast and abrasive as possible. Bathory was the plant that grew from those seeds. Although not an astounding effort on it’s own, Bathory was an album that was indisputably Black Metal, and – whether purposefully or due to lack of money – set the standard for the use of terrible production as a tool to create atmosphere. Indeed, the album sounds like you’re listening to some cultists play in the middle of the woods from inside your bedroom. However, it works – the album sounds very dark, and very evil, and it’s convincing in that darkness, unlike Venom which were rather humorous in the end. Imperfect, but a brilliant first child for the genre of Black Metal.

For those that aren’t aware, Bathory is essentially a solo project from a gentleman going by the name of Quorthon who released a string of seminal records sporting various different styles during the 80’s & 90’s, & in doing so, led to the formation of at least two major subgenres of extreme metal. Quorthon’s real name was Tomas Forsberg & his formative years were spent as a rebellious punk in the city of Stockholm where he started several unsuccessful punk bands. A pivotal moment in black metal came in 1981 when he was lucky enough to score himself a work experience position at his father’s record label Tyfon Records performing basic maintenance & administrative tasks which gave him his first real taste of the recorded music industry. Tomas continued to work there on & off for the next few years & in 1983 took it upon himself to create a band that was more in line with the darker metal & punk sounds he’d started to immerse himself in with heavy emphasis placed on bands like Black Sabbath, Motorhead, The Exploited & GBH. This resulted in the formation of the earliest lineup of Bathory.

The big breakthrough for Bathory came when Tyfon Records were putting together a metal compilation called “Scandinavian Metal Attack” in January 1984 featuring five bands who were signed to the label with each contributing two songs. Out of interest, popular Finnish heavy metallers Oz were amongst the bands included but anyway… One of the five artists had to pull out at the last minute due to some conflicting military duties & Tyfon was left to find a suitable replacement in quick time. Tomas jumped at the opportunity & put his band forward as a ready-made replacement. And one would imagine that his father provided enough encouragement to push the idea through so within days of the arrangement being proposed, Bathory found themselves in Elektra Studios recording their contribution to the compilation.

Once it was released in March 1984, the label were pleasantly surprised at the huge response generated by Bathory’s two tracks with the compilation quickly selling out & becoming Tyfon’s biggest selling release to date. It seemed that Bathory were the main drawcard too with most comments directed towards the young band so Tyfon swiftly proceeded to offer Tomas a recording contract; completely in the dark about the fact that the band had actually split up in the couple of months since the release of the compilation. That wasn’t going to stop Quorthon & after signing the contract he frantically began the hunt for a suitable backing band in time for their album recording in just one month’s time. Thankfully he managed to secure the services of bassist Rickard Bergman & drummer Stefan Larsson just in the knick of time & they managed to fit in one rehearsal before heading into the studio with Quorthon’s father (who goes by the name of The Boss throughout the Bathory story) taking on production duties. 

It’s definitely worth noting that there were a number of obstacles for the band to overcome during the recording process due to the primitive nature of the equipment & facilities at the studio. Plus, the band were only able to afford a small amount of tape to record on which meant that they’d have to record at half speed & subsequently deal with a reduction in sound quality. But looking back, it would seem that (intentional or not) these issues have actively contributed to the development of the black metal sound. I mean when you really examine these songs closely from a stylistic & structural point of view there is very little going on that hadn’t been done previously. It’s really the primitive nature of the production & performances that contribute to the uniquely dark atmosphere that we now associate with black metal, along with Quorthon’s ultra-raw & abrasive vocal approach of course. The actual song-writing is mostly built on concepts that had been around for a while & didn’t generally sound as extreme as they’re presented here. I’d suggest that a good half of the eight songs included are simply speed metal tracks at their core with influence taken from the faster Venom, Tank & Motorhead material & a long-term love of hardcore punk. There are a couple of tracks that utilize the more subdued tempos of traditional heavy metal but Bathory mostly seem to enjoy a more up-tempo approach.

The musicianship is very primitive & I think this definitely contributes to the black metal atmosphere. The drumming is particularly dodgy & there are various moments across the tracklisting where you can noticeably hear the tempo drifting. When you really think about it, the lack of technical skills also might have drawn Bathory to take the musical direction they did. I mean pulling off something similar to Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Metallica or Slayer was never really on the cards for them now, was it? And that may well be the difference between the Sodom’s, Hellhammer’s & Bathory’s in comparison to the Mercyful Fate’s or Destruction’s of the world. I’d be very surprised if their technical limitations didn’t ultimately contribute, in at least a minor way, to the formation of the black metal sound. Having said that, there are a couple of up-tempo numbers that transcend the speed metal core of most of the material & sound a bit closer to the modern black metal sound & this generally lines up with the more hardcore punk influenced moments which really shows us the importance of hardcore on early black metal. Think about it… the three main players in the early black metal movement were all influenced by Venom & Motorhead but also have a strong hardcore background. Was it just coincidence that none of them were technically capable of playing the more melodic & complex styles of thrash or classic heavy metal? Perhaps… but it’s worth thinking about. It’s also interesting that a large percentage of people seem to consider this record to be as much a thrash release as it is a black metal one but to be perfectly honest, there wouldn’t be more than one or two riffs on the whole album that resemble thrash & those both kinda remind me of Slayer’s “Show No Mercy” which is mainly due to the fact that it’s got a similar hardcore edge to it.

Motorhead’s Lemmy Killmeister has onviously had a huge influence on some of this material. Songs like “Sacrifice” & “War” are pure Motorhead worship with those jangly basslines sounding noticeably similar to Lemmy’s trademark sound. But it’s Quorthon’s vocals that represent the biggest advancement for the black metal genre. The world hadn’t heard anyone sound as tortured or evil up until this stage & it’s this element above all else that separates Bathory’s debut from the more bad-ass European speed metal that was out there at the time. As soon as you hear that unique vocal delivery you’re left in absolutely no doubt as to the genre of music you’re listening to. Quorthon seems to have combined the styles of Lemmy & Venom’s Cronos but put his own darker spin on it & it was an absolute master stroke that would make him a legend. It’s interesting that Quorthon has always denied the influence of Venom which is pretty obviously there for anyone familiar with their early works. In fact, there’s a case for this record simply being the result of pure Venom worship with Bathory having stolen several song-titles, lyrics, their image, their album cover & even their band name from their idols. This wouldn’t be the only time that Quorthon would lie to the media however as he developed a reputation for it over his career.

Despite the borderline plagiarism & crude composition & performances, it’s hard to deny that Quorthon had a knack for song-writing because this is a very consistent record. There’s just the one misfire in my opinion with the slower tempo heavy metal based “Necromansy” falling a little flat but the rest of the tracklisting is genuinely enjoyable. There’s a youthful energy about these songs that compliments the dark atmosphere & it gives them an infectious quality. The album’s intro track is doomy as all fuck too despite being a clear attempt to replicate the intro to Black Sabbath’s title song.  Including the full three minutes was pure genius because it really does engulf you in a shroud of pure darkness. Despite the strong speed metal influence, the slowest track on the album, "Raise The Dead", represents its greatest highlight. It’s probably the purest & most well defined black metal number on offer with no traces of speed metal or hardcore punk about it. It’s worth noting that the song-title & lyrical concept were clearly stolen from Venom’s “Black Metal” album but it was a seminal moment for the black metal genre nonetheless.

There's been a lot spoken about the legitimate roots of the black metal subgenre over the years & there were definitely several earlier examples that clearly showed elements of the sound but probably didn’t quite nail all of the criteria to be able to stake their claim on the title. It’s also worth noting that NONE of those examples came from proper releases too. Instead they all took the form of crude self-produced demo tapes from underground European bands like Sodom, Holy Moses & Hellhammer. But it was "Bathory" that signaled the long-awaited arrival of the true first wave of black metal sound in my opinion. Unlike the vast majority of the black metal releases you've heard over the years though, this one offers an element of fun that gives it an infectious quality that easily overcomes its primitive construction; yet another element that Bathory seems to have borrowed from their idols Venom.