Bathory - Requiem (1994)^{Release ID: 632}

This album is the beginning of Bathory's "mid" era, where Quorthon suddenly decided he wanted to make the band a raw Thrash outfit after a couple of epic Viking Metal albums. This has been one of the band's few generally less well-received efforts, though it has finally started to get some recognition in more recent years. Indeed, as an extreme Thrash album this one is certainly not bad. The songs are aggressive, right down to Quorthon's vocals, and very fast for the most part. There's a couple more midtempo numbers too that are regardless just as heavy. The quite lo-fi production also helps in making the album sound very raw. Of course, Bathory never had any crystal clear production on their albums, and that's only a good thing. I can say without a doubt this is one of the most violent Thrash albums I've heard, just like I always wanted the genre to be. It certainly isn't Bathory's finest moment (those would be the albums from The Return... up to Hammerheart), but it's still a fine album on it's own. If you haven't heard it, I'd say at least give this one a chance.