Review by Daniel for Bathory - Bathory (1984)

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.