Bathory - Bathory, 1984

In October of 1984, a flame was lit in Stockholm, Sweden. There are albums that influence other artists and there are albums that define genres. And then, there are albums that birth them. Bathory’s self-titled debut album released in 1984 was the spark that lit the black metal flame that has stayed lit for decades. This album was soaked in pure darkness and evil. Even though it was recorded in a garage with a limited budget, this album managed to become one of the most important ones in extreme metal history.

Everything about this debut is raw and evil. You can feel the burning, dark, unfiltered raw passion that went into this project. From the opening of “Storm of Damnation” to the final moments of the closing track “War,” it is soaked in this lo-fi atmosphere that became a defining trait of black metal. This album was never meant to be perfectly recorded or mixed. The imperfection is what distinguished Bathory from everything else. The crude production made it so loved. This is music for people who appreciate darkness and chaos. The hiss of the tape, the distortion, the echo of Quorthon’s wicked vocals, aren’t production issues. These things were key traits that made this album so iconic.

Quorthon’s vocals on Bathory’s debut are legendary; so legendary that black metal vocalists to this day still try to replicate it. These vocals aren’t polished whatsoever. They are aggressive, raspy, and demonic. He sounds like a beast summoning hell itself. You feel every shriek in your bones. The guitarwork is simple, yet effective. The riffs are repetitive but it doesn't matter because they are so great and catchy. The simplicity of this album is what makes it so good. The lyrics on this album aren’t anything special or unheard of nowadays, but they are essential to the impact Bathory had on metal music. The lyrics are about satanism, death, darkness, ancient rites, and anti-Christianity which are all themes that we know and love when it comes to black metal.

While Venom’s 1982 release “Black Metal” undeniably laid the foundation for black metal and gave the genre its name, Bathory took the black metal elements of Venom and molded it into a new level of darkness that really defined the genre and created it. Venom’s “Black Metal” is to black metal as Possessed’s “Seven Churches” is to death metal. Even though Venoms music was undoubtedly influential and groundbreaking for its time, they still had all those traditional heavy metal influences. Bathory’s debut album did away with accessibility and truly embraced the darkness. Quorthon’s eerie vocals and the primitive production create a blueprint for black metal that was more immersive and eviler than Venom’s more speed metal inspired approach. In my opinion, Bathory was the first truly black metal band in sound and aesthetics that inspired the second wave of black metal to come and everything that followed after.

This is the album that planted the black metal seeds into the ground. Without Bathory, we wouldn’t have all the iconic second wave black metal acts that we appreciate today. Bathory did it first. The rawness and the riffs are unforgettable, and the authenticity of this album made it a pillar in extreme music. This was when black metal was truly born.