Bathory

Bathory is the debut album released in 1984 by extreme metal band Bathory. After the success of Bathory’s songs in Scandinavian Metal Attack album published by record label Tyfon, Quorthon recorded a full-length album. His old bandmates having moved away, so Quorthon recruited bassist Rickard Bergman and drummer Stefan Larsson. On 22 May 1984, they had their first and only rehearsal together before recording the album.

The album was recorded on 14 June at Heavenshore Studio (a converted garage) in Stockholm. The studio had a homemade eight-channel tape recorder. Due to the band’s tight budget, they ran the recorder at half-speed to fit everything on one master tape. They also had to work quickly – the recording and mixing were done in somewhere between 32 and 56 hours.

With Bethory, the band defined the Black Metal, having as traits a dark atmosphere, fast, heavily distorted and raw recording (lo-fi). Quorthon’s vocals are harsh, high-pitched and raspy with occasional shrieks and screams.

The band’s lyrics focus on “dark” topics and included anti-Christian and “Satanic” references. Quorthon said that the band were not Satanists but used ‘Satanic’ references to provoke and attack Christianity.

Daniel Ekeroth, author of the book Swedish Death Metal, described the album’s style as:

Basically a mix of the Satanic party rock of Venom and the energy of San Francisco thrash metal.

While Bathory leader Quorthon claimed to have not heard Venom before making the album and to be inspired by Black Sabbath, Motörhead and GBH.