Songs currently kicking your ass.

[CiG]

Definitely ain't the best song on there drongo, but also I suspect after a re-listen every song will get a 0.5 rating bump. I've only heard it in full once.

 

[PrincessHades]

 

[CiG]

 

[PrincessHades]

title track, first after the intro

 

[PrincessHades]

 

[PrincessHades]

 

[CiG]

 

[PrincessHades]

I can't believe this song is unfamiliar to me. I've been a huge fan of Bathory for close to 10 years, but I never gave this album much love. Bathory and The Return... were always overshadowed for me by Under the Sign of the Black Mark and their later material. Same goes for Blood Fire Death, I need to give that one a run again. I think I've listened to almost all if not all of their albums, but this song never stuck for me and now I'm hearing it as if it were my first listen, and I love it.

 

[CiG]

It's a fantastic Venom album.

 

[PrincessHades]

It's a fantastic Venom album.

I think it's way too unique from what Venom were doing to be considered unoriginal. Even with lots of speed metal riffs, it's very much the first album I can think of to have that Scandinavian black metal sound, very different than anything that came before it. It does have a lot in common with Venom, even though Quorthon denied being influenced by them iirc.

It's pretty reasonable to say that the song titles and maybe some of the riffs were inspired by Venom, but c'mon...you can't downplay how unprecedented this sound was in 1984.

 

[CiG]

You're just being fooled by the (amazing) production on the '84 re-recorded version.



The parts that don't sound like Venom sound like Venom's main influence Motörhead. Jonas Åkerlund himself stated they were exclusively influenced by Venom in those days. There's nothing particularly unprecedented or "Scandinavian black metal sound" about that album to me.

 

[PrincessHades]

You're just being fooled by the (amazing) production on the '84 re-recorded version.



The parts that don't sound like Venom sound like Venom's main influence Motörhead. Jonas Åkerlund himself stated they were exclusively influenced by Venom in those days. There's nothing particularly unprecedented or "Scandinavian black metal sound" about that album to me.

This is a good point. I listened to the original LP recording (not the remaster), but yea it's still a very speed metal album. The very raw production and vocal style combined with the speed played heavily into that album's overall sound and thus influence on later black metal, so you're right.

Still a very innovative and seminal album, and imo, the earliest thing to sound fairly close to the Scandinavian "2nd wave" (I hate that term) style of black metal. Calling it a "Venom album" is reductive imo, that's like saying Venom's first few are "Motorhead albums". They may sound very very similar, but an album like Black Metal has a very strong, established identity that's unique from its influences.

Ty for sharing that recording, I actually don't think I'd heard it before, but it sounds great.

 

[CiG]

Ha! I remember Fenriz said early Bathory sounded "pretty much like a speeded up Venom demo tape" which I think is spot on for the debut.

It's meant to be reductionist, mostly it's just amusing to always point out the obvious similarities because Quorthon said so many lies over the years about not being influenced by Venom. Those Scandinavian black metallers have a bad habit of lying about influences and timelines.

Not sure what you're talking about with remasters though.

 

[PrincessHades]

Oh I was just saying I listened to the original version, yellow goat version. It's not that different from the remaster though, so not really relevant, just pointing it out....

 

[WorldObliteration33]

 

[Slayed Necros]

 

[WorldObliteration33]

 

[CiG]

 

[PrincessHades]

 

[Slayed Necros]