Bathory "Under the Sign of the Black Mark"

Under the Sign of the Black Mark is the third studio album by Swedish extreme metal band Bathory. It was recorded in September 1986 and released on 11 May 1987 through New Renaissance Records and Under One Flag. It was a key album in the development of the black metal genre, and greatly influenced the Norwegian black metal scene that emerged in the early 1990s.

The painting on the cover was by Gunnar Silins, from a painting in the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm. The model used was Leif Ehrnborg, a then-top class Swedish bodybuilder.

The song “Woman of Dark Desires” is a tribute to the band’s namesake, Elizabeth Báthory. “Enter the Eternal Fire” was the band’s first epic, reaching nearly seven minutes in length, with lyrics referring to a deal with the Devil. The song “Equimanthorn” makes references to Hell as well as to Norse mythology, including Odin’s “eight-legged black stallion” Sleipnir.

On the album’s impact, Daniel Ekeroth, author of the book Swedish Death Metal, commented in an interview with Decibel magazine in 2012: “Even by Bathory’s standards, this was a masterpiece, on par with both Bonded by Blood and Reign in Blood. The songs were perfected, and the sound more atmospheric and uncanny than before. Bathory were now the most extreme and one of the very best metal bands out there.” The song “Call from the Grave” was featured in 2009 game Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned

Released with a printed inner sleeve. 

Track A1 is titled "Nocternal Obeisance (Intro)" on the center label. ('Nocturnal' consistently misspelled 'Nocternal').

Some promo copies were distributed with a gold stamp on the cover that says: "For promotion only - Not for sale - CBS Records, Sweden" - which is the only difference to the retail copies. 

Leif Ehrnborg, a then-top class Swedish bodybuilder, posed for the cover of this album, at the Swedish National Opera. 

"Equimanthorn" was included on the Gummo soundtrack.

"Call from the Grave" was used in Grand Theft Auto IV: Lost and Damned.

Track listing

All tracks are written by Quorthon.

Side 'Darkness'

1. "Nocternal Obeisance" 1:28
2. "Massacre" 2:38
3. "Woman of Dark Desires" 4:06
4. "Call from the Grave" 4:53
5. "Equimanthorn" 3:41

Side 'Evil'

1. "Enter the Eternal Fire" 6:57
2. "Chariots of Fire" 2:46
3. "13 Candles" 5:17
4. "Of Doom......" 3:45
5. "Outro" 0:25

Total length: 35:56

Outro track introduced on 2003 remastered edition.

The inner edge of the vinyl itself (around the sticker on the center) has a laser inscription in bold letters that says HAIL SATAN on both sides of the record.

Recording information:

Recorded at Heavenshore Studio, Stockholm, Sweden in September 1986.

Mixed at Heavenshore Studio, Stockholm, Sweden.

Bathory "The Return..."

The Return…… (full title The Return of the Darkness and Evil) is the second studio album by Swedish extreme metal band Bathory. It was released on vinyl on 27 May 1985, through Combat Records.

Quorthon explained the album title as such:

We wanted people to just read out The Return…… – as in a second album or a follow-up – and then flip the album over to look for a tracking list. Not finding one, what they got was this apocalyptic poem with the song titles woven into it. Only after listening through the album to the end would you get the full title of the album, The Return of the Darkness and Evil.

In various interviews, Fenriz of Darkthrone praised the album and defined it as "the essence of black metal".

Track listing

All tracks are written by Quorthon.

Side 'Darkness'

1. "Revelation of Doom" 3:27
2. "Total Destruction" 3:50
3. "Born for Burning" 5:13
4. "The Wind of Mayhem" 3:13
5. "Bestial Lust (Bitch)" 2:41

Side 'Evil'

1. "Possessed" 2:42
2. "The Rite of Darkness" 2:05
3. "Reap of Evil" 3:28
4. "Son of the Damned" 2:48
5. "Sadist (Tormentor)" 3:00
6. "The Return of the Darkness and Evil" 3:49
7. "Outro" 0:25

Total length: 36:41

The 2003 remastered edition combines tracks 1 and 2, and tracks 7 and 8, as well as adds the final Outro track.

 

1st press with white text and logo. Released with printed inner sleeve.

Catalog# BMLP 666-2 on spine. 

Catalog# BMLP 666-II on back of sleeve.

Trivia:

"Born for Burning" was one of the very first original Bathory songs ever written, although initially its title was “Live in Sin” (a.k.a. “Live and Die in Sin”). It had different lyrics and was played at slower tempo in the early days.

In CD reissues beginning from 1991 the last 26 seconds of "The Return of Darkness and Evil" is made into a separate track, an untitled outro.

Recording information:

Recorded and mixed at Electra Studio, Stockholm, Sweden in February 1985.

All titles published on the Black Mark label. 

Direct metal mastered at Sonet Studio, Stockholm, Sweden.

Bathory "Bathory"

Bathory is the debut studio album by Swedish extreme metal band Bathory. It was released in October 1984, through Tyfon Grammofon. It is deemed by many fans and critics to be the first black metal record.

Bathory had been formed in 1983. The band’s frontman, Quorthon, worked part-time at the small record label Tyfon. In late 1983 and early 1984, the label was putting together a compilation of songs by Scandinavian metal bands. However, at the last minute, one of the bands backed out. Tyfon agreed to let Bathory appear on the record as a replacement, and the band recorded two songs for the compilation—"Sacrifice“ and ”The Return of the Darkness and Evil“—in January. The album, Scandinavian Metal Attack, was released in March 1984 and was Bathory’s first appearance on record. To everyone’s surprise, over 95% of fan mail sent to the label after the record’s release was dedicated to Bathory. Tyfon asked the band to record a full-length album. His bandmates having moved away, Quorthon recruited Rickard Bergman as bassist and Stefan Larsson as drummer. On 22 May 1984, they had their first and only rehearsal together before recording the album. Here they recorded the songs ”Satan My Master“ and ”Witchcraft“, which would later appear on the compilation album Jubileum Volume III.

On 14 June the band entered Heavenshore Studio in Stockholm—a converted garage—to record the debut. 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.

The album was originally to be named Pentagrammaton and to have a pentagram on the cover, but this name was scrapped when several people misread it as Pentagon. The pentagram was moved to the back and replaced with a re-touched portion of a drawing made by Joseph A. Smith in 1981 for the book Witches by Erica Jong. For the writing on the back cover, Quorthon bought a set of rub-on letters in the Old English font; however, he was one letter short (‘C’), and as a result, the second 'C’ in ”Necromancy“ was replaced with an ’S’. The introduction, ”Storm of Damnation“, was also mistakenly left off the track listing.

The goat on the album cover, taken from a drawing by Joseph Smith, was originally meant to be printed in gold. However, this was too expensive to use, so Quorthon asked for it to be as near to gold as possible; the result was more of a yellowish color. According to Swedish Death Metal, Quorthon thought it looked "awful”, and after the first 1000 pressings it was switched to black-and-white. The yellow cover has become a collector’s item, and is now well known as “Gula Geten” (“The Yellow Goat”).

Exact counterfeit copies have been released over the years as this is an often coveted version.

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, former drummer Jonas Åkerlund claimed that Bathory was “exclusively” inspired by Venom during these days.

Bathory was released in October 1984 and sold out its subsequent pressing of 1000 in two weeks. The album has since gained a cult notoriety. Bathory was reissued in 1990 through Black Mark Production.

Track listing

All tracks are written by Quorthon.

Side 'Darkness'

1. "Storm of Damnation (Intro)" 3:06
2. "Hades" 2:45
3. "Reaper" 2:44
4. "Necromansy" 3:40
5. "Sacrifice" 3:16

Side 'Evil'

1. "In Conspirasy with Satan" 2:29
2. "Armageddon" 2:31
3. "Raise the Dead" 3:41
4. "War" 2:15
5. "Outro" 0:22

Total length: 26:52

The original title for this album was Pentagrammaton, but this title was discarded when several people read it as Pentagon.

Track A3, "Necromansy", is spelled as such simply out of convenience. The layout for the cover had only been finalized the night prior to the date it was due at the printer. During the application of the Old English rub-on lettering being used for the logo and song titles, it was discovered they were short one lower-case letter 'c'. Too late at night to buy another sheet of lettering, the decision was made to use an 's' to replace the 'c', with the logic that the altered spelling wouldn't be noticed, as the letter works phonetically. Thus the title "Necromancy" became "Necromansy". The same is likely true for track B1, "In Conspirasy With Satan".

Recording information:

Recorded June 1984 at Heaven Shore Studio, Stockholm, Sweden.

Mixed at Electra Studio, Stockholm, Sweden.

Mastered at the Cutting Room, Stockholm, Sweden.

Opeth "Ghost Reveries"

Ghost Reveries is the eighth full-length album by Swedish heavy metal band Opeth. It was released on August 29, 2005. It was their first album after signing with Roadrunner Records.

Ghost Reveries is the first album by Opeth to include keyboardist Per Wiberg as a "permanent" member (although Wiberg contributed keyboard work to Opeth's live performances starting around the time of Lamentations), and it is the last Opeth album to include drummer Martin Lopez and long-time guitarist Peter Lindgren.

The album's only single is "The Grand Conjuration". A music video of the song was released, although about half of the song was edited from the video, due to the length of the song. Lopez does not appear in the video, as he was sick and was temporarily replaced by Gene Hoglan.

Opeth returned home in 2004 to start writing new material for its eighth album, and by the end of the year, they had finished writing it. For the first time since Still Life, the songs for Ghost Reveries were written for the album before going into the studio. This gave Opeth three weeks to rehearse and perfect the recording in the studio. The band had to decide whether to record the album at Fascination Street Studios in Örebro, Sweden, or at Sonic Ranch. They eventually chose Fascination Street Studios, as it was closer to their homes.

Opeth's European label, Music for Nations, closed its doors in 2005, and after negotiations with various labels, the band signed with Roadrunner Records. Åkerfeldt said the primary reason for signing with Roadrunner was the label's wide distribution, ensuring the album would be available at larger-chain retailers. When news leaked that the band was signed to Roadrunner, who predominantly worked with trend-oriented rock and metal, some fans accused the band of selling out. "To be honest," Åkerfeldt said, "that's such an insult after 15 years as a band and 8 records. I can't believe we haven't earned each and every Opeth fan's credibility after all these years. I mean, our songs are 10 minutes long!"

The album marks a temporary return to the progressive metal styles of the previous albums and features death growls, though still includes some of the progressive rock elements of Damnation.

Ghost Reveries was initially intended to be a concept album, with numerous tracks linking together a story of a man's turmoil after committing an unconscionable act, symbolised by killing his own mother. However, Mikael Åkerfeldt commented:

"I had intended to do a occult concept piece lyrically and got off to a great start with some downright evil lyrics like "The Baying of the Hounds" and "Ghost of Perdition", then I did "Isolation Years" which had nothing to do with the intended concept but I liked it so much I decided to ease up on the concept idea in favour of this one lyric. Why I decided on a occult theme? Well, I've always been intrigued by it, especially Satanism and stuff like that. I studied some books that oddly enough my wife had in her collection like "Servants of Satan" as well as "Witchcraft and Sorcery" + some more. I figured it'd be interesting to see what a mature 31 year old mind would make of this subject as opposed to the 16 year old kid who used to pose in front of his Bathory poster. I'm quite happy with them to be honest, and they're ... evil!"

The album only partly portrays a concept, not fully arranged in the poetic manner as previous releases such as Still Life and My Arms, Your Hearse.

"The Baying of the Hounds" is partially inspired by lyrics from the song "Diana" from Comus's album First Utterance.

The artwork was created after the completion of the album. Åkerfeldt commented on the artwork, saying:

"I'd been looking for one of the old medieval looking woodcuts, me and Peter went to the Royal library here in Stockholm looking for a evil (yep!) picture, but that was like searching for a needle in a haystack. Couldn't find one. In the meantime, I'd received some pics from good ol' Travis Smith. And as per usual with Mr. Smith, he's a genius ... the candle pictures just blew me away ... that's the cover, fuck the woodcuts! I love it! It's probably the most gothic looking cover we've had, right?"

Ghost Reveries was released in Europe on 29 August 2005, and in North America on 30 August 2005.

A special edition of the album was released by Roadrunner Records on 31 October 2006. It is packaged in a large digipak and contains a CD and DVD, along with new cover art and an extended booklet featuring extra album artwork and a letter from Åkerfeldt. The CD contains the original tracks from the album, as well as a bonus cover of "Soldier of Fortune" by Deep Purple, which was recorded as a live take with the band's new drummer, Martin Axenrot. The DVD contains a Dolby 5.1 surround sound mix (not including the bonus track), a 40-minute documentary, and the video for "The Grand Conjuration". This documentary details the making of Ghost Reveries, offering a behind-the-scenes look at the band's day-to-day life while recording and touring.

Some copies of Ghost Reveries were mastered using HDCD. Although it is unmarked, playing the album in a CD player able to decode HDCD will give superior sound quality.

"Ghost of Perdition" is included in the soundtrack for the video game Saints Row 2 on the radio station Krunch 106.66. As of 29 November 2011, it is also available for download for the video game Rock Band 3. "The Grand Conjuration" is included in the soundtrack for the video game Sleeping Dogs, on the radio station "roadrunner records". It is also included in the soundtrack for the video game Final Fight: Streetwise, being the boss battle theme song of one of the game's bosses, Famine.

Ghost Reveries peaked on the Billboard 200 at number 64 and number 62 in the UK. The album reached number nine in Sweden, higher than any previous Opeth release.

Ghost Reveries received widespread acclaim upon release. Thom Jurek of AllMusic cited Ghost Reveries as a culmination of everything Opeth had worked towards throughout their career. Jurek defined the album as "fully realized, stunningly beautiful, and emotionally fragmented; it's a terrain where power, tenderness, and sheer grief hold forth under heavy manners. Awesome." Billboard described the album as delving further towards Opeth's progressive tendencies, commenting that the "alternating between powerful metal bursts and gauzy atmospheres requires patient listening, but it allows for better exploration of the beautifully dark world Opeth creates." Brandon Stosuy of Pitchfork praised Opeth's diverse musical influences and instrumentation, as a blend of "prog, jazz, stoner haze, blues-rock, Indian raga, pastoral tips, and acid-tinged freakers." Exclaim! reviewer Max Deneau similarly praised their songwriting and musicianship as key to Opeth's formula, whilst commenting on the addition of keyboardist Per Wiberg as having added "a volatile new dynamic to the band." Keith Bergman of Blabbermouth.net gave the album ten out of ten, one of only 21 albums to achieve a perfect rating from the site. Decibel called Ghost Reveries "achingly beautiful, sometimes unabashedly brutal, often a combination of both." The Aquarian Weekly placed Ghost Reveries among the band's finest work, writing: "This record was in the running for best metal release of the year before it even came out and now that it has, it may very well have decimated any competition."

Ghost Reveries was named the best album of 2005 by Metal Hammer. It was also ranked No. 1 on PopMatters "Best Metal Albums of 2005" and on webzine Metal Storm. Ghost Reveries appeared on many end of year lists, including Kerrang!, Terrorizer, Drowned In Sound and The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop poll. In a retrospective list, Loudwire named it the best metal album of 2005.

In 2014, TeamRock put Ghost Reveries at #46 on their "Top 100 Greatest Prog Albums of All Time" list commenting that "this was a partial concept album, with Satanism as its theme. It’s now regarded as one of the defining albums of 21st-century progressive metal." Loudwire placed the album at #3 on their "Top 100 Hard Rock and Heavy Metal Albums of the 21st Century" list, only being beaten out by System of a Down's Toxicity (#2) and Tool's Lateralus (#1).

Track listing

All tracks are written by Mikael Åkerfeldt.

1. "Ghost of Perdition" 10:29
2. "The Baying of the Hounds" 10:41
3. "Beneath the Mire" 7:57
4. "Atonement" 5:23
5. "Reverie/Harlequin Forest" 11:39
6. "Hours of Wealth" 5:20
7. "The Grand Conjuration" 10:21
8. "Isolation Years" 3:51

Total length: 66:46

Note: "Reverie" appears in the pregap of track 5. However, most CD ripping software add the pregap to the previous track. This causes a tracklist error, where tracks 4 and 5 are really as follows:

   

    4. Atonement / Reverie (6:28)

    5. Harlequin Forest (11:39)

The error exists widely, for example in iTunes and Amazon.

Recording information:

• Recorded between March 15-June 1, 2005 at Fascination Street Studios, Örebro, Sweden.

• Mastered at Cutting Room in Stockholm, Sweden.

Sepultura "Morbid Visions/Bestial Devastation"

Morbid Visions is the debut studio album by Brazilian heavy metal band Sepultura, released on November 10, 1986, by Cogumelo Records. While later albums have a more political edge, Morbid Visions (along with the Bestial Devastation EP) is notable for "Satanic" themes. The band said many lyrics were fashioned after those of Venom and Celtic Frost (note the similarity of the album title to Morbid Tales).

The production of the album is rather poor. In the liner notes of Roadrunner's reissue of the album (which includes the tracks from the EP Bestial Devastation), Cavalera admits that the band neglected to tune their guitars during the sessions. They were only starting to learn English at this point, so they had to translate the lyrics word-for-word using a dictionary. All pre-1992 releases of Morbid Visions featured the first movement of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana ("O Fortuna") as an unnamed introduction. This composition was left off the CD re-release, probably due to copyright issues. This would mark the last appearance of the group's original lead guitarist Jairo T.

Bestial Devastation is an EP by Brazilian heavy metal band Sepultura, released in 1985 through Cogumelo Records. It is their first official release, and originally appeared alongside Overdose's Século XX as a split album. The EP's songs were later released as bonus tracks on the CD version of Morbid Visions.

Because of Sepultura's collective lack of money, most of the instruments used on Bestial Devastation were borrowed from friends and acquaintances.

The vocals on the introductory track "The Curse" were performed by a friend of the band; according to Igor Cavalera:

“ One thing I remember is that we had one of our friends come and do the voice for the intro ('The Curse') because he would do that voice without effects - he was kind of burping in a way. It was funny, so we had him come down and do it in the studio. I don't even remember his name! ”

The band apparently fought with the producer during the recording. In an interview, Igor Cavalera said, "He wanted to clean everything up in the mix and we finally had to play him some records by Venom to show him that bands sounded this way."

Months prior to recording what would eventually become the Bestial Devastation EP, the band decided to switch their lyrics from Portuguese to English. None of the band members knew how to write or speak the language, so they asked their friend Lino to translate their lyrics. An example of Lino's crude translation skills can be seen in one of the verses of the song "Antichrist":

“ Churches will be destroyed
Crosses will be brocken
He's laughing in blasphemy
Like a domination of death. ”

Bestial Devastation was released in December 1985, alongside Overdose's Século XX EP. Over the next few months it sold 8,000 copies. Sepultura's surprising success was partly attributed to the first Rock in Rio, which took place in Rio de Janeiro in January 1985. This music festival's line-up included Whitesnake, AC/DC, Iron Maiden, Queen, Ozzy Osbourne and the Scorpions, and was responsible for Brazil's hard rock/heavy metal boom.

The EP was later reissued by Roadrunner Records on one CD with Morbid Visions in 1997. The reissue included a demo version of the song "Necromancer" that was the first studio recording of the band, and a live version of "Antichrist" from the Chaos A.D. tour, re-written as "Anticop".