«Blood Fire Death» is the fourth album by Bathory and it was released on 17 October 1988 by the Swedish Black Mark Production, in Britain through Under One Flag. It was recorded in February 1988 at Heavenshore Studio in Stockholm, with Boss Forsberg and Quorthon producing.
“`Country: Sweden
Genre: Black/Viking Metal
For fans of: Motörhead, Manowar
Here Quorthon leaves behind the raw, satanic phase of the early Bathory and turns to Nordic mythology. It is one of the first albums that brought to metal what would later be called viking metal, and its sound travels between fast, dirty black metal and slow, epic passages. It keeps the speed and the darkness of the previous records, but sets beside them long, slow compositions inspired by the Scandinavian myths.
On most of the tracks Quorthon handles the guitars, the vocals and the keyboards, with Kothaar on bass and Vvornth on drums. The cover uses the painting «The Wild Hunt of Odin» (Åsgårdsreien) by the Norwegian painter Peter Nicolai Arbo from 1872. The same theme, the hunt of the dead, also clothes the opening «Odens Ride Over Nordland» — a theme loved ever since by bands and festival organisers alike.
«A Fine Day to Die» is the landmark track, with its opening lines taken from «Cassilda’s Song» by Robert W. Chambers. Next to it stand out the massive title track «Blood Fire Death», «For All Those Who Died», which is built on a poem by Erica Jong, and the two songs with hidden acrostic messages, «The Golden Walls of Heaven» and «Dies Irae».
The album opened the era Quorthon described as the «pre-Christian Swedish Viking age», which continued on «Hammerheart» and «Twilight of the Gods». Rolling Stone ranked «A Fine Day to Die» among the greatest metal songs of all time.
See also
See also: Behemoth – «I, Scvlptor» and Øystein «Euronymous» Aarseth, the Mayhem founder.
