«Under the Sign of the Black Mark» is the third Bathory album, released on 11 May 1987. It was recorded in September 1986 at Heavenshore Studio in Stockholm, with Quorthon and Boss, that is Börje Forsberg, producing. Quorthon took on guitar, vocals, bass, drums and synthesizer, with help from bassist Christer Sandström and drummer Paul Lundberg.
“`Country: Sweden
Genre: Black Metal
For fans of: Celtic Frost, Venom, Hellhammer
The record gave black metal the sound and the atmosphere that the whole Norwegian scene would pick up a few years later. The guitars are dirty and fast, the vocals rough, but under the anger there are melodies that make the songs stand apart.
It comes after the band’s two rawer first albums and shows a group that has found a voice of its own. It is the last step before the turn to viking metal that would arrive with the «Blood Fire Death» album in 1988.
The highlights are «Massacre», «Woman of Dark Desires» — a tribute to Elizabeth Báthory, who gave the band its name — and «Enter the Eternal Fire», the first big epic of the group, close to seven minutes long. «Equimanthorn» takes its title from Norse mythology and Odin’s eight-legged horse, Sleipnir.
«Call from the Grave» had been written earlier under the title «The Call from the Grave» and was renamed for the album.
The cover is a photograph by Gunnar Silins, shot at the Royal Opera in Stockholm, with the bodybuilder Leif Ehrnborg as the model.
Fenriz of Darkthrone has called it the definitive black metal record, and the writer Daniel Ekeroth, in his book on the Swedish death metal scene, placed it next to classics such as «Bonded by Blood» and «Reign in Blood». It remains a reference point for every band that has worked in the genre.
See also: Celtic Frost – To Mega Therion and Mayhem – De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas.
