BATHORY — Blood on Ice (review)

BATHORY — Blood on Ice album cover Album · 1996 · Viking Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
Warthur
This was almost, but not quite, the follow-up to Blood Fire Death, but was pulled at the last minute when Quorthon decided Bathory fans would feel cheated at such a radical shift in style. Eventually it came out in 1996, after Quorthon's first solo album and Bathory's Requiem and Octagon got people used to the idea of the man playing a combination of thrash and traditional metal as is presented here. There is little in evidence of Bathory's prior black metal style on this album - in fact, it's a narrative concept piece with numerous quieter segments, including a bit of Tolkienesque narration in One-Eyed Old Man.

A little pretentious? Perhaps, but it's a fun ride nonetheless and by and large it's an enjoyable listen. But it's not on a par with Bathory's extreme metal work; nor is it really up to the standards of the rest of Bathory's viking metal era. This is in part due to the fact that this is ultimately a somewhat tidied up release of material which was never fully finished at the time; though Quorthon did a reasonable job of using 1996-era studio technology to clean up and edit the tapes, it just doesn't feel like it's quite as polished as the classic Blood Fire Death/Hammerheart/Twilight of the Gods trilogy.
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