BATHORY — Under the Sign of the Black Mark (review)

BATHORY — Under the Sign of the Black Mark album cover Album · 1987 · Black Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4.5/5 ·
Warthur
The third and best of Bathory's early blueprints for black metal, Under the Sign of the Black Mark also includes a few lyrical hints to the band's future "viking metal" direction. But in terms of the actual music, it's as thrashy, ugly, and Venom-inspired as before, but the songwriting is markedly improved this time. Woman of Dark Desires - one of the many uncountable black metal tributes to the band's lesbian serial killer namesake recorded over the years since Venom's own Countess Bathory - is far and away my favourite song on any of the first three Bathory albums, whilst Enter the Eternal Fire shows that Quorthon was getting increasingly ambitious in his songwriting. Simply put, of all the first-wave Bathory albums, this is the best.
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