This album is scary man – 98%
Forever Underground, March 28th, 2022
Oh my god here comes another review full of ass eating to an indispensable album of the genre that has been praised all over the world.
Well, did you know that Quorthon hated this album? Well maybe hating it is saying too much (although there were rumours that he did) but what it seems to be true is that he never listened to it again after it was released, when he was told that this album was perfect he replied that there was no such thing, he had this vision that each album represents a period of his life in which he was in, so he didn’t find it very useful to listen to his old albums again. And it is true that each album represents a specific intention of the artist at the time, and this UTSOTBM represents what seems to me a unique moment in Bathory’s approach to the songs, although still present in some part the feeling of the first two albums of showing an evil facet through fast and chaotic music, the third great work of Bathory shows a much more atmospheric but above all terrifying facet.
This is not only palpable in “Nocternal Obeisance” or in the intro of “Call from the Grave” where the sound of these is very low compared to the rest of the mix to cause a greater impact when the instruments come into action but we can find it in practically segments of it in ALL the songs, the intro of “Equimanthorn” starts with an electronic sound from which begins a riff in the form of a build up that reminds us of an accelerated version of the “Jaws” theme because of the way it hits so precisely. “Chariots of Fire” and “13 Candles” also have this disturbing start marked by an electronic tonality and with disturbing whispers in the case of the last one mentioned, and “Of Doom…” uses again the sudden instrumental beginning.Even the arguably fiercest song on the album “Massacre” has a distant ambient sound at 2:12. All this is far from being a coincidence and is more a unique peculiarity of this album in relation to the rest of Bathory’s discography. If one takes this into consideration, the perception of some songs may change, “Enter the Eternal Fire” has always been seen as the first Bathory song to get into the realm of “epicness” but, although it shares elements that would later be developed in the later viking era of the band, to this day I perceive it more as a much slower and atmospheric focused song, that seeks to reinforce that terrifying subtext with heavy riffs, a remarkable sound of bells, and above all, by a heartbreaking vocal performance in the final segment where Quorthon really manages to transmit the agony and pain of the one succumbed by the eternal flames, an aspect truly more terrifying than epic in my eyes, there is no glory, only pain.
All these aspects that are carried throughout the album are the results of a much more mature and refined songwriting process, full of songs that move through the depth of their riffs that advance inexorably through our ears, with subtle but pronounced rhythm changes that increase the dynamism of each track in an exceptional way, as I write these words listening to the album I can’t help but be fascinated by the profundity of each song in which I am unable not to repeat at least a couple of times before moving on to the next one. I know that both the debut album and the following one have their unconditional legion of fans who prefer it to this one, but to me these first two albums have a much less ambitious approach and often fall into a homogeneous structure throughout the whole listening, UTSOTBM is far from having this problem, each track has its own memorable aspects even though most of the songs have very similar compositions, it is here where Quorthon shows a lot of his ability as a songwriter, a facet that he polished with time as all geniuses do.
And that’s why it saddens me so much that this was the last album of the band with pure black metal essence, probably Quorthon felt that he had no more to offer with this style or he had no more interest in it, from here on Bathory’s style was drifting between thrash and viking metal, this kind of sound was left without the possibility of being revived by a much more experienced Quorthon years later. Even so this album is clearly one of the highest peaks of the first wave of black metal, it is worth remembering from time to time how powerful its atmosphere, its riffs, the terror it infuses, and above all, the influence it had and still has and how nobody has managed to replicate it yet, some bands like Inquisition have managed to get very close to the sound of the first two albums, but 35 years later my ears have not yet come across any work that comes close to the unique points this one reaches. Unbeatable.
rafazardly 