Post by dangerzone on Jun 21, 2006 17:15:44 GMT -5
Bathory 'The Return'
1985, Black Mark
Quorthon- everything
I've refrained from reviewing this in the past simply because I can't endure sitting through the entire album in one listening. But here I am risking it all to deliver the verdict on the late Quorthon and his supposed influential thrash, death and black metal beginnings. This was Bathory's second album, following 1984's debut which I presume was even cruder than this. Listening to this nearly twenty years later (this review took me a year to complete) and I'm amazed still how crude it is opposed to what was happening in the US at the same time. This is arguably where European thrash was born, influencing it immensely, but it had no bearing on the US scene which was more advanced, heavier and melodic.
'The Return' sounds as if it was recorded in a barn with a tape recorder, such is the garage like quality. Songs are virtually indistinguishable, probably because in the nine years I've owned this I've never sat through the whole thing. Yes it's fast, but sums up the majority of 80's Euro thrash, rough and ineffective. 'Fast As A Shark' makes this look like the amateurish thrash it is. This led to the likes of Sodom, Destruction, Kreator, Tankard, Allegiance and hundreds of others who were also plying their trade at the same time. Celtic Frost's earlier work exceeds this and when you think Anthrax were recording 'Spreading The Disease' and Slayer were a year off 'Reign In Blood', you begin to realise how backwards the Europeans were. 'The Return' doesn't have quality control, no devastating riffs, no mind boggling tangents, just an endless dirge. What it spawned in terms of lousy Black Metal acts is even more unforgivable. Boring, just like all European thrash.
1985, Black Mark
Quorthon- everything
I've refrained from reviewing this in the past simply because I can't endure sitting through the entire album in one listening. But here I am risking it all to deliver the verdict on the late Quorthon and his supposed influential thrash, death and black metal beginnings. This was Bathory's second album, following 1984's debut which I presume was even cruder than this. Listening to this nearly twenty years later (this review took me a year to complete) and I'm amazed still how crude it is opposed to what was happening in the US at the same time. This is arguably where European thrash was born, influencing it immensely, but it had no bearing on the US scene which was more advanced, heavier and melodic.
'The Return' sounds as if it was recorded in a barn with a tape recorder, such is the garage like quality. Songs are virtually indistinguishable, probably because in the nine years I've owned this I've never sat through the whole thing. Yes it's fast, but sums up the majority of 80's Euro thrash, rough and ineffective. 'Fast As A Shark' makes this look like the amateurish thrash it is. This led to the likes of Sodom, Destruction, Kreator, Tankard, Allegiance and hundreds of others who were also plying their trade at the same time. Celtic Frost's earlier work exceeds this and when you think Anthrax were recording 'Spreading The Disease' and Slayer were a year off 'Reign In Blood', you begin to realise how backwards the Europeans were. 'The Return' doesn't have quality control, no devastating riffs, no mind boggling tangents, just an endless dirge. What it spawned in terms of lousy Black Metal acts is even more unforgivable. Boring, just like all European thrash.
