Bathory, continued...
Not that much of any black metal holds up for me at this point -- but after enjoying the first four Bathory albums yesterday, the three album viking metal cycle from 1988 to 1991 leaves me wanting to at least partially blame them for a lot of what I grew to dislike about the genre: slowed-down tempos, lusher production, cheesy orchestration, and the imminent over-usage of viking themes. It was not until they moved back into a more stripped-down form of thrash metal, with "Requiem" and "Octagon" (both of which had an influence on the recordings of the BLOODYMINDED "Trophy" CD, believe it or not) that things got interesting for me again, but they (he... Quorthon) went a bit back off the rails in 1996 with the long-delayed release of the "Blood on Ice" concept album (chuckle) and it seems that I never even bothered with "Destroyer of Worlds" (2001) or the two "Nordland" albums.
