Blood Fire Death

Blood Fire Death is the fourth studio album by Swedish extreme metal band Bathory. It was released on 8 October 1988, through Music for Nations sublabel, Under One Flag. The album, although mostly black metal, includes some of the first examples of Viking metal.[1] According to the book Black Metal: Evolution of the Cult by Dayal Patterson, Blood Fire Death began a second trilogy, an era Quorthon described as the "pre-Christian Swedish Viking Era".

Blood Fire Death
Studio album by
Bathory
Released8 October 1988
RecordedFebruary 1988
StudioHeavenshore Studio, Stockholm, Sweden
GenreBlack metal, Viking metal
Length45:41
LabelBlack Mark/Tyfon (Sweden and Germany)
Under One Flag (UK)
Kraze (US)
ProducerBoss Forsberg and Quorthon
Bathory chronology
Under the Sign of the Black Mark
(1987)		 Blood Fire Death
(1988)		 Hammerheart
(1990)

Background and recording

The lyrics to "For All Those Who Died" were taken from a poem by Erica Jong, first published in her book Witches (1981),[2] while the first three verses of "A Fine Day to Die" are taken from "Cassilda's Song" of Robert W. Chambers' The King in Yellow.

The front cover comes from the painting The Wild Hunt of Odin (1872) by Peter Nicolai Arbo. The painting as well as the opening track "Oden's Ride Over Nordland" use the Wild Hunt motif from folklore. Blood Fire Death established this motif in metal culture, where it since has become popular with a number of bands and event organizers.[3]

Critical reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal6/10[4]

In 2009, IGN included Blood Fire Death in their "10 Great Black Metal Albums" list.[5]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Quorthon.

Side one
No.TitleLength
1."Odens Ride Over Nordland"2:59
2."A Fine Day to Die"8:35
3."The Golden Walls of Heaven"5:22
4."Pace 'Till Death"3:39
5."Holocaust"3:25
Side two
No.TitleLength
6."For All Those Who Died"4:57
7."Dies Irae"5:11
8."Blood Fire Death"10:28
9."Outro"0:58

Note: The "Outro" is not listed on the cover and is not included on the cassette release.

Personnel
Bathory
  • Quorthon – guitars, vocals, percussion, effects, producer, engineer, mixing
  • Vvornth – drums
  • Kothaar – bass
Production

References
  1. Rivadavia, Eduardo. "Blood Fire Death - Bathory : Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards : AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 22 August 2012.
  2. "TheLeftHandPath.com - On Jos. A. Smith's illustrations for Witches + A statement from Black Mark Records". thelefthandpath.com. 16 April 2008. Archived from the original on 19 June 2012. Retrieved 22 August 2012.
  3. Florian Heesch, Reinhard Kopanski. 2017. "Klang - Text - Bild: Intermediale Aspekte der Black Metal-Forschung". ed. Sarah Chaker, Jakob Schermann, Nikolaus Urbanek. Analyzing Black Metal - Transdisziplinäre Annäherungen an ein düsteres Phänomen der Musikkultur. Transcript Verlag. pp. 29-33. ISBN 978-3-8376-3687-1
  4. Popoff, Martin (1 November 2005). The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal: Volume 2: The Eighties. Burlington, Ontario, Canada: Collector's Guide Publishing. p. 39. ISBN 978-1894959315.
  5. Ramirez, Carlos (6 January 2009). "10 Great Black Metal Albums – IGN". ign.com. Retrieved 12 September 2012.
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