Bathory
Blood On Ice

THE REVIEW

...and so it was that in 1996, by popular demand of the fans, Thomas Forsberg, known by some as "Ace" and by many as "Quorthon", the one who sparked the Black Metal movement and then the Viking with another move, after the not so exciting interlude of "Octagon" and "Requiem", decided to return to the epic, this time with a concept album.

"Blood On Ice" tells the story (quite functional, to be honest) of revenge: the protagonist, Blood On Ice, who as a boy witnessed the destruction of his village, the massacre of men, and the deportation of women and children, sets out guided by a one-eyed old man on a path to achieve the long-awaited revenge, and to reach so far, north, into the land of no return, to save the deported and kill the two-headed beast responsible for the massacre. The plot, which at first seems quite straightforward and predictable, will actually prove to be full of citations and references to Norse mythology, which will not escape the more attentive: one could talk about the one-eyed old man, who would be Odin (who, it is said, used to disguise himself during his raids among men), the sword of "The Sword", the Notung of Siegfried, the eight-legged horse of "The Stallion", clearly Sleipnir, the horse of Odin, and many will recognize in the intro a direct citation from the opening scene of "Conan The Barbarian", scene echoed in the lyrics of the opener "Blood On Ice".

If, therefore, from the conceptual point of view the album is at least interesting, with lyrics divinely written, it must be said that from a musical standpoint, it proves to be much more challenging, although compared to works like "Hammerheart" it is more accessible, given the song durations. These, in some cases taken from the recordings of 1987 and 1988, often have a terribly '80s taste, particularly the pair "The Sword"-"The Stallion" seem to come straight out of "Into Glory Ride". The album flows in a dark atmosphere, which at times becomes truly oppressive, as is typical of the Viking style, which, like the Epic Metal from the '80s, relies on slow sounds, often repetitive, that almost never indulge in speed.
And while we follow the maturation journey of Blood On Ice, from boy to man, from man to demigod, one can't help but be captivated by tracks like "The Woodwoman" or "The Lake" (tragically glued together in a single track on the poor Black Mark reissue) and, as if by magic, the underlying repetitiveness is forgotten, or maybe one even learns to appreciate it; the same goes for the production, which, as Quorthon has accustomed us to since the debut, is absolutely unworthy, and at times sounds not too dissimilarly to a busy steel mill, where the voice is often covered by the relentless guitar. But perhaps, paradoxically, it is precisely these seeming flaws, Quorthon's missed notes or the neighbor's lawn mower noise (entered forcefully in the acoustic "Man Of Iron") that make this "Blood On Ice", like "Hammerheart" before it, a great album.

It's hard to explain how Quorthon managed this magic, how it was possible for him to transform flaws into strengths, and it's also difficult to explain how this album would lose its charm with any other singer and a crystal-clear and modern production. So difficult that I don’t even try; I recommend to all lovers of Epic and especially to those of Viking who haven't done so yet, to put this album in their gramophone or stereo and let themselves be transported to the frozen and dark lands of the north, by one of the greatest the metal world has ever had: Quorthon.