Bathory
Requiem

THE REVIEW

I am about to fill one of the gaps in the Bathory album reviews on DeBaser: that of the album "Requiem." The seventh for the Swedish group. Although in this case, we could talk about a one-man band since the loyal companions hired by the brilliant Quorthon to play the bass and drums are shrouded in mystery and credited with names of demons from Norse mythology. The legitimate doubt that all the music played and composed on this record might have been created solely by Quorthon and his drum machine is reasonable.

But let's go back three years before the album in question, when the anthem-song "Hammerheart" gloriously closed an epochal record like "Twilight of the Gods" (with a majestic cover included!). The years pass, and Mr. Forsberg surprises everyone by releasing "Requiem," an album that had nothing to do with the two predecessors and which disappointed a multitude of metal fans who still today rank this and the subsequent "Octragon" among the worst albums of the Swedish band. Had I personally experienced this stylistic upheaval, I too would surely have been shocked, but since at the time I was only a couple of years old, in hindsight, and with the conviction that it could have gone worse (who said Morbid Angel version 2011?), I feel inclined to not fail this record.

I mentioned an upheaval: in fact, "Requiem" sounds to most like a return to the origins, to that ferocious black/thrash of the first three albums. But those records had internal vibrations - Quorthon knew well - that could not be recreated. We immediately notice that the drums (drum machine?) have a very dry and clear sound, at first, it seems "detached" from the other instruments, anchored to thrash tempos but tedious when it persists relentlessly on the bursts of double pedal. Clinging to the drums, there is an edgy bass, which I personally like a lot, which only worries about keeping up with the guitars. This last element is a continuity with the remote past of Our Own, recorded a bit worse than the drums, as well as Quorthon's raspy voice that recalls the early Kreator. "Requiem" is in every way a thrash album with hints of black, especially in some harsh screams, suffering from poor rhythmic inventiveness (the song "Sacrifice" above all) and riffs that are not exactly unforgettable, on the contrary, will lead the most experienced in the field into the tunnel of déjà-vu.

Let me explain better. Over rhythmic patterns as monotonous as possible, Darkthrone wrote at least two masterpieces, but in those cases, there were very valid guitar lines. The mid-nineties Bathory (after numerous masterpieces) float without praise and without blame, but saving themselves from disgrace. This is an album to have only if you own all its predecessors and particularly love the old school 80s and, of course, the character Quorthon.