''Blood Fire Death'' is the fourth studio album by Swedish

extreme metal Extreme metal is a loosely defined umbrella term for a number of related heavy metal music subgenres that have developed since the early 1980s. It has been defined as a "cluster of metal subgenres characterized by sonic, verbal, and visual tran ...

band Bathory. It was released on 8 October 1988, through

Music for Nations Music For Nations (MFN) is a British independent record label focusing mainly on rock and metal. It was a subsidiary of the larger label distributor Zomba Records, which was a division of BMG and later Sony Music Entertainment. Launched in 1 ...

sublabel,

Under One Flag Under One Flag is a now-defunct British record label from London, which aimed at a heavy metal audience, particularly a thrash metal audience. They were best known for re-releasing classic heavy metal albums, from the likes of Venom and Dark A ...

. The album, although mostly

black metal Black metal is an extreme metal, extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include Tempo#Beats per minute, fast tempos, a Screaming (music)#Black metal, shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted Electric guitar, guitars played with t ...

, includes some of the first examples of Viking metal. 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".

Background and recording

The lyrics to "For All Those Who Died" were taken from a poem by

Erica Jong Erica Jong (née Mann; born March 26, 1942) is an American novelist, satirist, and poet, known particularly for her 1973 novel ''Fear of Flying''. The book became famously controversial for its attitudes towards female sexuality and figured pro ...

, first published in her book ''Witches'' (1981), while the first three verses of "A Fine Day to Die" are taken from "Cassilda's Song" of

Robert W. Chambers Robert William Chambers (May 26, 1865 – December 16, 1933) was an American artist and fiction writer, best known for his book of short stories titled '' The King in Yellow'', published in 1895. Life Chambers was born in Brooklyn, New York, t ...

' '' The King in Yellow''. The front cover comes from the painting ''

The Wild Hunt of Odin ''The Wild Hunt of Odin'' ( no, Åsgårdsreien, lit=The Ride of Asgard) is an 1872 painting by Peter Nicolai Arbo. It depicts the Wild Hunt from Scandinavian folklore and is based on a poem by Johan Sebastian Welhaven. The painting is in the col ...

'' (1872) by

Peter Nicolai Arbo Peter Nicolai Arbo (18 June 1831 – 14 October 1892) was a Norwegian historical painter, who specialized in portraits and allegorical scenes from Norwegian history and the Norse mythology. He is most noted for ''The Wild Hunt of Odin'', a d ...

. The painting as well as the opening track "Oden's Ride Over Nordland" use the

Wild Hunt The Wild Hunt is a folklore motif (Motif E501 in Stith Thompson's Motif-Index of Folk-Literature) that occurs in the folklore of various northern European cultures. Wild Hunts typically involve a chase led by a mythological figure escorted by ...

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.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.

Critical reception

In 2009,

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

included ''Blood Fire Death'' in their "10 Great Black Metal Albums" list.

Track listing

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

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release.

Personnel

;Bathory * Quorthon – guitars, vocals, percussion, effects, producer, engineer, mixing * Vvornth – drums * Kothaar – bass ;Production * Boss (Börje Forsberg) – producer,

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

, mixing *

– album cover painting, ''

(Åsgårdsreien)'' * Pelle Matteus – sleeve photography

References

{{Authority control Bathory (band) albums 1988 albums Black metal albums by Swedish artists Viking metal albums