BATHORY – Hammerheart

"Bathory released this amazing album in 1990. It continues the change to Viking Metal that begun on the 1988 release Blood Fire Death. A video was made for “One Rode to Asa Bay”.SoundIt definitely sounds like Bathory. Quorthon’s voice is one of the voices that sounds cool because of the imperfections in it, much like Ozzy’s does or Tom Araya’s voice. Quorthon does not sound anything like them but he has character. The drums are drenched in reverb and not mixed too loud, and the guitars are thin and melodic but very tight. The bass just follows the guitars, or at least does nothing memorable. Conclusion is good sound because you can hear everything, although you have to concentrate a bit to get the bass lines.MusicThe choir, which I think is all Quorthon, is over-used; like in “Baptised in Fire and Ice” it’s there for most of the song and kind of ruins the chorus. It does fit under the solos and in the mellow/acoustic chapters in some of the songs (as in the intro to the first track, Sh