Lords of the North: A Tribute to Bathory (2019)

Bathory has one of the more intriguing legacies in all of metal.  Primarily the one-man project of one Thomas Forsberg, a.k.a. Quorthon, Bathory was instrumental in the formation of black metal.  Then later, tired of that genre, Quorthon began experimenting with an epic, folk-laden heavy metal style that became the basis for what we now refer to as "viking metal".  Quorthon died in 2004 at the still young age of 38 (my age now). 

This release focuses for the most part on the viking metal era of Bathory (obvious from looking at the album cover), an era I have been exploring more and more over the last couple of years, but which I was aware of early on in my discovery of the band due to picking up Twilight of the Gods before I picked up any of the earlier black metal material.  I love tribute albums and have been striving to find more of them recently, so it was an easy call to grab this.

UNREQUITED: "SONG TO HALL UP HIGH"

Appearing on Hammerheart, I do not really understand the inclusion of this song.  The original version does feature some clean singing, but that is completely removed here, making this a two-and-a-half minute acoustic opener that really does not go anywhere.  I guess I sort of understand, Bathory became known for having epic openers.  This does not tell me anything about Unrequited as a band though.

ESKAPISM: "ENTER THE ETERNAL FIRE"

That's more like it.  This is one of the few songs from Bathory's black metal era to make it onto the album, originally appearing on the utterly fantastic Under the Sign of the Black Mark.  It is an intense, heavy track that nonetheless foreshadowed Quorthon's burgeoning interest in more epic fare.  Eskapism captures this atmosphere well, with raspy vocals that match the more abrupt riffing style well.

BEORN'S HALL: "FOREVERDARK WOODS"

I had heard this specific cover before as it appeared on Beorn's Hall's 2019 album.  "Foreverdark Woods" originally appeared on Bathory's Nordland I, which was one of the band's latter albums.  It starts off with acoustic music before building into an immense and powerful song that exemplifies Bathory's viking metal era, hitting all of the high notes.  Beorn's Hall does a masterful job with this track.  The band wears their Bathory viking metal era influence on their sleeve, so they better be good at this.

DWARROWDELF: "NORDLAND"

U.K.-based black metal project Dwarrowdelf tackles the lengthy title track from Bathory's first Nordland album.  That is a bit of a change from the band's normal Tolkien-influenced music, but the music does fit with what the band typically does.  The lilting flute melodies and minstrel-esque vocals give the song a light-hearted feel that is occasionally broken through with darkness.  It is one of the more uplifting Bathory songs.

FOREFATHER: "MAN OF IRON"

This is a much shorter song off of the amazing Blood on Ice album which I only recently picked up and fell in love with.  This is another song whose inclusion on this kind of baffles me.  It is a much more melodic track, but it is at least a true song, and not just an intro track.  I have no idea what to think of Forefather though.

FOURTEEN SEVENTY SIX: "BLOOD FIRE DEATH"

Ah yes, here we go.  This is the title track, and one of Bathory's best songs ever, to my favorite Bathory album.  I can find very little about this band, it might be the same band as 1476, a duo out of Salem, MA.  They do a decent job with this track, though it sounds a little sludgier than the original version.  That is not a problem though.    

WINDFAERER: "BLOODED SHORE"

Windfaerer is another band who owes much of their existence to Bathory's second ere and they tackle the first real song off of the second Nordland album.  That was Bathory's final album.  This is a brighter song with a lot of fanfare at the beginning.  The vocals are delivered in more of a typical black metal rasp with clean backing vocals though, while the original only had clean vocals.  I understand the choice though and Windfaerer does a decent job with it.

LOSTREGOS: "A FINE DAY TO DIE"

Lostregos is a Spanish black metal band whose lyrics are all in Spanish.  This song is actually titled "Un Bo Dia Pra Morrer" as the band translates the song into Spanish.  This is perhaps Bathory's most famous song from the viking metal period and appears on Blood Fire Death.  Lostregos firmly emphasizes the black metal elements of the song, flooding the melodic portions with distortion and down-tuning the guitars.  What results is a rather different arrangement of the song.

ULVESANG: "THE LAKE"

Ulvesang is a neofolk band from Canada that has decided to cover "The Lake" from Blood On Ice.  This is a slower, more melodic song, that still has some heavy riffs.  Ulvesang though takes it in an acoustic direction, eschewing the heavy riffs.  The vocals are also delivered in a spoken word style, when they are present at all.

FUNERARY DESCENT: "CALL FROM THE GRAVE"

This is another track from the decidedly more black metal Under the Sign of the Black Mark.  Funerary Descent, as might be inferred from their name, is more of a doom metal band, with some black metal influences.  The original is a mid-paced crusher, but Funerary Descent is not the kind of band to perform something like that, opting to slow things to a creeping crawl instead.  

This is a decent tribute album.  I did not really discover too many new bands I am itching to check out, maybe Windfaerer and Eskapism.  Some of the more interesting arrangements were by Funerary Descent and Lostregos.  I am not the biggest fan of the Unrequited track.  Even the less metal tracks by Forefather and Ulvesang had some nice touches, but Unrequited is just wasted.  Beorn's Hall wins the award for sounding most like the original.

This is hardly an essential release, but interesting if you are a big Bathory fan.