Black Mark Records
1994
Jubileum, Volume I
About This Album
Along with its nearly as seminal companion release (Vol. 2), Jubileum, Vol. 1 features the absolute highlights from the career of Sweden's trailblazing Bathory -- a band not only responsible for launching Scandinavia's black metal scene, but for inventing the often intersecting subgenre of Viking metal. Focusing on the band's first six albums, Jubileum, Vol. 1 avoids the chronological order approach and proceeds to mix and match its tracks at will, but this is perhaps for the better given Bathory's wide range of metallic styles. Getting things started are two premiere recordings that, for one reason or another, were left off those classic mid-period albums. The instrumental "Rider at the Gate of Dawn" from 1987 was possibly a little bit ahead of its time, while 1989's "Crawl to Your Cross," although recorded a mere two years later, was conversely behind in terms of subject matter. Paired here, they work just great. "Sacrifice," Bathory's extremely Venom-derived (down to the Cronos-like grunts) submission to 1984's career-launching compilation Scandinavian Metal Attack is next, and from here on out "black to Viking" metal evolution really takes over, with the transitional "Dies Irae" setting up the suitably dramatic "Through Blood by Thunder.
Track List (try tracks 2,4,5,6,8 and 12)

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.