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Chapter Two: The Return of the Darkness and Evil...

emperorcaligula | Glen Burnie, MD. | 11/25/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Listen...can you hear it?Boomm...Boomm...Ahhggg...Boommm...Aiighhh...BOOMMM...AGHHHHHRR...BOOOMMMm(...)Yes, it's "Revelation of Doom", the terrifying intro to 'The Return...', the wonderfully twisted second album from Bathory. Definitely play it with the lights ON.Quorthon, in a drunken stupor (he claims to have been completely blotto during the entire recording and mixing of this album) pulls out all the stops, musically and lyrically, and vomits up the BLACKEST black metal album of all time. No B.S. here, sports fans, back in '85 this thing had ol' Beelzebub himself fearing for his job.Lyrically, no other band up to this point had gone this far over-the-top in terms of sheer blasphemy and perversion (check out "Bestial Lust", the words to which could hardly be printed here), while musically, the band (?) began moving away from their Venom influences and mutating into this...uh...THING. Yeah, the musicianship IS pretty sloppy, but the overall nightmarish feel of the material more than makes up for it. It really is hard to describe what early Bathory sounds like, as the sound tends to transcend "music" into this great big diseased open wound of unholy noise (how's THAT for a description?!), something that Quorthon would soon hone and perfect on his next platter.Be forewarned: this one is NOT for everyone; much like Sodom's "In the Sign of Evil", this one's an acquired taste in every sense of the word. But as for me, even after 16 years of Deicide, Cannibal Corpse, et al, this nasty little blob of filth STILL gives me the creeps."