BATHORY: BLOOD ON ICE (1996)
1) Intro; 2) Blood On Ice; 3)
Man Of Iron; 3) One Eyed Old Man; 4) The Sword; 5) The Stallion; 6) The Woodwoman;
7) The Lake; 8) Gods Of Thunder, Of Wind And Of Rain; 9) The Ravens; 10) The
Revenge Of The Blood On Ice.
Apparently, the story is as follows: In between
the «transitional» Blood, Fire And Death
and the stylistic revolution and public success of Hammerheart, Quorthon had actually recorded yet another album —
one that explored his newly-acquired interest in his Scandinavian heritage even
farther than Hammerheart, being sort
of a highly cohesive «rock oratorio». Inside was a Nordic fantasy, loosely
based on the motives of Germanic mythology, but «creatively reworked» by
Quorthon, presumably in order to avoid being sued by Odin's and Thor's legal
representatives for copyright infringement — you never know when that
lightning might strike you.
Having recorded the master tapes, Quorthon, however,
had second thoughts about releasing the album for public consumption — feeling,
as he admitted himself, that his fanbase was not yet ready for such a radical
image reinvention. The project was therefore shelved, and Quorthon started
working on Hammerheart instead. Only
six years later, having accidentally leaked the information and received lots
of feedback from the fans (who, by that time, were not only well accustomed to
his Viking schtick, but probably also felt seriously irritated by Quorthon's subsequent
move to stupid thrash territory), he returned to the old tapes — cleaned them
up, remixed them based on improved technology, and finally made them available
to everyone under the title of Blood On
Ice, which at least sounds a little better than «King Arthur on ice», I'd
say.
Frankly speaking, it is not quite clear why
this album, had it been out there in 1989, could have been more of a «shock» to
fans than Hammerheart. It does
suffer in comparison to the latter, but not because of its storyline, or any
sort of extra pomposity, or anything like that: it simply does not match Hammerheart in terms of sheer quantity
of good ideas. The storyline is a
little corny, as is every one-man fantasy-style reworking of any mythological
tradition — elegantly shaped and steadily balanced through hundreds of years of
«natural selection» — and perhaps he did feel a little shy about unfurling his
story of one-eyed wise men, twin-headed Beasts, and eight-legged stallions,
replacing it with the superficially more impressive pseudo-historism of Hammerheart. However, Quorthon's verbacity
rarely stands in the way of proper music: the real reason why Blood On Ice feels a little
disappointing is that, unlike Hammerheart,
this one is really envisioned as a «musical saga», and the one flaw that could
be naturally expected of a musical saga is monotonousness and repetitiveness.
From that angle, Blood On Ice, with its emphasis on the «never-ending riff» rather
than the «awesome riff», has more in common with Twilight Of The Gods, or those particular parts of Hammerheart that pre-announce Twilight (most notably, ʽOne Rode To
Asa Bayʼ). The tracks are typically long and repetitive, only occasionally
jolted by vocal gimmicks (such as the deep «iron-man» spoken passage in the middle
of the title track, or the «one-eyed old man» monolog on the same-titled tune)
or an acoustic interlude (ʽThe Ravensʼ; ʽMan Of Ironʼ, despite its title, is
actually a crudely constructed acoustic folk ballad as well).
Elsewhere, the riffs are really only there to
propel the song forward — martial-wise (title track; ʽThe Stallionʼ) or,
sometimes, in a more blues-rocky, almost swampy mode (ʽThe Lakeʼ — did I just
say «swampy»?). This is all fine and dandy for a «saga», if we are simply
supposed to take this as a heavy backing to Quorthon's story, but if the story
happens to be the last thing in which
we might be interested on a Bathory album, the number of memorable events on Blood On Ice will not be too large.
(For some reason, the only thing that still sticks with me after several
listens is the juxtaposition of thumping hooves and bleating sheep — even
though I have never suspected myself of anything close to a pastoralist or
nomadic mindset...).
Altogether, this one is definitely for the fans,
although it goes without saying that it does feel a lot like a gulp of fresh,
methane-free air after the previous two albums — and that the story, corny elements and all, does show a deep,
sincere interest in the Scandinavian pagan tradition: there are conceptual
elements in Blood On Ice that may
feel clumsy or poorly stated, but there is no denying the passion and the
obsessive involvement. Unfortunately, this is not quite enough to properly «reward»
the album with a thumbs up.
Check "Blood On Ice" (CD) on Amazon
Check "Blood On Ice" (MP3) on Amazon
Yeah, right. Good riffs, excellent melodies and general passion do not warrant a thumbs up. Yet somehow a boring tuneless mess like "Exile On Main Street" does, even without any of those qualities. Geez.
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