I know what you're going to say. "This album is nothing like 'Hammerheart', it's not as epic, as developed, it's not a landmark". Maybe you're right, but as far as I concern, this is one of the standouts of the late 80's Black Metal scene.

Up until '88, Quorthon's Bathory (more or less a one-man project) played some typical sounding Black Metal (though other than the historical value of its music, it sounded like crap) -- Super fast blast beat songs, the Satanic messages we all know and just can't take seriously, and the bad, raw, almost painful quality of the recording. With the release of Blood Fire Death Quorthon had started a new era in the music of Bathory, and perhaps the whole BM scene -- Some people call it 'Viking Metal'.

Musically, Blood Fire Death is a gigantic leap in the quality of Quorthon's creation. From the repetitive, too-fast and casual Black Metal he moved up into a more developed, slower and epic kind of music. The opening song "A Fine Day to Die" is a perfect example for that, featuring slow tempos and epic changes of moods and riffs. The use of choir also adds to the atmosphere, clearly felt both in the opening track and the closing title song.

The middle of the album resembles of the past sounding Bathory, with the fast blast beats of "Pace 'till Death", "Dies Irae" and "Holocaust", the lesser-felt atmosphere and without the epic style of "A Fine Day to Die".

Lyrically, there isn't much to be said. The Satanic messages are replaced by Viking tales, sort of as a preview to the following album Hammerheart. Generally, BFD is the beginning of Bathory's three-album masterpiece -- Blood Fire Death, Hammerheart and Twilight of the Gods which all together resemble one of the greatest landmarks in the development of the Black Metal music.

Highly recommended to any Black Metal fan, especially those who are tired of their Mayhem/Darkthrone kind of CD's -- You'll sell them after hearing this one, I guarantee.

Recommended: Yes