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Bathory: Twilight of the gods

03/08/09 || Smalley

After Bathory released the great “Hammerheart” in 1990, a much more ambitious, much bigger album than anything they’d made prior, it’s no surprise that they followed the same basic template (well, with a heavier emphasis on the acoustic stuff) for follow-up “Twilight of the gods”; after all, why mess with a good thing? But in music, just continuing with what worked in the past isn’t always the best solution, and while I can say “Twilight of the gods” is a pretty good album, it’s also a bit of a re-tread of “Hammerheart”, and suffers for that somewhat. But, the slight unoriginality this album has could’ve been much, much worse, so what we’re left with is still a solid album, good, instead of great. If you think I’m gonna get mad about that, you’re crazy.

Our title track fades in with a faint wind sample, then adds a muddled, extended guitar solo on top, which goes on for over a minute and a half. But please! Don’t turn your volume until it seems “normal”, as you may just lose your hearing once the heavy stuff starts up, in that bombastic style Quorthon was using in this period. You get tons of operatic back up chanting here, thundering percussion work, and a pacing and vocalwork that just scream “epic”, and while it is a very long track, it’s a good one all the way, and you can definitely tell Quorthon wanted this song to be a really fucken grand entrance for “Twilight”. But, while he did succeed in that, I don’t believe the bigger resulted in better here, which I can tell by seeing how much more invigorating the eleven minutes of “Shores in flames” (the opener on the previous album) are than the fourteen minutes here.

But again, a good song, and is followed up by “Through blood by thunder”, our obligatory ode-to-Odin track, with a classy spoken-word intro, and superb use of the back-up chanters, perhaps the best on the entire album. Quorthon sounds a bit drunk on the track, but no big deal, it’s something he did sometimes. “Blood and iron” then has nothing but serene acoustic playing for the first two minutes, then goes back to Bathory’s epic, sweeping metal, and despite the annoying distraction of a James Earl Jones wannabe speaking muddled nonsense during one part, it’s another good addition to “Twilight”, as is “Under the runes”, with music, lyrics, and a bad-ass solo all inspirational enough to be the “Eye of the tiger” for Vikings, heh…

After those first four, “To enter your mountain” (stop snickering!), despite its nice acoustic/electric interaction and chanting, is kind of a drag, but “Bond of blood” picks up the energy level, and manages to satisfy that way (even if it does last too long). So, we’d be left with a pretty consistent album then if it weren’t for the addition of “Hammerheart” (the song, you aren’t getting the album here as well, dumbass). It’s a symphonic track with cheesy synthesizers, instrumentation, and singing that all make it seem like Q wanted a country to pick it as their new national anthem. It’s really, really out of place here, and I can’t think of any metal album where it wouldn’t be out of place. Really, what the hell?

But besides that and “mountain”, every track on here is good, and even though
“Twilight” lacks the sheer impact and freshness that “Hammerheart” had, it still remains a satisfying listen overall, and you’ll certainly enjoy it if you liked
“Hammerheart”. For that, “Twilight of the gods” gets…

Information
Released: 1991
Label: Black Mark
Website: www.bathory.nu
Bathory
Quorthon: vocals/guitar
Kothaar: bass
Vvornth: drums

Tracklist
01. Twilight Of The Gods
02. Through Blood By Thunder
03. Blood and Iron
04. Under The Runes
05. To Enter Your Mountain
06. Bond Of Blood
07. Hammerheart

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