2026 Anniversary Series 069: Bathory – Blood on Ice

Scribed by Sandre the Giant Released: 27th May 1996 An album that Bathory mastermind Quorthon shelved in 1989 for sounding too different from the band’s sound (he was probably right), 1996’s ‘Blood on Ice’ arrived just as the band’s ill advised old school thrash records confused everyone and yet perfectly as the folk metal scene was starting to rise from its formative roots in the previous few years. And yes, this is famously part of Bathory’s ‘Viking metal’ era but what is Viking metal if not a particularly focused Scandinavian brand of folk metal? ‘Blood on Ice’ is now thirty years old, and in the eyes of a modern folk metal fan feels like the primal roots of the genre and yet has a timeless quality to it that you just cannot learn. Despite the fact that it was mostly written and recorded in 1989, ‘Blood on Ice’ does feel like the perfect bridge between what would start on ‘Blood Fire Death’ and ‘Hammerheart’ and reappear in the early 2000s on the ‘Nordland’ duo. But it was totally…