Under the Sign of the Black Mark

Editors' Notes Unleashed upon a very discriminating audience in 1987, Bathory’s third album became one of the primary building blocks for the Scandinavian black metal movement of the early ‘90s. Essentially the solo project of then 21-year-old Swedish musician Tomas “Quorthon” Forsberg, the record has an uncompromising attitude, cavernous atmosphere, and demonic vocal style that made Bathory one of the most extreme bands in the land. Along with the early works of Celtic Frost and Venom, it inspired the legion of corpse-painted firebrands that followed.