Bathory – Octagon (1995)

June 20, 2024

Never thought I’d ever hear Quothorn screaming such lyrical ditties as “Eat my shit / Suck my dick” but Octagon exists, and here we are. It is perhaps not hard to see why this album is so reviled compared to the other Bathory records. It’s like a poor man’s Requiem that should actually work on paper, what with the frantic guitar work and song structures and the flurry of drums, but is just a shittier version of that previous album with even worse lyrical content than before (see above). Hey, it’s great angry shit for the gym, which is where I listened to it a few times trying to wrap my head around some of these musical decisions, but I can’t see me returning to this in the future over the many other excellent Bathory records.