Hail!
I am offering a vinyl edition of Bathory’s masterpiece debut album, simply titled Bathory. Recorded in June 1984 at Heaven Shore Studio, Stockholm, Sweden. Mixed at Electra Studio, Stockholm, Sweden, and mastered at The Cutting Room, Stockholm, Sweden. This is, of course, not the original first pressing from 1984, but the most faithful replica of the original I've ever seen. Includes an insert.
Behind-the-Scenes Story Notes:
The yellow goat:
Gold was the original color chosen for the jacket’s artwork. However, because this particular color was too expensive to use, the printing company was asked to substitute it with a standard color as close to gold as possible. Hence, the yellow goat. Quorthon was unhappy with the result and decreed that all subsequent pressings of the album would be issued with a black-and-white color scheme.
“Necromansy” and “In Conspirasy with Satan”:
Track A3, “Necromansy”, is spelled this way simply for practical reasons. The cover layout had only been finalized the night before it was due at the printer. While applying the Old English rub-on lettering used for the logo and song titles, it was discovered that there was one lowercase “c” missing. It was too late to buy another sheet of lettering, so the decision was made to use an “s” in its place. The reasoning was that the altered spelling would go unnoticed, as the letter works phonetically. Thus, “Necromancy” became “Necromansy”. The same is likely true of track B1, “In Conspirasy with Satan”.
“Storm of Damnation”:
Track A1 includes the intro “Storm of Damnation” before “Hades” begins.
Original album title:
The album was originally slated to be titled Pentagrammaton, but the title was discarded after several people misread it as “Pentagon”.
The cover artwork:
The cover image is a retouched portion of a drawing created in 1981 by Jos A. Smith for Erica Jong’s book Witches.