The Return......
| The Return…… | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 27 May 1985 | |||
| Recorded | February 1985[1] | |||
| Studios | Electra Studios, Stockholm, Sweden | |||
| Genre | Black metal | |||
| Length | 36:41 | |||
| Label | Black Mark | |||
| Producers | Quorthon, Boss | |||
| Bathory chronology | ||||
| ||||
The Return…… (full title The Return of the Darkness and Evil) is the second studio album by Swedish extreme metal band Bathory. It was released on 27 May 1985, through Black Mark in Sweden and Combat Records in the US. The Return…… had a significant influence on developing the black metal and death metal genres.[2]
Background
[edit]Quorthon explained the album title as such: "We wanted people to just read out The Return…… – as in a second album or a follow-up – and then flip the album over to look for a tracking list. Not finding one, what they got was this apocalyptic poem with the song titles woven into it. Only after listening through the album to the end would you get the full title of the album, The Return of the Darkness and Evil". The initial bassist, Andreas Johansson, was let go during the recording sessions, as Quorthon found him doing speed. Quorthon played the rest of the basslines himself.[3]
Music
[edit]The staff of Invisible Oranges described the sound on The Return as "100% pure Venom worship, with everything from lyrics to riffs to titles swiped in part to make up the whole of the contents."[4]
Reception
[edit]| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    [5] |
| Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal | 5/10[6] |
Since its release, the album has received acclaim as a landmark of the first wave of black metal, along with their self titled-debut and third album, Under the Sign of the Black Mark. Eduardo Rivadavia of AllMusic wrote of the album, "Like their eponymous debut of a year before, Bathory's 1985 sophomore effort, The Return......, was an unbelievably coarse proto-black metal album influenced almost exclusively by the earlier works of Venom. But make no mistake: such was the genre's state of infancy at the time that, even though it was once again recorded under the most inadequate of circumstances at the auto repair garage Quorthon sympathetically baptized Heavenshore Studios, the album's impact still proved nothing short of revolutionary."[5]
In various interviews, Fenriz of Darkthrone praised the album and defined it as "the essence of black metal".[7][8][9]
According to the staff of Invisible Oranges: "The Return features some of the absolute worst drumming ever released by a legitimate record label. The fast middle section of 'The Rite of Darkness' even surpasses Mike Sus’ horrid timekeeping on Possessed’s debut. Legend has it that Bathory mastermind Quorthon was so drunk during the recording of this record that he couldn’t remember even doing it. It definitely sounds like a blackout drunk performed the pedestrian plodding and manic flailing to be found all over this record."[4]
Track listing
[edit]All tracks are written by Quorthon.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Revelation of Doom" | 3:27 |
| 2. | "Total Destruction" | 3:50 |
| 3. | "Born for Burning" | 5:13 |
| 4. | "The Wind of Mayhem" | 3:13 |
| 5. | "Bestial Lust (Bitch)" | 2:41 |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 6. | "Possessed" | 2:42 |
| 7. | "The Rite of Darkness" | 2:05 |
| 8. | "Reap of Evil" | 3:28 |
| 9. | "Son of the Damned" | 2:48 |
| 10. | "Sadist (Tormentor)" | 3:00 |
| 11. | "The Return of the Darkness and Evil" | 3:49 |
| 12. | "Outro" | 0:25 |
| Total length: | 36:41 | |
The 2003 remastered edition combines tracks 1 and 2, and tracks 7 and 8, as well as adds the final Outro track.
Personnel[citation needed]
[edit]Bathory
[edit]- Quorthon (Thomas Börje Forsberg) – guitars, vocals, additional bass, production, cover design, back cover photography
- Andreas Johansson – bass, back cover photography
- Stefan Larsson – drums, back cover photography
Production
[edit]- Boss (Börje Forsberg) – production, recording, mixing
- Gunnar Silins – front cover photography
References
[edit]- ↑ "Blood Death and Satanic Forces of Evil". Nihilist. Archived from the original on 2 May 2001. Retrieved 2 July 2026.
- ↑ Ekeroth, Daniel (29 July 2008). Swedish Death Metal. Bazillion Points Books. p. 33. ISBN 978-0979616310. Retrieved 2 October 2012.
- ↑ Quorthon. "The Return of the Darkness and Evil". Bathory Official Website. Archived from the original on 14 March 2010. Retrieved 11 July 2026.
- 1 2 Staff, Invisible Oranges. "Top 10 Great Metal Albums with Terrible Drumming". Invisible Oranges - The Metal Blog. Archived from the original on 3 August 2020. Retrieved 2 July 2026.
- 1 2 Rivadavia, Eduardo. "Bathory - The Return of the Darkness and Evil review". AllMusic. Retrieved 11 July 2026.
- ↑ Popoff, Martin (1 November 2005). The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal: Volume 2: The Eighties. Burlington, Ontario, Canada: Collector's Guide Publishing. p. 38. ISBN 978-1894959315.
- ↑ "Interview: Darkthrone (Fenriz)". Isolation Grind.com. 5 September 2013. Archived from the original on 21 December 2016. Retrieved 17 February 2017.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ↑ Zebub, Bill. "Darkthrone". The Grimoire.com. Retrieved 17 February 2017.
- ↑ Cook, Toby (19 March 2013). "Underground Attitude: Fenriz of Darkthrone Interviewed". The Quietus. Retrieved 17 February 2017.
External links
[edit]- The Return…… at Discogs (list of releases)
