Bathory
Destroyer of Worlds
Album · Metal · 2001
After forging the templates of black metal and viking metal in the ’80s and early ’90s, this Swedish institution went on to deliver grit-caked, one-man-band, thrash-metal brutality on 2001’s Destroyer of Worlds. Quorthon opens with Viking-esque acoustic guitar in “Lake of Fire”, then sings his voice raw on the title track over battering-ram drums and a chorus of devil moans. “Kill Kill Kill” features supercharged riffs caked in motorcycle exhaust, while “White Bones” traverses shiny guitar harmonics and face-mauling distortion.