Beware: Bathory bootlegs on all formats seem to be notorious for offering fake material or rehashing previously released material. Bathory never had any demos in the normal circulated sense!

Demo 1983/1984
Split with Dark Funeral
Tracks 9-10 - "Demo 1983"
Tracks 11-14 - "Demo 1984"
Contains fake material!
Tracks 1-8 - see Dark Funeral page
Imperial Creations/2N1 Productions
56:40
1. Ravenna Strigol Morti [sic] - Dark Funeral
2. Enriched By Evil - Dark Funeral
3. Bloonfrozen [sic] - Dark Funeral
4. Thy Legions Come - Dark Funeral
5. Evil Prevails [sic] - Dark Funeral
6. Secrets Of The Black Arts - Dark Funeral
7. Vobiscum Satanas - Dark Funeral
8. Ineffable King Of Darkness - Dark Funeral
9. Sacrifice
10. The Return Of Darkness & Evil [sic]
11. Intro (From "Conan The Barbarian")
12. In Conspiracy With Satan
13. Necromancy-Sacrifice
14. Raise The Dead

Another appearance of the fake "demos;" see below.


Demos 83-84
Split with Celtic Frost, Emperor, and Hellhammer
Tracks 11-16 - "demo 83-84"
(Tracks 11-12 - from "Scandinavian Metal Attack" comp.)
(Tracks 14-16 - altered versions of album tracks)

Contains fake material!
Tracks 1, 10 - see Hellhammer page
Tracks 2-8 - see Celtic Frost page
Track 9 - see Emperor page
Label unknown
66:54

1. Triumph of Death - Hellhammer
2. Intro (Danse Macabre) - Celtic Frost
3. Into The Cryps Of Rays [sic] - Celtic Frost
4. Circle Of The Tyrants - Celtic Frost
5. Suicidal Wings [sic] - Celtic Frost
6. Visions of Mortality - Celtic Frost
7. Down Below (Dawn Of Megiddo) - Celtic Frost
8. Dethroned Emperor - Celtic Frost
9. The Ursurper [sic] (Celtic Frost cover) -Emperor
10. Revelations of Doom - Hellhammer
11. Sacrifice
12. The Return Of Darkness And Evil
13. Intro (From "Conan The Barbarian")
14. In Conspirancy With Satan [sic]
15. Necromancy - Sacrifice [sic]
16. Raise The Dead

The first Bathory bootleg CD and I believe the first appearance of these "demo" tracks, which since then have been widely circulated on other bootleg tapes/CDs such as the Dark Funeral split and "The True Black Essence."

These are previously released tracks doctored up with intentionally bad recording quality; I don't know whether to call these edited versions creatively crafty or just dumb. Volume level and sound quality go downhill 10 seconds into track 11 and what follows is muffled with drop-outs. Note how there's a drop-out in the middle of the guitar part at the end of "Necromansy," conveniently shortening it right before the transition into "Sacrifice." The end of "Sacrifice" abruptly cuts off, but you can hear the beginning of the guitar feedback present on the normal album version. "Raise the Dead" has been similarly altered; it begins later into the song, bypassing the intro sound effects, and it ends abruptly, though you can just hear the beginning of the gong from the album version.

Tracks 11-12 are from the "Scandinavian Metal Attack" compilation, and 14-16 are taken from the first album. Track 13 is music taken from "Conan the Barbarian."


The True Black Essence (History)
Tracks 1-4 - "Demo '84 Remastered Version"
Tracks 5-6 - "Edit versions '83"
Tracks 7-12 - Previously unreleased tracks from "Jubileum III"
Track 13 - "Live '87 at Swedish record store opening"
Track 14 - Quorthon TV Interview 1991
+ "One Rode To Asa Bay" video
Contains fake material!
Label unknown RS-99
53:55
1. Intro (From "Conan The Barbarian")
2. In Conspirancy With Satan [sic]
3. Necromancy-Sacriface [sic]
4. Raise The Dead
5. Sacriface [sic]
6. The Return Of The Darkness & Evil [sic]
7. Valhalla (Backing Vocals Multitrack Sample)
8. Satan My Master
9. In Nomine Of Satan [sic]
10. Resolution Greed
11. Witchcraft
12. Genocide
13. Call From The Grave
14. Interview
+ One Rode To Asa Bay video track

Tracks 1-6 are the same tracks from the bootleg split CD. Tracks 5-6 are listed as "edit versions" rather than demos.

Tracks 7-12 are the previously unreleased tracks from "Jubileum III."

Track 13 is supposedly Bathory playing live at a Swedish record store opening, but it doesn't even sound anything like Bathory--it seems to be a low-quality reh. or live cover by another band. Yes, according to Quorthon there were some very early Swedish live shows, but those would have been well before the "In the Sign..." era, and again, nothing here even sounds like Quorthon or Bathory in the first place. If you have any additional information about the origin of this track, please let me know.

Track 14 is the audio from an MTV video interview with Quorthon (in English) done sometime between the release of "Twilight of the Gods" and the first Jubileum disc (probably '91 or so). He speaks about the transition from Satanic to Viking imagery, plans for Bathory after "Twilight of the Gods," and the forthcoming Jubileum discs. The interview is interspersed with snippets of "One Rode to Asa Bay." The interview is mistakenly listed as being from '87 inside the booklet (the bootlegger probably made a mistake and mixed it up with the "live" track). The interview is available on several online video sites.

As advertised on the front cover, this bootleg does contain the "One Rode to Asa Bay" video, though you'll have do some considerable work to get it to play correctly. My copy of the bootleg has the video listed as track 15 in the insert and booklet, but on the back insert the video information has been marked out with a black marker--I assume all copies are like this?

This is a rather poor bootleg in all respects and is recommended only to completists or if you want to shell out to have the audio of the interview and the video on CD.


Miscellaneous

"Under the Sign of Darkness and Evil" is a bootleg CD featuring the older previously unreleased songs from the 3 Jubileum compilation albums as well as the tracks from the "Scandinavian Metal Attack" compilation. I do not currently have it, and because it features no exclusive material, I'm not really too interested in it. It probably won't show up on the site.

"Hammergoat" is a Bathory CD-R supposedly containing covers, rare tracks, and demos. Assuming the rare tracks and demos are taken from the other Bathory demo bootlegs, the Jubileum albums, and Black Mark compilations, it contains nothing that is previously unreleased.