Goats, Logos and Album Art: The Designs Explained

Almost every Bathory design in our store comes from the band's albums, the goat and the logo. Here is what is printed on each one, so you can pick the one that means the most to you.

Which designs use the goat?

The goat comes from the cover of the 1984 debut. Its first pressings printed it in bright yellow because gold was too expensive, and fans still call that cover the yellow goat. 1984 Goat prints it in pale cream, with the album's two sides, Darkness and Evil, in a pentagram on the back. Goat Red Logo sets the goat in black and white under a blood-red logo, and Goat Shield puts it inside a white shield over a red pentagram.

Which designs come from the albums?

The Return carries the 1985 cover, a pale moon behind dark clouds, with the songs on the back. Under the Sign of the Black Mark shows the 1987 cover: a horned figure between towering stone columns. Hammerheart brings the 1990 cover painting, The Funeral of a Viking by Frank Dicksee, in fiery reds. Twilight of the Gods prints the 1991 cover of snowy peaks under a red sky, with the seven songs on the back. Blood Fire Death prints the whole 1988 cover, Peter Nicolai Arbo's painting The Wild Hunt of Odin, under a gold logo.

And the rest?

Logo is the blackletter name on its own, in white. Photo Collage puts the logo over grainy black-and-white photos in the style of an old fanzine. Tsjuder Flames is the odd one out: its art carries the logo of Tsjuder, a Norwegian black metal band, over a goat head and skeletal figures in crimson flames.

A detail for collectors

On the back of 1984 Goat, the song Necromansy keeps its odd spelling. It is printed that way on the album too, because Quorthon ran out of the letter C in his rub-on lettering.

How do I choose?

Go with the record that hooked you, or the art you'd want to look at every day. Every design comes on tees, long sleeves, crewnecks and hoodies, plus kids' and youth sizes. See them all in the shop.