Bathory

Gold was the original color choice for the jacket's artwork, but because that particular color was too expensive to use, the printing company was asked to substitute it with a standard color that was as close to gold as possible. Hence, the yellow goat. Quorthon, unhappy with the results, decreed that any and all subsequent pressings of the album would be issued with a black and white color motif.

Track A3, "Necromansy", is spelled as such simply out of convenience. The layout for the cover had only been finalized the night prior to the date it was due at the printer. During the application of the Old English rub-on lettering being used for the logo and song titles, it was discovered they were short one lower-case letter 'c'. Too late at night to buy another sheet of lettering, the decision was made to use an 's' to replace the 'c', with the logic that the altered spelling wouldn't be noticed, as the letter works phonetically. Thus the title "Necromancy" became "Necromansy". The same is likely true for track B1, "In Conspirasy with Satan".

The album's original title was slated to be Pentagrammaton, but was discarded when several people misread it as Pentagon.

The cover image is a retouched portion of a drawing rendered in 1981 by Jos A. Smith for the Erica Jong book, Witches.

Several batches of exact counterfeit copies of the coveted 'yellow goat' edition have been released over the years.

Recording information:

Recorded in June 1984 at Heaven Shore Studio, Stockholm, Sweden.
Mixed at Electra Studio, Stockholm, Sweden.
Mastered at the Cutting Room, Stockholm, Sweden.

Identifiers:

Matrix / Runout (Side Darkness): 840905GP BMLP 666 1 A PD-CR Pentagram image] [666 image in pyramid shape]
Matrix / Runout (Side Evil): 840905GP BMLP 666 1 B PD-CR [Cross image]
Rights Society: ncb