"Under The Sign Of The Black Mark whilst remaining potent and primitive also marked the transition into more atmospheric, melodic and epic musical territory and was the crossroads between the punked-up evil of the first two Bathory albums and the epic grandiose majestic darkness of Blood Fire Death and the Viking-era albums. Venom might have coined the term black metal but Quorthon and this album perfected it. Quorthon sounds fucking possessed on this album which is often imitated, never bettered. The blueprint for black metal as we know it today and 35 minutes of some of the most essential evil metal to ever exist!”

 - Kat Shevil Gillham, Winds Of Genocide/Lucifer's Challice