Bathory - Biography
Bathory, formed in Stockholm, Sweden in 1983, was one of the original black metal bands. Michael Moynihan and Didrik Søderlind’s book Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground (Feral House 1998) identifies Venom, Mercyful Fate, and Bathory as the three primary “pioneers” of the black metal genre.
In interviews for Lords of Chaos, Quorthon gave his real name as “Pugh Rogefeldt,” the name of a popular Swedish MOR rocker; when asked for his real name in other interviews, he often strung together Swedish profanities unfamiliar to foreign journalists (e.g. Runka Snorkråka, Fjärt Bengrot). It is widely rumored on the web that Quorthon was not just being prankish on these occasions, but was using pseudonyms to conceal his relationship to Black Mark label owner and Bathory producer Stig Börje “Boss” Forsberg, alleged to be Quorthon’s father. Quorthon denied that Boss was his father in an interview in Maelstrom #12.
Tomas Börje Forsberg (born February 17, 1966) had an Oi! band, Stridskuk, before he formed Bathory in March 1983 with bassist Frederick Hanoi and drummer Jonas Åkerlund. Forsberg briefly called himself Black Spade and Ace Shoot before taking the name Quorthon, which he told Voices from the Darkside he took from the “Black Bible.” The band took its name from Erszébet Báthory, the real life, sadistic Hungarian “Blood Countess” of the late 16th and early 17th centuries. According to legend, Báthory tortured and killed more than 600 young women and bathed in their blood. (See Andrei Codrescu’s 1995 historical novel The Blood Countess for more on Báthory and her crimes.) It is likely that “Countess Bathory,” a song on Venom’s Black Metal album, was the immediate source of the band’s name.
Bathory recorded its first demo in 1983. Hanoi and Åkerlund were out of town, so Quorthon brought in Stridskuk’s rhythm section, bassist Rickard Bergman and drummer Johan Elvén. Bathory first appeared on the compilation Scandinavian Metal Attack (1984 Tyfon Grammofon), which included the songs “Sacrifice” and “The Return of the Darkness and Evil.” Quorthon says in Lords of Chaos, “it turned out that 85-90% of all the fan mail that came to the record company from that record was about our songs. So the guy from the record company [Boss?] called me up and said, ‘Hey, you really need to put your band together again and write some songs, because you have a full-length album to record this summer.’ ”
That album was Bathory (1984 Black Mark), recorded with Bergman on bass and Stefan Larsson on drums. Larsson also drummed on Bathory’s second album The Return...... (a/k/a The Return Of The Darkness And Light, 1985 Black Mark), recorded with bassist Andreas Johansson. Quorthon was never able to assemble a permanent rhythm section for Bathory. According to MusicMight’s Bathory bio, Quorthon asked drummer Carsten Nielsen of Artillery to join in 1985, but Nielsen turned him down. Sodom’s drummer, Witchhunter, tried out for Bathory but it did not work.
Quorthon claimed that Bathory never performed live. While some internet sources claim that the band did play a handful of shows around this time, they do not provide any corroborating details. In Lords of Chaos, Quorthon talks about trying to get a live band together to tour with Celtic Frost and Destruction in the summer of 1986, but says he was unable to do so since “at that time, [Swedish] musicians were bound to look like the band Europe.” Bathory recorded its third album, Under The Sign Of The Black Mark (1987 Under One Flag/Black Mark), in September 1986 with Paul Pålle Lundberg on drums. Christer Sandström played bass on some songs, Quorthon on the rest.
Blood Fire Death (1988 Under One Flag/Black Mark) is often credited as the first album of a new subgenre, Viking metal. It also marks Bathory’s turn from Satanic themes toward Ásatrú, the revival of Norse paganism, with which Quorthon explicitly began to identify himself in interviews. Lords of Chaos classifies Blood Fire Death, Hammerheart (1990 Noise) and Twilight Of The Gods (1991 Black Mark) as Bathory’s “Ásatrú trilogy.” The first two albums of the trilogy credit Kothaar with bass and Vvornth with drums. Although a promo photograph from this period, which shows three shirtless members of Bathory wielding swords, identifies the men on either side of Quorthon as Vvornth and Kothaar, rumors persist that the men in the picture were stand-ins and that Quorthon played all the instruments himself. Quorthon himself denied these rumors, and MusicMight says “Quorthon later revealed that these appellations were given to a succession of musicians that had passed through the ranks.” Quorthon is the only musician credited on subsequent Bathory albums, though he said that other musicians contributed.
Bathory released the best-of collection Jubileum Volumes I and II (1992/1993 Black Mark), followed by the new albums Requiem (1994 Black Mark) and Octagon (1995 Black Mark). For Blood On Ice (1996 Black Mark), Quorthon finished recordings from 1988 and 1989 for what was to have been Bathory’s fifth album. After Jubileum Volume III (1998 Black Mark) came three more new Bathory albums, Destroyer of Worlds (2001 Black Mark) and Nordland I and II (2002/2003 Black Mark). Quorthon also released two solo albums during the 1990s: Album (1994 Black Mark) and Purity Of Essence (1997 Black Mark).
Tomas Börje Forsberg was found dead in his apartment on June 7, 2004, aged 38. Heart failure was the reported cause of death. He is buried in Sandsborgs Cemetary in Stockholm. Black Mark released the posthumous box set In Memory Of Quorthon 1966-2004 (2006 Black Mark).
