Bathory (band)

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Bathory was a Swedish extreme metal band formed in Vällingby in March 1983. Named after Hungarian countess Elizabeth Báthory, they are considered pioneers of black metal (alongside Venom and Mercyful Fate)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and Viking metal. The book Lords of Chaos described Bathory's first four albumsTemplate:Efn as "the blueprint for Scandinavian black metal."<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Dan Nelson">Template:Cite book</ref>

Bathory abandoned the black metal sound for their fifth record, Hammerheart (1990), which is often cited as the first Viking metal album.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The band continued in the Viking metal style for most of their remaining existence, although they experimented with a thrash metal style on the albums Requiem (1994) and Octagon (1995). They stopped performing live early on and never toured; frontman, founder and main songwriter Tomas "Quorthon" Forsberg was the sole constant member and at times responsible for all instruments. Bathory ended when Forsberg died from heart failure at the age of 38 in June 2004.

History

Early years (1980s)

Bathory formed in Vällingby in March 1983.<ref name="lahtinen" /> Quorthon, a 17-year-old guitarist (then known as "Ace Shoot", a name inspired by sex jokes, two Motörhead songs – "Ace of Spades" and "Sharpshooter"<ref name="names-rumors-legends">Template:Cite web</ref> – and Ace Frehley of Kiss), was joined by bass guitarist Frederick Melander ("Hanoi"<ref name="names-rumors-legends" />) and drummer Jonas Åkerlund ("Vans McBurger"<ref name="names-rumors-legends" />). According to Quorthon, he settled on the name 'Bathory' after a visit to the London Dungeon, although Jonas says that it was also inspired and taken from the Venom song "Countess Bathory".Template:Sfn The Venom song was based on the life of Elizabeth Báthory who is believed to be one of the most prolific female murderesses. Before settling on 'Bathory', the band considered several names; including Nosferatu, Natas, Mephisto, Elizabeth Bathory and Countess Bathory.<ref name=Santos>Template:Cite book</ref> Quorthon worked part-time at the small record label Tyfon Grammofon, which was owned by his father, Börje Forsberg (1944-2017).Template:Sfn In late 1983, the label was putting together a compilation of songs by Scandinavian metal bands.Template:Sfn However, at the last minute, one of the bands backed out. Tyfon agreed to let Bathory appear on the record as a replacement. The album, called Scandinavian Metal Attack, was released in March 1984 and was Bathory's first appearance on record.Template:Sfn Unexpectedly, the two Bathory tracks "Sacrifice" and "The Return of Darkness and Evil" drew a great deal of fan mail.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Soon afterward, Tyfon asked Quorthon to record a full-length album.Template:Sfn His bandmates having moved away, Quorthon recruited Rickard Bergman from his former oi-punk band Stridskuk as bassist and Stefan Larsson from punk band Obsklass as drummer.<ref name="Bathory – Bathory">Template:Cite web</ref> On 22 May 1984, they had their first and only rehearsal together before recording the album.Template:Sfn Two songs were recorded at the 22 May rehearsal: "Witchcraft" and "Satan My Master" making it the first recording of the debut album line-up.<ref name="Bathory – Bathory"/> The debut album, Bathory, was recorded in June at Heavenshore Studio (a converted garage) in Stockholm Template:Sfn and released in October that year. Over the next four years, Bathory released a further three albums: The Return…… (1985), Under the Sign of the Black Mark (1987) and Blood Fire Death (1988).

Bathory's early work was dark, fast, heavily distorted and raw recording (lo-fi). Quorthon's vocals were harsh, high-pitched and raspy with occasional shrieks and screams. The band's lyrics focused on 'dark' topics and included anti-Christian and 'Satanic' references.<ref name=bathory-lyrics>Template:Cite web</ref> These traits came to define black metal<ref name=Santos/> and the band used this style on their first four albums. Quorthon said that the band were not Satanists but used 'Satanic' references to provoke and attack Christianity. With the third and fourth albums he began "attacking Christianity from a different angle", realizing that Satanism is a "Christian product" and seeing them both as "religious hocus-pocus".<ref name=bathory-lyrics/>

Quorthon described Bathory's early sound as a "mixture" of Black Sabbath, Motörhead and GBH,<ref name="lahtinen" /> singling out GBH's album City Baby Attacked by Rats and Motörhead's Ace of Spades and Iron Fist,<ref name="death-metal-org">DeathMetal.org: Interview: Quorthon (Bathory)</ref> and was also influenced by the Exploited,<ref>Swedish Death Metal: "If I hadn't started to play in punk bands around '79–80 I could have ended up on the streets, with a needle in my arm. Luckily, I didn't have any such friends, so I got involved with the punk movement, and was inspired by bands like Exploited and GBH."</ref> Sex Pistols, Disorder, Riot/Clone, Anti-Nowhere League, Kiss,<ref>"Birth of a Legend". Bathory.nu.</ref> Anti Cimex, Asocial, Mob 47<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and Exciter.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The term 'black metal' came from Venom's 1982 album of that name. Many fans and reviewers have claimed Venom was an influence on Bathory,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> or even accused Bathory of copying Venom.<ref>Götz Kühnemund: »Heavy Metal ist was für Weicheier!«. Die erste Generation des Black Metal. In: Rock Hard, no. 269, October 2009, p. 72.</ref><ref name=lahtinen>Luxi Lahtinen: BATHORY – An Epic Interview with Quorthon, Metal-rules.com, accessed on 28 December 2012.</ref> Quorthon often denied being influenced by Venom and claimed that he "heard Venom for the first time in late 1984 or early 1985" and never owned a Venom album.<ref name=lahtinen/> However, he admitted in an interview for Metal Forces that he first listened to Venom's Black Metal in 1983 and considered it "one of the best albums ever made."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Bathory's early sound has always been associated with Slayer but Quorthon denied being influenced by them.<ref name="anus">Template:Cite web</ref>

Bathory stopped performing live in 1985, with Quorthon viewing organizing concerts as too much hassle.<ref name=Santos/>

Although Bathory's fourth album, Blood Fire Death (1988), largely followed in the style of the albums before it, some songs had a very different style. These songs have a much slower tempo, acoustic passages, choral background singing, and lyrics about Vikings and Norse mythology. Music critic Eduardo Rivadavia of AllMusic describes this 'epic' style as "possibly the first true example" of Viking metal.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Viking metal years (1990s–2000s)

After Blood Fire Death, the band shed its early black metal style. Their fifth album, Hammerheart (1990), was the first "Template:Sic Viking metal album".<ref name="Hammerheart AllMusic">Template:Cite web</ref> This was said to have been influenced by the American power metal band Manowar, although Quorthon described this rumour as "another total misconception", but admitted that "heavy Manowar beat seemed to perfectly suit my new ideas for lyrics at the time".<ref name="anus"/> A music video was made for the song "One Rode to Asa Bay". The style of Hammerheart was continued on Twilight of the Gods (1991) and Blood on Ice (recorded in 1989 but completed in 1996).

With Requiem (1994) and Octagon (1995), Bathory changed style once more, this time turning to retro-thrash in the vein of 1980s Bay Area thrash bands. However, the 2001 release Destroyer of Worlds was a transitional release that led to a full return to the Viking metal style with the releases of Nordland I (2002) and Nordland II (2003).

Quorthon's death

In June 2004, Quorthon was found dead in his home, apparently due to heart failure.<ref name=Santos/> On 3 June 2006, Black Mark Production released a box set in tribute to Quorthon, containing three CDs of his favorite Bathory and Quorthon songs, a 176-page booklet, a DVD with his long-form video for "One Rode to Asa Bay", an interview and some rare promo footage and a poster.

Several Bathory tribute albums have been compiled by black metal artists, such as In Conspiracy with Satan – A Tribute to Bathory and Voices from Valhalla – A Tribute to Bathory. In August 2004, several members of the Norwegian black metal scene gathered to perform Bathory songs in a set titled A Tribute to Quorthon at the Hole in the Sky festival in Bergen, Norway. The lineup included Abbath (Immortal), Apollyon (Aura Noir), Faust and Samoth (Emperor and Zyklon), Gaahl (Gorgoroth), Grutle Kjellson and Ivar Bjørnson (Enslaved), Nocturno Culto (Darkthrone) and Satyr (Satyricon).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Legacy

The book Lords of Chaos described Bathory's first four albumsTemplate:Efn as "the blueprint for Scandinavian black metal."<ref name=":0" /><ref name="Dan Nelson" /> Black metal acts influenced by Bathory's early records include Mayhem, Burzum,<ref>Interview with Varg Vikernes. Burzum.org</ref> Darkthrone,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Gorgoroth, Satyricon,<ref>A Tribute to Black Metal Heroes: Frost. Thiisblackmetal.com</ref> Emperor, Dark Funeral, Enslaved, Immortal, Marduk, Moonsorrow, and Dimmu Borgir.<ref>BATHORY Tributes and BATHORY Covers. Bathory.nu</ref> Ambient rock band Vision Eternel also cited Bathory as influential,<ref name="IdioteqInterview">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="TheNoiseBeneaththeSnowInterview">Template:Cite web</ref> singling out the albums Hammerheart and Twilight of the Gods.<ref name="ItsPsychedelicBabyMagazineInterview">Template:Cite web</ref>

Swedish black metal band Watain played a live tribute to Quorthon and Bathory at the Sweden Rock Festival in 2010. The resulting recording was the limited-edition album Tonight We Raise Our Cups and Toast in Angels Blood: A Tribute to Bathory with 7 tracks, and was released on 23 February 2015. It was also released as on 12-inch vinyl album, the latter in 1300 numbered copies with four tracks, "A Fine Day to Die", "The Return of Darkness and Evil", "Rite of Darkness" and "Reaper" on Side A and three tracks "Enter the Eternal Fire", "Sacrifice" and "Born for Burning" on Side B. The release proved very popular with Swedish public, with the limited vinyl edition reaching number 1 on the vinyl chart. The album made it also to number 2 on the national Sverigetopplistan chart, the official Swedish Albums Chart in February 2015.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Band members

Quorthon (Thomas Börje Forsberg) – vocals, guitar, bass guitar, drums, percussion, keyboards, synthesizers, lyrics, composer (1983–2004; died 2004)
The Animal (Björn Kristensen) – vocals (1983)
Freddan/Hanoi (Frederick Melander) – bass guitar (1983–1984)
Vans McBurger (Jonas Åkerlund) – drums (1983–1984)
Ribban (Rickard Bergman)– bass guitar (1984)
Stefan Larsson – drums (1984–1986)
Adde (Andreas Johansson) – bass guitar (1985)
Christer Sandström – bass guitar (1986–1987)
Paul Lundburg – drums (1986–1987)
Kothaar – bass guitar (1988–1996)Template:Efn
Vvornth – drums (1988–1996)Template:Efn

Timeline <timeline> ImageSize = width:800 height:auto barincrement:18 PlotArea = left:110 bottom:80 top:5 right:10 Alignbars = justify DateFormat = mm/dd/yyyy Period = from:01/01/1983 till:06/03/2004 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy Legend = orientation:horizontal position:bottom ScaleMajor = increment:2 start:1983 ScaleMinor = increment:1 start:1983

Colors =

id:vocals value:red    legend:Vocals
id:guitar value:green  legend:Guitar
id:bass   value:blue   legend:Bass
id:drums  value:orange legend:Drums
id:multi  value:yellow legend:All_instruments
id:studio value:black  legend:Studio_Album
id:bars   value:gray(0.95)

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layer:back
color:studio
at:10/02/1984
at:05/27/1985
at:05/11/1987
at:10/08/1988
at:04/16/1990
at:06/29/1991
at:11/14/1994
at:05/17/1995
at:05/27/1996
at:10/09/2001
at:11/18/2002
at:03/31/2003

BarData =

bar:Kristensen text:"The Animal"
bar:Forsberg   text:"Quorthon"
bar:Melander   text:"Frederick Melander"
bar:Ribban     text:"Rickard Bergman"
bar:Adde       text:"Adde"
bar:Sandström  text:"Christer Sandström"
bar:Kothaar    text:"Kothaar"
bar:Åkerlund   text:"Jonas Åkerlund"
bar:Larsson    text:"Stefan Larson"
bar:Lundburg   text:"Paul Lundburg"
bar:Vvornth    text:"Vvornth"

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bar:Kristensen from:start      till:07/01/1983 color:vocals
bar:Forsberg   from:07/01/1983 till:end        color:vocals
bar:Forsberg   from:start      till:07/01/1983 color:guitar
bar:Melander   from:start      till:04/01/1984 color:bass
bar:Ribban     from:04/01/1984 till:12/31/1984 color:bass
bar:Adde       from:01/01/1985 till:07/01/1986 color:bass
bar:Sandström  from:07/01/1986 till:12/31/1987 color:bass
bar:Kothaar    from:01/01/1988 till:12/31/1996 color:bass
bar:Åkerlund   from:start      till:04/01/1984 color:drums
bar:Larsson    from:04/01/1984 till:07/01/1986 color:drums
bar:Lundburg   from:07/01/1986 till:12/31/1987 color:drums
bar:Vvornth    from:01/01/1988 till:12/31/1996 color:drums
bar:Forsberg   from:07/01/1983 till:12/31/1996 color:guitar width:3
bar:Forsberg   from:01/01/1997 till:end        color:multi width:3

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