Bathory was a Swedish extreme metal musical group which was founded in Vällingby, Sweden, in 1983. The outfit selected their name after Hungarian countess Elizabeth Báthory and are considered to be one of the most influential acts in heavy metal, especially black metal. Lords of Chaos described Bathory’s first four albums as “the blueprint for Scandinavian black metal”.
Bathory, however abandoned the black metal sound for their fifth record Hammerheart (1990), which is often cited as the first Viking metal album. Bathory continued in the Viking metal style throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, although the band experimented with a pure thrash metal style on the albums Requiem (1994) and Octagon (1995). Bathory ended when frontman, founder and main songwriter Tomas “Quorthon” Forserg died from heart failure in 2004, he was 38 years old.
Tracklist
A1 Rider At The Gate Of Dawn
A2 Crawl To Your Cross
A3 Sacrifice
A4 You Don’t Move Me (I Don’t Give A Fuck)
A5 The Return Of Darkness And Evil
A6 Burnin’ Leather
A7 Die In Fire
B1 Satan My Master
B2 Witchcraft
B3 Valhalla
B4 Cronos Attack
B5 God Save The Queen
B6 War Pigs
B7 Ace Of Spades
Band members (Final lineup + Previous Members)
Quorthon (Thomas Börje Forsberg) – vocals, guitar, bass guitar, drums, lyrics, composer (1983–2004; died 2004)
Freddan/Hanoi (Frederick Melander) – bass guitar (1983–1984)
Vans McBurger (Jonas Åkerlund) – drums (1983–1984)
Ribban – bass guitar (1984)
Stefan Larsson – drums (1984–1986)
Adde – bass guitar (1985)
Christer Sandström – bass guitar (1986–1987)
Paul Pålle Lundburg – drums (1986–1987)
Kothaar – bass guitar (1988–1996)
Vvornth – drums (1988–1996)
Discography (Studio albums)
Bathory (1984)
The Return…… (1985)
Under the Sign of the Black Mark (1987)
Blood Fire Death (1988)
Hammerheart (1990)
Twilight of the Gods (1991)
Requiem (1994)
Octagon (1995)
Blood on Ice (1996)
Destroyer of Worlds (2001)
Nordland I (2002)
Nordland II (2003)
