Bathory is one of the first bands to form the black metal genre and one of the most influential bands ever. Quorthon formed the band in March 1983 after having played guitar in an oi-punk band earlier. In the beginning Quorthon called himself Black Spade. Bathory was just for fun in the beginning and noone took it as particularly serious. They were originally called Nosferatu, then changed their name to Natas, Memphisto, Elizabeth Bathory, Countess Bathory and finally Bathory.
Quorthon, only 15 years old, knew the boss from a record company called Tyfon Grammofon since he helped them out listening to new bands and managed to talk him into recording two tracks for the Scandinavian Metal Attack compilation album. On those tracks Quorthon changed his name to Ace Shoot and later he picked his name Quorthon from a list of demons. After the recording of those tracks the band split up since Quorthon wanted to play faster metal than the other members. Over the next few years lots of members passed through the band.

The line-up changed finally resulted in Quorthon being left alone and he decided to go on solo and just recruiting musicians when he was about to record. The record company boss contacted Quorthon and asked him to record a full-length album since the Bathory tracks on the compilation had gained lots of attention. Quorthon had played drums since the age of 9 and guitars and other instruments from age 15 so it wasn't a big problem for him to be left alone. On the first two albums he actually played everything himself.

The third album from Bathory features a drummer who is still unknown. The fourth album "Hammerheart" had the old death/black metal trademark still there on some tracks but this one was heavily influenced by the ancient Vikings and asatru. This way Bathory continued for their next albums.

Bathory changed their line-up lots of times and for some time the now so famous video director Jonas Åkerlund (Madonna, Metallica, Prodigy) was handling the drums. This was regarded just as a rumour earlier but he has actually confirmed this in the year 2000 in the major Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet. In the year 2000 he also played the drums at a show in Båstad, Sweden, together with well-known Swedish artists Meja and Stakka Bo. In their early days 1983-1985 Bathory even played live several times in Alvik and Stockholm.

In 1987 the band rehearsed with drummer Christian Dudeck from the German thrash metal band Sodom for an upcoming tour but the whole thing was cancelled for unknown reasons. On June 7th, 2004, Quorthon (real name Thomas Forsberg, son of Black Mark Production owner Börje Forsberg) was found dead in his apartment in Stockholm. He apparently died of a heart failure.

From www.tartareandesire.com