Bathory: Пионеры шведского блэк-метала

Swedish black metal band

Bathory was a Swedish black 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) and Viking metal. The book Lords of Chaos described Bathory's first four albums as "the blueprint for Scandinavian black metal." Acts influenced by their early records include Mayhem, Burzum, Darkthrone, Gorgoroth, Satyricon, Emperor, Dark Funeral, Enslaved, Immortal, Marduk, Moonsorrow and Dimmu Borgir. Bathory abandoned the black metal sound for their fifth record, Hammerheart (1990), which is often cited as the first Viking metal album. 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.

Bathory formed in Vällingby in March 1983. – and Ace Frehley of Kiss), was joined by bass guitarist Frederick Melander ("Hanoi" Quorthon worked part time at the small record label Tyfon Grammofon, which was owned by his father, Börje Forsberg. In late 1983, the label was putting together a compilation of songs by Scandinavian metal bands. 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. Unexpectedly, the two Bathory tracks "Sacrifice" and "The Return of Darkness and Evil" drew a great deal of fan mail. Soon afterward, Tyfon asked Quorthon to record a full length album. 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. On 22 May 1984, they had their first and only rehearsal together before recording the album. 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. These traits came to define black metal and was also influenced by the Exploited, Sex Pistols, Disorder, Riot/Clone, Anti Nowhere League, Kiss, Anti Cimex, Asocial, Mob 47 and Exciter. 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, or even accused Bathory of copying Venom. 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. Bathory's early sound has always been associated with Slayer but Quorthon denied being influenced by them. Bathory stopped performing live in 1985, with Quorthon viewing organizing concerts as too much hassle.

After Blood Fire Death, the band shed its early black metal style. Their fifth album, Hammerheart (1990), was the first " Viking metal album". 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".

The Swedish black metal band Watain played a live tribute to Quorthon and the band Bathory at the Sweden Rock Festival 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 12" 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.