Look in the Cover's section for big covers.

The legendary band of BATHORY was born on March of 1983 in Sweden. Its firsts members was Black Spade (vocals and guitars), Hanoi (bass) and Vans (drums). For a little period of time another member, The Animal, joined the band as a vocalist. The band used a lot of names: Nosferatu, Natas, Mephisto, Elizabeth Bathory, Countess Bathory, but in the end they chose as their name simply BATHORY.

Black Spade changed his name in Ace Shoot, a name inspired by the Kiss' member Ace Freley: with this name he recorded the LP called "Scandinavian Metal Attack". After this record, he chose definitively the name of QUORTHON (one of the seven Satan's warrior).

In the band there's only one permanent member, Quorthon, but a lot of men (usually Quorthon's friends) joined BATHORY. They usually was swedish unknown musicians who played for the band only for shorts period. One of them left BATHORY because he had to do military service, another (I think that he was the bassplayer during the recording of "The Return..." was found by Quorthon completely full of drugs, so he had to leave the band. There are some legends about Vvornth and Kothaar: at least four drummers and bassplayer used those names. Two of them joined BATHORY around 1987 and played for the band during the recording of the albums "Blood Fire Death" and "Hammerheart".

The first BATHORY's album was "Scandinavian Metal Attack" (1984), that made the band famous with themes like "The Return Of Darkness And Evil" and "Sacrifice". After the release of this album BATHORY became one of the most representative Metal bands in Europe. It contains material played also by other 4 or 5 scandinavian metal bands.

After the success of "Scandinavian Metal Attack" the band decided to release a new album, "Bathory" (considered the first official album), with themes like "Hades", "Raise The Dead" and "Sacrifice".This album was the result of 36 hours of recording and its cost was around 2000 dollars: music quality was quite low, but it's not important. Bathory represents very well the extreme metal tendences of the middle '80s.There was released three versions of this album; the only difference was in the different cover image. In the first edition cover, the goat, symbol of the band, was printed in black and white colors. In a second time, when BATHORY signed a contract with BLACK MARK, were released two others versions: the first with a red-eyed black goat, the other (called "Yellow Goat") with a red-eyed yellow goat. Only 1000 copies of the Yellow Goat were released and its actual value goes from 200$ to 400$.

  The Black Goat                The Yellow Goat

The second work was "The Return...".The musicians who played for Bathory in this period (except Quorthon) are unknown. The only thing we know is that in the lasts songs of this album tha bass was played by Quorthon, because the bassplayer was a drug addict. On the LP back cover there was printed a short poem (look for it in the discography). This album is usually associated to "Bathory" because the lyrics themes and the music are similar.

"Under The Sign Of The Black Mark" was the next album, released in 1987. In the first time the title of this album had to be "Nocturnal Obeisance", but then the band decided to change its name in "Under The Sign Of The Black Mark". Some parts of this work were recorded in a church and played with medieval instruments. This album can be considered the first DEATH METAL example: a lot of other metal bands took inspiration from this work. Unfortunately the music quality is quite low and the name of the drummer is unknown. The most significative song of this album is "Equimanthorn": it was used also in the soundtrack of "Gummo", a movie by Harmony Korine released in 1997 in the United States. The image on the album's cover isn't a picture, but a photo: the man with the goat mask is Leif Ehrnborg, a swedish bodybuilder.

In 1988 was released "Blood Fire Death". In that period played for BATHORY Quorthon, Vvornth (the drummer) and Kothaar (the bassplayer). This was a transition album between trash metal of the firsts albums and a new metal style, the viking/epic metal. The sound of this work is different from the firsts works: the lyrics themes are about viking myths and wars and there is a great use of chorus. Before the release of this album the band released some photos with the BATHORY members (check for it in the images). The cover's image is "Asganrdsteien" by Peter Nicolai Arbo. Check for the original painting in the Oslo National Gallery.

1989 was the year of "Hammerheart", one of the most famous BATHORY's discs. It is considered as a masterpiece of viking-epic metal and it contains songs inspired to viking traditions. Also the other BATHORY's members during the recording of this album were called Vvornth and Kothaar, but they were different from the drum-player and the bassplayer of the previous album. "Hammerheart" was released in two times with two different covers. At right you can see the first cover (considered original and produced by BLACK MARK), at left there's the second one (produced by UNDER THE FLAG, an english distributor). The image of the cover is "A last Viking's journey"; now it is in the Manchester Art Gallery.

In 1991 started the work for the new BATHORY's album, "Twilight Of The Gods". Its style was a slow viking-metal, but influenced by classic music of Wagner, Puccini, Holst and so on. The last album's song, "Hammerheart", was written over a music composed by Gustav Holst and it was performed during a Holst classci music concert, after a Quorthon's request. In the album there is, like in the previous works, a written passage, in this case written by Nietzsche. After the release of this disc, Quorthon said that it was the last BATHORY's work: in all the previous BATHORY's album the last song was an instrumental Outro. In "Twilight Of The Gods" there wasn't an Outro. The Outro's meaning was: "The album is finished, but BATHORY will return soon with a new work". Fortunately it wasn't true.

In 1992 and 1993 BATHORY released two compilation to commemorate the 10 years of the band. These compilation, called "Jubileum  vol.I" and "Jubileum vol.II" contained some songs released by BATHORY in the previous official and unofficial works and some unreleased songs like demos and so on.

After the release of the compilation discs, Quorthon decided to release his first solo album so for some years BATHORY didn't release any new disc. But they returned in 1994 with "Requiem", a chaotic, trashing and brutal disc. Some of its lyrics was censured and the album was published without them. Someone tells that during the recording of this album Quorthon was the only member of the band, but Quorthon said that these rumours are completely false.

Quorthon decided to follow the trash tendences also in the next BATHORY album, "Octagon", released on 1995. This album was recorded also by a student of architecture as a drum-player. The vocals are brutal, there is the influence of industrial music and the lyrics are about social themes as war, racism, religion and violence. Two of the songs was censured due to their lyrics, so Quorthon decided to close the album with "Deuce", a Kiss' song. Some people consider this fact as a great error by Quorthon.

In 1996 was released one of the best BATHORY's work: "Blood On Ice". This disc was recorded during the '80s, but, due to many causes, was released about 10 years later its recording. It is a Theme-Album, inspired by "Conan" and by Wagner's "Götterdämmerung"; the songs are linked by a story, a sort of viking Saga, where the main character, a young called "Blood On Ice" seeks revenge against the beast that killed his family and friends. Blood On Ice will be helped by an one-eyed old man who can see the future and by a woodwoman. He will be followed also by Hugin and Munin, two legendary ravens and by Sleipner, the eight legged stallion of Odin; he will swing Notung, the Siegfried's sword forged in fire and ice. Before the releasing of the official cd, was released a mini-cd with a different cover and with only the songs "The Lake", "The Woodwoman" and "The Sword". Check for this cover in the "CD Covers" section.

In 1998 was released a new compilation album, Jubileum Vol. III to commemorate the 15th anniversary of BATHORY. This album contained some old BATHORY's songs, taken from the previous albums, plus unreleased works, recorded during these 15 years. The songs "Resolution Greed" and "Genocide" were recorded during the Octagon's session, but then were censured for their lyrics. In the album there is also a sample of the backsong vocals of the song "Valhalla", released in the album "Hammerheart".

In the summer of 2001 BATHORY released another compilation album, "Katalog", which is considered as a promotional album before the releasing of the next official work. This album contains the song "Lake Of Fire", that is a part of the future BATHORY's disc. The other songs were taken from the old BATHORY's albums.

After six years of boring compilation was released on October 2001 "Destroyer Of Worlds", an album dedicated to all the BATHORY's fans with the words "...You are the best!". The title of this album had to be "Nemesis", but then Quorthon decided to change it. "Destroyer" was written and recorded in only 112 hours, a very short time. With this disc, Quorthon tried to please all his whole fan, including in it a lot of kinds of songs, inspired to all the BATHORY's styles: epic, death, trash and so on. The result in an unique work, different from the other BATHORY's previous discs.

In 2002 was released "Nordland I", the first of two parts of an epic-metal compilation with material inspired from the epic masterpieces of the band. This CD is the first disc released in digipack style. The second part, "Nordland II", will e released on March 31, 2003.

The story of the BATHORY's works finishes here, but we want to talk also about some rumours about the band and its members. The figure of Quorthon is very mysterious, because no one knows his true name, and so a lot of metal fans invent absurd stories about him.

For example some people told (and wrote on some websites) that Quorthon died in the early '90s and that BLACK MARK had replaced him in secret with another man. This is only a phoney rumour, because Quorthon is hale and harty and answers to phone calls, letters and e-mails.

But these strange stories don't finish here: someone told that Quorthon is the son of Börje Forsberg (called also Boss, the BLACK MARK manager) and that his true name was Thomas Forsberg. Quorthon said that Boss is 50 and he is 36. The age difference is too little, so he cannot be the Boss' son. Quorthon has also a completely different physical appearence.

There are also other rumours (completely false): that Quorthon bought a little island in the Baltic Sea and lives there in Viking style (!), that he built a Viking DRAGON SHIP and he crossed the Atlantic Ocean on it (!!), that he lives in a cave in the north of Sweden in a satanic way, eating children and drinking blood (!!!).

We can read on some websites other rumours not only about Quorthon, but also about Vvornth, Kothaar and the band firsts legendary releases. Someone told that Vvornth and Kothaar now play for Sweden Philarmonic Orchestra. It isn't a completely phoney rumour because Quorthon told me that one of the drummers that took the nickname Vvornth had been member of several philarmonic orchestras as a percussionist.

On a website I've read that "Under The Sign Of The Black Mark", the third BATHORY's vinyl, was released in Sweden in two discs (now impossible to find) that now have a very high price. It is false because "Under The Sign Of The Black Mark" was released in one vinyl, as in the other european countries.

For more informations about BATHORY send an e-mail to webmaster@metal-equimanthorn.tk