This interview was released to me by Quorthon on December, 2002. I send to him some e-mails with questions and you can find here his answers.

MITSU: Dear Mr Quorthon, my name is Mitsuharu and I'm a japanese fan of BATHORY. I have just bought Nordland I and I love your music! I have some questions for you. Can you answer me, please? My first question is: Why BATHORY doesn't want to make concerts in Italy (and in other european countries)?

QUORTHON: Hi Mitsu!
Thank you for emailing. And thank you for your very kind words.
I hope NORDLAND was all you had expected from BATHORY. Any particular track you enjoyed the most? I am allways fascinated how some tracks seem to appeal to some, while other tracks appeal to others. Keep a look out for NORDLAND part two to be released early next year.
Regarding shows in Italy, I am afraid that won't be happening. BATHORY is about the music, the albums and the special atmosphere unique to BATHORY that works just fine on record. We do not feel any desire to even try and put any of that on a stage.

MITSU: Bathory did music of a lot of kinds: trash metal, death metal, epic metal. Nordland I is an example of epic metal. Are now Bathory definitively only on epic metal? Or do you want to change your kind of music again in the future?

QUORTHON: NORDLAND I (and later this winter NORDLAND II) are nordic, atmospheric epic metal of typical BATHORY style. But BATHORY didn't always sound like that, nor does that mean BATHORY will always sound like this in the future. BATHORY is a multi headed beast with many sounds and styles. If you look at the back catalogue, BATHORY has done so many things throughout these 20 years and will continue to do tons of different things in the future as well. NORDLAND is only what BATHORY sounded like in the summer of 2002. As simple as that. We refuse to stay in one corner all the time. We will do whatever style and sound we feel like.

MITSU: Are the other members of the band (Vvornth and Kothaar) still at the band? On the lasts cd there aren't their names on the cd cover.

QUORTHON: Vvornth and Kothaar hasn't been members of BATHORY since the 80's.

MITSU: What's your favourite BATHORY's cd and why?

QUORTHON: I love and hate them all.

MITSU: Why did you decide to make the Album with your name and not with BATHORY's name? The songs was performed by BATHORY or only by you?

QUORTHON: Simply because neither of the two solo albums were BATHORY albums in any sense. I play the guitar, bass and drum machine on "ALBUM", and guitar, bass and drums/drum machine on "Purity of Essence". On the BATHORY albums, I have been doing all the guitars. On a few BATHORY albums I have also played the bass. But no BATHORY album were ever a one-man record.

MITSU: How old are you?

QUORTHON: I am 36.

MITSU: I've read on an english website that during the recording of Under the sign of the black mark at the band played an unknown drummer. Can you tell me the name and something about this drummer? I've read also that all the men that played for BATHORY's were unknown. Can you tell me something about them? (at least the names). Now who are the members of the band?

QUORTHON: They may have been unknown in the sense you wouldn't know them even if you bumped into them down town, and they may have been unknown in the sense they weren't exactly ex-members of the Rolling Stones.
They were the same kind of shitkids as me, unknown young Swedish musicians in Stockholm. Because BATHORY has become legendary today, there has been a legendary shine created around the former short-term or long-term members of BATHORY throughout the years, even though they never wrote any music or lyrics and were only in the line-up for short periods of time. The truth is, most of the time drummers and bassplayers in BATHORY in those days, would have not been metal musicians at all, but rather friends of mine already playing in oi-punk bands usualy.
There were very few, if any, drummers and bassplayers in Stockholm and Sweden in those days, who would play that same kind of brutal and primtive stuff that BATHORY played in those days. The only other groups to do that would be oi-punk groups, and I knew a few of them because my background was oi-punk. I would simply ask a couple of them to help me out in the stuido. In those days the superior style was Spandex Metal of the style of acts like Europe and Scorpions. That was not what BATHORY was all about, and finding suitable drummers and bassplayer was always a very difficult task indeed.
Their names are not important. Nobody's name is important really. The only thing that is important is the music. Who is playing what is totally uninteresting. That goes for any year in the past as well as the present situation.

MITSU: You told me that Vvornth and Kothaar aren't BATHORY's members since '80s. I've also read on a spanish website that they disappeared in the year 1987. But on the Album Hamerheart there are still their names. Why? And can you tell me their true names and why they decided to leave the band? (If it's not a secret?)

QUORTHON: Well, who would believe a Spanish website anyway. No web site is allways correct. In fact, the ones I have seen are all very very wrong when it comes to info on BATHORY. It doesn't matter how many times I will talk about a sertain subject, people don't seem to care. They seem to prefer the mystique and the suspence around BATHORY rather than anything I say. And usually it will be the incorrect stuff that people prefer to believe rather than the truth, so I see it as a mission impossible to win and that's very frustrating.
I believe some of the most ignorant and stupid people in the world becomes metal journalists. Some of them even write Metal Encyclopedia books, and 90% of what they have down on BATHORY is incorrect. All they had to do was to write me a letter and ask me a few questions. But they didn't. It seems being able to tell the world they wrote a book was more important to their ego than publishing something that was accurate and correct.
I remember one bassplayer had to leave half way during the recording of one album because I found out he did a lot of drugs. I told him I didn't want that in BATHORY, so I finished off doing half that album playing the bass. One drummer had to leave the band because he had to do the military service, after that he never joined any band ever again. A lot of times, members in BATHORY would feel that the music and style of BATHORY was not accepted in a wider perspective. So they'd either leave or slip out for not sharing the joy to play whatever style we did at the time.
Once the names Kothaar and Vvornth were chosen by the drummer and bassplayer in the line-up around 1987, there were at least two other drummers and bassplayers after that who would pick those same names up. We couldn't care less for searching for new names, and when it all came down to it, it didn't matter what name they chose. They could have been named asshole or dickweed, for all we cared. What was important was that they did their thing on record in the studio.

MITSU: Can you tell me something about the "One Rode To Asa Bay" videoclip?

QUORTHON: It has never been available. Any copy out on the market are second or third generation copies originally taped from MTV or any other music channel from 1990. We have never released it commercialy and never will.

MITSU: On that spanish website I've read that you were the only member of the band during the recording of Requiem. Is it true?

QUORTHON: No, that is not true. How could a Spanish web site know something like that?! If I had the time and spoke a hundred different languages so that I could understand what they're writing on BATHORY, I could probably spend half a year searching the web for incorrect info on BATHORY on millions of web sites. All these web sites have to do is to write me and ask me and I will answer them. But they don't. That tells me they don't care if they are incorrect in their info. All tthey care about is being able to brag about running a metal web site. But unfortunately almost all info they feature on BATHORY is inaccurate.

MITSU: Rumours said that you, Vvornth and Kothaar are members of Philharmonic Orchestra of Sweden. Is it true?

QUORTHON: No that is not true. But one of the drummers using the name Vvornth, would later educate himself professionally as a percussionist and has been a member of several filharmonic orchestras.

MITSU: What "Equimanthorn" is?

QUORTHON: It is just a game with words. It means nothing.

MITSU: I've read that you are the son of Boss. Is it true?

QUORTHON: No. I have answered that rumor for twenty years and still nobody listens to what I say. Boss is the president of Black Mark and he is 50. I am 36 and that small age difference should give a few smart people an idea of the impossibility of that crap rumor. Besides, we look totally different. I have no idea how that rumor started in the first place. And I am puzzled how come people still can refer to that rumor. It is very frustrating to realize that the majority of people out there are ignorant idiots who realy don't care for your answers, they still rely more on stupid and totally inaccurate rumors than the truth. I wonder some times if it realy isn't about people needing mystique and lose talk to enrich their own little pathetique lifes.

MITSU: What's your true name? (If you can tell it to me?)

QUORTHON: ..............

MITSU: Have you never remastered "Scandinavian Metal Attack" on CD?

QUORTHON: That is for Black Mark to decide, not for BATHORY. I believe Scandinavian Metal Attack is still available on CD and I am sure they were remastered when first produced as CD from vinyl. Just check the Black Mark web site out and order it through there.

MITSU: I decided to mail you because I want to create a BATHORY website. But that isn't an easy thing to do: many news that I read on other websites aren't true, so I need always your information.
Have you got an OFFICIAL website? I can't find it on line. Or your only official website is the Blackmark site?

QUORTHON: Well...no we haven't gone official with a website yet. We're working alittle bit on creating an official BATHORY homepage though. Hopefully it should go live during this year when we celebrate our 20th anniversary. Of course you can create your own BATHORY website if you want to.
Yes, there are tons of web pages out there full of absolute incorrect facts on BATHORY. I sometimes email them and ask them, to please correct obvious errors. Few will answer or correct the faults.
I would of course appreciate a webmaster who email me for answers. That is proof he is a serious individual. (Mitsu: eheheh!!)

MITSU: I've heard rumours about a vinyl with a YELLOW GOAT on the cover. Does it contains the same songs of the vinyl with the BLACK AND WHITE GOAT? Is the "Yellow Goat Vinyl" still available?. How much does it cost?

QUORTHON: We manufactured only 1000 copies of the yellow goat first album cover back in June 1984. There are none available. I've heard they are sometimes found at auctions and sold for prices between $200-$400 in mint condition. Not even I have one. The yellow goat cover is a misprint, It was supposed to be gold.
The black-and-white cover is the main cover and available as CD and as vinyl soon again.

MITSU: I've read that the cover of the album "Under the sign of the black mark" isn't a picture, but a photo. Are you the goat-headed (does this word exist?) man? Or is he another man?

QUORTHON: The person carrying the goat-mask was a swedish bodybuilder. Yes, it's a photo and not a painting.

MITSU: How many fan's letter do you receive every day?

QUORTHON: When we receive the most, there can be around 8-12 letter per day and 10-20 emails. When there hasn't been an album out in a while the usual amount of letters and email is around 5-7 per day.

MITSU: Can you tell me a link where I can find the lyrics of your ALBUM? I find only the lyrics of "Purity Of Essence".

QUORTHON: I don't think there are any lyrics to "Album" out on the web...I have never given the lyrics out to anybody and nobody has ever asked me. I'll probably save those lyrics for the official BATHORY homepage if enough number of BATHORY fans would ask for them.

MITSU: The BATHORY's biography that I find on other sites are all very short or incomplete. Can you suggest me a link where I can find a complete story?

QUORTHON: No...there are no complete biography. One would have to make a biography based on questions and answers. But aren't biographies a bit totally uninteresting? We have never produced one.

MITSU: Thank you very much (but also you should thank me because I spend a lot of money on your cd!! hahaha!!)! I hope that 2003 will be an year of success for you and for BATHORY! And congratulations for the 20th anniversary of the band! Thanks again!!

QUORTHON: Once again, I thank you for your email, Mitsuharu. Take care and may the Northstar shine on your path! Hail the Hordes!

MITSU: BYE!!

QUORTHON: BYE! Take care!