Quorthon

Quorthon
Background information
Birth name Tomas Börje Forsberg
Also known as Ace Shot, Black Spade
Born 17 February 1966
Origin Sweden
Died circa 7 June 2004 (aged 38)
Genres Black metal, viking metal, thrash metal, alternative rock
Occupation(s) Musician
Instruments Guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, synthesizer, drums, vocals, sequencer
Years active 1983–2004
Labels Black Mark, Noise
Associated acts Bathory
Quorthon

Tomas "Ace" Börje Forsberg, known by the stage name Quorthon (17 February 1966 – c. 7 June 2004), was a Swedish musician. He was the founder and songwriter of the band Bathory, which pioneered the black metal genre and is credited with creating the Viking metal style.[1] A multi-instrumentalist, Quorthon wrote the music and lyrics on all of Bathory's albums and performed vocals and guitars.

Career

See also: Bathory

Quorthon formed Bathory (named after the infamous Hungarian countess, Elizabeth Báthory) in 1983 when he was 17 years old, after briefly playing in the Oi!-band Stridskuk. He recorded his early albums together with the help of his father, Börje Forsberg, the head of the Swedish record label Tyfon Grammofon, who also released most of his albums on the Tyfon imprint Black Mark. The first album was recorded in the garage of famed schlager writer Peter Himmelstrand, dubbed Studio Heavenshore.[1]

Around this time (in the mid-late 80s) live performances by Bathory were rare. Albums from this period helped the then-burgeoning black metal subgenre, and rare photographs of the band helped in part to define its image. Quorthon at this time claimed to have stressful experiences dealing with over-zealous fans, receiving letters written in blood and dead/mutilated animals in the post, amongst other things. This behaviour, along with Bathory's image and style of music, cemented Quorthon's unfortunate image, as he put it, as "the baby-eating, blood-drinking God of the bat-cave" in the popular imagination as well as popular metal press, much to Quorthon's disgust and anger.

Beginning in the 1990s, Quorthon took full control of Bathory, choosing to forgo performing live in order to spend time recording music with hired musicians, as well changing style from the black metal of the 80's to a slower, heavier style dubbed "Viking metal", due to its lyrics being focused on Norse mythology. From this point onwards, he also played bass guitar on almost all of his albums, and mostly used a drum machine or a session drummer. Quorthon also personally paid for the production of Bathory's only ever music video, for the song "One Rode to Asa Bay", taken from their second Viking metal album, Hammerheart. The video was shown on MTV's Headbanger's Ball, though Quorthon had not yet seen it at the time he was interviewed for the program.

In 1993 Quorthon set Bathory aside and recorded and released two albums under the name "Quorthon". The first, called Album, was released in 1994, and then in 1996 Quorthon released Blood on Ice, a Viking metal concept album which he began recording in 1989 but did not finish. The final two releases released under the name of Quorthon emerged in 1997 Purity of Essence and the EP When Our Day Is Through. The albums released under the Quorthon moniker were more rock oriented than Bathory's black/viking metal style. While working on these albums he found new inspiration to continue composing music for Bathory. Bathory's next albums were in a retro-thrash metal style, unlike previous releases. His next albums followed in that vein, before he veered towards his Viking metal style once again especially on the Nordland saga. Black Mark Productions released a box set under the title In Memory Of Quorthon. It contained a poster of Quorthon, three DVDs of unreleased material as well as some old classics, some promo footage of Quorthon's tours and himself and the music video for "One Rode to Asa Bay".

Death

Quorthon was found dead in his apartment in Stockholm on 7 June 2004, apparently from heart failure.[2][3][4][5] Some sources give the date of his death as 3 June. Quorthon was buried at Sandsborgs Kyrkogård in Gamla Enskede, South Stockholm on 13 July of the same year.

Discography

Bathory

As Quorthon

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Johannesson, Ika & Klingberg, Jon Jefferson. (2011) Blod Eld Död - En svensk metalhistoria, Alfabeta Bokförlag AB, p. 51-68.
  2. ↑ Blabbermouth
  3. ↑ D'Amico, Giuliano. Requiem. Ad un anno esatto dalla morte di Quorthon celebriamo l`imprescindibile combo svedese, Kronic, 7 June 2005. Accessed 15 February 2012.
  4. ↑ Kouroupis, Panagiotis. Quorthon (Bathory), Blackmore's Night, Megadeth, Sentenced, Avopolis, 15 June 2004. Accessed 15 February 2012.
  5. ↑ Bathory Portrait, musik-base.de. Accessed 15 February 2012.

External links