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Quorthon
Quorthon
	Quorthon in 1990 during the Hammerheart promo tour
Background information
Birth name	Thomas Börje Forsberg
Also known as	Ace Shoot; Ace Spunky Black Spade; Ditch Brodie;
Born	17 February 1966; Stockholm, Sweden
Died	3 June 2004 (aged 38); Stockholm, Sweden
Genres	Black metal; thrash metal; heavy metal; Viking metal;
Occupations	Musician; singer; songwriter;
Instruments	Vocals; guitar; bass; percussion;
Years active	c. 1980–2004
Labels	Tyfon Grammofon; Under One Flag; Black Mark Production; Noise International;
Formerly of	Bathory
Website	bathory.nu (defunct) bathory.nu (Wayback Machine)

Thomas Börje Forsberg (17 February 1966 – 3 June 2004),^[4] better known by the stage name Quorthon, was a Swedish musician. He was one of the founders, as well as the sole songwriter, of the band Bathory, which pioneered the black metal genre and is credited with creating the Viking metal style.^[5] A multi-instrumentalist, Quorthon wrote the music and lyrics on all of Bathory's albums and performed vocals and guitars.

Career

Quorthon formed Bathory in 1983 when he was 17 years old, after briefly playing in the Oi! band Stridskuk, which also featured drummer Johan "Jolle" Elvén and bass player Rickard "Ribban" Bergman, who later played on early Bathory demos and in the case of Bergman, albums.^[6] He recorded his early albums together with the help of his father Börje Forsberg (1944 - 2017) who was also the head of the Swedish record label Tyfon Grammofon that would go on to release most of Bathory's albums through the subsidiary Black Mark Production. The first album was recorded in the garage of schlager writer Peter Himmelstrand, dubbed Studio Heavenshore.^[5]

During the mid-to-late 1980s, live performances by Bathory were rare. Albums from this period contributed to the then-burgeoning black metal subgenre, and rare photographs of the band helped in part to define its image. 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 1980s to a slower, heavier style which eventually became the founding of the Viking metal genre, due to its lyrics being focused on Norse mythology. From this point onward, 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 music video, for the song "One Rode to Asa Bay", taken from their fifth studio album, Hammerheart. The video was shown on MTV's Headbangers 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. The final two solo releases 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, before he veered towards his Viking metal style once again, especially on the Nordland saga.

Death and tributes

On 3 June 2004, Quorthon was found dead in his apartment in Stockholm. The cause of his death was a congenital heart defect. He was 38 years old.^[7] The following month, several members of the Norwegian black metal scene gathered to perform Bathory songs in a set titled A Tribute to Quorthon at the Hole in the Sky festival in Bergen, Norway. The lineup included Abbath (Immortal), Apollyon (Aura Noir), Faust and Samoth (Emperor and Zyklon), Gaahl (Gorgoroth), Grutle Kjellson and Ivar Bjørnson (Enslaved), Nocturno Culto (Darkthrone) and Satyr (Satyricon).^[8]^[9] The black metal supergroup I featuring Abbath, Ice Dale of Enslaved, King ov Hell of Gorgoroth and former-Immortal drummer Armagedda dedicated the song "Far Beyond the Quiet" from their 2006 album Between Two Worlds to Quorthon.

Discography

As Bathory

Bathory (1984)^[10]
The Return…… (1985)
Under the Sign of the Black Mark (1987)^[11]
Blood Fire Death (1988)^[12]
Hammerheart (1990)^[13]
Twilight of the Gods (1991)
Jubileum Volume I (1992)
Jubileum Volume II (1993)
Requiem (1994)
Octagon (1995)
Blood on Ice (1996)
Jubileum Volume III (1998)
Destroyer of Worlds (2001)
Nordland I (2002)
Nordland II (2003)

As Quorthon

Album (1994)
When Our Day Is Through EP (1997)
Purity of Essence (1997)

References

^ Scandinavian Metal Attack (Media notes). Ace Shoot.
^ Bathory (Media notes). Bathory. 1984. Album design by Ace spunky black spade and Quorthon.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
^ Swedish Death Metal: "If I hadn't started to play in punk bands around '79–80 I could have ended up on the streets, with a needle in my arm. Luckily, I didn't have any such friends, so I got involved with the punk movement, and was inspired by bands like Exploited and GBH."
^ Date stated in the death notice for Ace Börje Forsberg that his family put in the swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter on 23 June 2004, the death notice also included the lyrics to the Bathory song Hammerheart.
^ ^a ^b Johannesson, Ika & Klingberg, Jon Jefferson. (2011) Blod Eld Död - En svensk metalhistoria, Alfabeta Bokförlag AB, p. 51-68.
^ "Bathory - Bathory". www.bathory.nu. Retrieved 2 October 2019.
^ Hillborg, Yasin (Director) (2011). Så jävla metal (DVD).
^ Blabbermouth (23 June 2004). "Norway's Black Metal Elite To Pay Tribute To BATHORY Mastermind". BLABBERMOUTH.NET. Retrieved 8 November 2023.
^ EIDE, LARS EIRIK (24 August 2004). "Black metal-stjerner samles i Bergen". dagbladet.no (in Norwegian). Retrieved 8 November 2023.
^ Bathory (Media notes). Bathory. 1984. 1984 Tyfon Grammofon AB{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
^ Under The Sign Of The Black Mark (Media notes). Bathory. 1987. 1987 Under One Flag ...1987 Tyfon Grammofon AB{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
^ Blood Fire Death (Media notes). Bathory. 1988. 1988 Take Out Music ... 1988 Under One Flag{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
^ Hammerheart (Media notes). Bathory. 1990. 1990 Noise International ... 1990 Tyfon Grammofon AB{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)