Quorthon – 5 Reasons Why The Bathory Frontman Was One Of The Greatest Visionaries in Metal

4. He Did It All!

Source // yuq.me

A highly skilled multi-instrumentalist, Quorthon composed the music and lyrics on all of Bathory’s albums!

Bathory was undoubtedly his baby and Quorthon took full control of his band’s destiny, hired musicians were used but Bathory was certainly no democracy. Quorthon’s role as Black Metal’s forefather may have resulted in an image not of his making – this intelligent thoughtful and cultured man misrepresented by the press at large as a beast to be feared- but that only drove him to seize control of his musical identity all the more.

When you consider the expansive sonic nature of Bathory’s Viking Metal era it stands as testament to the strong-willed singular vision Quorthon had for Bathory and for the music that would go on to define two genres – Black Metal and Viking Metal – that he handled the recording of virtually all instruments himself.