Quorthon

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Thomas "Quorthon" Forsberg (February 17 1966 – June 7 2004) was the founder and song writer of the pioneering Swedish heavy metal band Bathory. His fans considered him the "father" of both the black metal and viking metal genres, the latter having a more evolved and operatic style. He composed the music and written lyrics on all of Bathory's albums.

Quorthon formed Bathory in 1984 when he was 18 years old. Always underfunded, the quality of the albums was rough and eventually created a style that many bands would later emulate. In fact, he personally paid for the production of Bathory's music video for "One Road to Asa Bay" in 1990. The video was shown on MTV's Headbanger's Ball, though he had not yet seen it at the time he was interviewed for the program.

Beginning in the 1990s, he took full control of Bathory, choosing to forego performing live in order to spend time recording music with hired musicians. He also played a bass guitar on almost all of his albums, and mostly used a drum machine or a session drummer.

In 1993 Quorthon set Bathory aside and recorded and released two albums under the name "Quorthon". First was called Album released in 1994, and Purity of Essence in 1997. The albums were more rock oriented then 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. But in 1996 Quorthon released Blood on Ice a concept album which he recorded in 1989 but didn't release because he thought that it was unfinished. Blood on Ice returns to Bathory's viking metal style. His next albums followed in that vein as did the Norland saga. It was planed as a four-album set, but only two were finished.

He was found dead in his apartment on June 7, 2004, apparently from heart failure. He was 39 years old and was known to suffer from heart problems.

His father, Börje "Boss" Forsberg, is the owner of Black Mark Productions, an independent record label that Quorthon founded.

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