Quorthon (a.k.a. Tomas Forsberg) was just 17 when he convinced his father, who owned a Swedish record label, to include two songs from his band Bathory on a heavy metal compilation that the label was putting together. In doing so, the elder Forsberg unleashed upon the world one of the first examples of the extreme music that would come to be known as black metal.

Quorthon would eventually grow tired of the imagery and aesthetics of the genre that he helped create (not to mention the creepy, overzealous fans mailing him dead animal parts). He would reinvent himself and Bathory, in the process becoming the father of yet another sub-genre, Viking Metal.

The third Bathory record, 1987’s Under the Sign of the Black Mark, would be Quorthon’s last foray into straight black metal. The album along with its two predecessors stand to this day as the template for all black metal that has followed. Here, with the second track of that record is Bathory performing “Massacre.”

Last week we examined the origin of the term black metal via Venom’s second album, which gave the genre its name. In this week’s edition of Black Metal Friday we examine what many consider to be the first true example of the black metal sound and aesthetic. Listen to the sample below.

Bathory was a Swedish band founded by 17-year-old singer and guitarist, Thomas Forsberg aka Quorthon in 1983. The band was named after notorious Hungarian countess Elizabeth Bathory who was rumored to have tortured and killed hundreds of girls and bathed in the blood of virgins to retain her youth. Venom had also name checked her with the song “Countess Bathory.”

Here below with the third track from their self-titled debut album is Bathory, performing the track “Reaper.”

Black metal is an underground sub-genre of heavy metal emanating largely from Scandanavia. There has historically been a large amount of controversy surrounding black metal due to its primary themes of blasphemy and/or Satanism and the nefarious activities of many of its most prominent musicians (i.e., murder, suicides, and church burnings).

This year has been rife with major happenings from many of the founders of the black metal genre. Metal’s most notorious band, Mayhem, released their first album in seven years, titled Esoteric Warfare. King Diamond announced his first U.S. tour in nearly a decade, including a Halloween show in L.A., which I will be reviewing [the NYC GoD crew will be at the New York show in October]. We also observed the 10th anniversary of the death of Bathory leader and the man who many consider to be the father of Scandinavian black metal, Quorthon.