Early years (1980s)
Bathory formed in Vällingby on 16 March 1983. 17-year old guitarist Quorthon (then known as "Ace Shoot", a name inspired by sex jokes, two Motörhead songs – "Ace of Spades" and "Sharpshooter" – and Ace Frehley of Kiss), was joined by bassist Frederick Melander ("Hanoi") and drummer Jonas Åkerlund ("Vans McBurger"). Åkerlund has stated that he and Melander were the original members and Quorthon joined later, when they were looking for a vocalist/guitarist.
Quorthon mentioned in a 1994 interview that previous band names included Satan, Death, and Nosferatu. According to Quorthon, he settled on Bathory after a visit to the London Dungeon, although Åkerlund says that it was inspired by the Venom song "Countess Bathory", based on alleged serial murderer Elizabeth Báthory.
The other members hired a singer in the winter of 1983–84, since the drummer was unsatisfied with Quorthon's vocals. Quorthon compared the new singer to a mix of Ian Gillan and Ronnie James Dio. The singer was interviewed in 2001, where his nickname, The Animal, was revealed.
Quorthon worked part-time at record label Tyfon Grammofon, owned by his father, Börje "Boss" Forsberg (1944-2017). In late 1983, the label was putting together a compilation of songs by Scandinavian metal bands. At the last minute, one of the bands backed out. Tyfon agreed to let Bathory appear on the record. The album, Scandinavian Metal Attack, was released in March 1984 and was Bathory's first appearance on record. The two Bathory tracks, "Sacrifice" and "The Return of Darkness and Evil", drew fan mail. Bob Muldowney gave the band a positive review in a July 1984 issue of Kick Ass magazine, saying the band's tracks showed "a very heavy sound [and] killer vocals."
Soon after, Tyfon asked Quorthon to record a full-length album. His bandmates having moved away, Quorthon recruited bassist Rickard Bergman from his former oi-punk band Stridskuk, and drummer Stefan Larsson from punk band Obsklass. On 22 May 1984, they had their only rehearsal together before recording the album. The songs "Witchcraft" and "Satan My Master" were recorded at the 22 May rehearsal and were the first recording by the debut album line-up. The two tracks were later released on the Jubileum Volume III album. The debut album, Bathory, was recorded in June at Heavenshore Studio in Stockholm and released in October that year. The band worked on an EP in early November, under the working titles Necronomicon and Maleficarum, though the release of the four-track album, which included "Children of the Beast", "Crown of Thorns one the Golden Throne", "Crucifix" and "Necronomicon", was cancelled because it didn't show enough progress from their earlier material, and the release date of December would have been difficult to meet.
Bathory released The Return...... in 1985 and stopped performing live that year. Quorthon deemed organizing concerts too much hassle.
The band began to record the album Okkulta following the release of their previous album, but decided not to continue with it after recording several songs, as the album did not develop their sound further. The songs "Black Leather Wings, Hellfire, Majestica Satanica, Circle of Blood, Wicca, The Call from the Grave ... and Undead" were recorded during the session.
Christian "Witchhunter" Dudek, of German thrash metal band Sodom, joined Bathory for several months in 1986.
The band recorded Under the Sign of the Black Mark in 1986 and released it the following year. The next album, Blood Fire Death, was recorded and released in 1988.
Quorthon began working on a double album, tentatively titled Valhalla. Some songs were Viking metal, while others were speed metal. The band recorded two Queen covers, "Now I'm Here" and "Ogre Battle", during the recording sessions. Several songs taken from those sessions, including Burnin' Leather and Rider at the Gate of Dawn, were later released on the Jubileum compilation albums.
Although Bathory's fourth album, Blood Fire Death (1988), followed in the style of the albums before it, some songs had a different style. These songs had a slower tempo, acoustic passages, choral background singing, and lyrics about Vikings and Norse mythology. Music critic Eduardo Rivadavia of AllMusic describes this style as "possibly the first true example" of Viking metal.
Quorthon worked on an album called Requiem, unrelated to the later album of the same name. He said in a 1998 interview that only two or three tracks from the Requiem album had progressed to the stage where vocals were added. The band felt that the Requiem sessions weren't "fresh or good enough."
After Blood Fire Death, the band shed its black metal style. Their fifth album, Hammerheart (1990), was the first "archetypical [sic] Viking metal album". This was said to be influenced by American power metal band Manowar, although Quorthon described this rumour as "another total misconception", but admitted that "heavy Manowar beat seemed to perfectly suit my new ideas for lyrics at the time". A music video was made for the song "One Rode to Asa Bay", which Quorthon regretted, partly because the released music video was "raw" rather than a proper mix. The style of Hammerheart continued on Twilight of the Gods (1991). Quorthon was unsure of what to do following the release of the album, describing it as "no exit except repeating ourselves", so the band took a break and released the Jubileum compilation albums, with the first release marking the tenth anniversary of the band.
Blood on Ice, recorded in 1989, was completed in 1996 and released that year.
