Twenty years after Quorthon’s passing, his legacy comes alive in a unique performance at Brutal Assault, presenting iconic Bathory songs — Blood Fire Death: A Tribute to Quorthon and the Music of Bathory — led by members of Watain, Enslaved, Aura Noir, Vltimas, Mayhem, Bathory, and several other exclusive guests! 

On June 3rd 2004 the metal world lost one of it’s biggest icons. Thomas ‘Quorthon’ Forsberg was instrumental in redefining metal as we knew it. With the seminal 1984 debut, “Bathory”, Quorthon single handedly laid the foundation of what has become the world-renowned phenomenon, that is black metal. There was Venom before him, but musically he laid out the blueprint for myriads of bands that followed, especially from Scandinavia, in the coming decades.

Upon his passing a wide array of celebrated musicians from the Norwegian black metal scene was summoned to pay their tribute to the fallen pioneer. At the annual Hole in the Sky festival in Bergen, Norway, musicians from bands like Darkthrone, Emperor, Enslaved, Satyricon, Immortal, Gorgoroth and Aura Noir performed a carefully selected set of Bathory classics that helped shape the sound of the Norwegian scene. In 20224, on the 20th anniversary of Quorthon’s passing, the core members of the original tribute constellation got together again at the Beyond the Gates festival, held in the revered Grieghallen, to once again pay their respect to the legend and the music of Bathory. This time the line-up also included E from Watain, who also contributed to the stage design and concept. The result can be summed up by two words: Pure magic.

As people have lamented their praise for the show, we have decided to do some select shows with the concept at some carefully selected summer festivals next summer. Blood Fire Death – A tribute to Quorthon and the Music of Bathory will feature the same band that fronted the 2024 edition:

E (Watain) – vocals

Ivar Bjørnson (Enslaved) – guitar

Blasphemer (Vltimas, ex-Mayhem) – guitar

Apollyon (Aura Noir) – bass & vocals

Faust (Djevel, ex-Emperor) – drums

In addition to the band, the concert will feature guest singers and musicians such as Grutle (Enslaved), Gaahl (Trelldom, ex-Gorgoroth) and Frederick Melander (ex-Bathory) along variety of other  exklusive guests that will be announced later.

The show is based on Quorthon’s own vision of how he pictured a Bathory concert would look like should he ever bring his music to the live stage. „20 years after his passing, Quorthon continue to shiver our spines, curdle our blood and fuck our brains up with his music,“ says vocalist E (watain) about the project.