Frederick Melander

Frederick Melander was the bassist of Bathory's initial line-up, present on the band's first album, released in 1984. That recording, made by three Swedish teenagers with minimal resources, is today recognised as one of the founding documents of black metal: raw sound, fast tempos, shrieked vocals and an atmosphere the technical poverty helped build rather than harm. His time was brief. Soon after that record Quorthon began running Bathory practically alone, recording almost all the instruments himself, and the band ceased to function as a group. His later path is thinly documented, a common situation among musicians from the early line-ups of bands that only became influential years afterwards. He remains credited on an album whose historical importance is hard to overstate.