Jonas Åkerlund — born in Sweden on 10 November 1965 — was Bathory's drummer in the early phase, and has probably the most improbable later trajectory of any extreme metal musician. He played on the band's first album, Bathory (1984), recorded when he was eighteen — one of the founding recordings of black metal. He left soon afterwards, when Quorthon began running the project practically alone. What came next has nothing to do with heavy music. Åkerlund became one of the most awarded music video directors in the world, with work for Madonna — "Ray of Light" earned him a Grammy — Metallica, Rammstein, Lady Gaga, Beyoncé, U2 and Paul McCartney, among dozens of others. He also directed feature films, including Spun (2002) and Lords of Chaos (2018), the latter about the Norwegian black metal scene of the 1990s — the very genre he had helped create two decades earlier, now from the other side of the camera. Few cases illustrate as well as his the distance a career can travel from a single record made in adolescence.
Metalicks is a community-run informational and cultural portal. The information on this page — texts, images, logos, cover art and other materials — is credited to their respective authors, artists, bands, labels and rights holders. Metalicks does not claim ownership over any of the works portrayed here, and all rights remain with their rightful owners. Content is gathered from public sources and community contributions; any inaccuracies can be corrected using the button below. Rights holders who wish to request a correction or removal of any content may do so at any time.
