30 Days of De-Objectification: Quorthon

30 Days of De-Objectification:

Quorthon

At six foot six, this master of metal had an imposing physical stature as well as a larger-than-life performance persona. However, he was surprisingly approachable and personable. Tomas Börje Forsberg, better known as Quorthon, never thought of himself as a star, simply a musician.

Quorthon transcended genres throughout his career. He started with death metal in his late teens, later becoming known as one of the pioneers of the black metal genre. He was also a driving force in the creation of Viking metal.

Quorthon was a multi-instrumentalist. He often played all the instruments on his albums and mixed the parts in the studio himself. He was the son of the renowned Swedish record producer, Börje “Boss” Forsberg. Quorthon was very secretive about this fact during his life, wanting his work to stand on its own merit.

Unfortunately, Quorthon’s time on this Earth was all too short. He had heart problems and was found dead in his apartment on June 7, 2004, the actual date of his death being estimated as June 3. He was only 38 years old.

Quorthon was polite, intelligent, and had talent to spare. He had a puckish, bawdy sense of humor. Early in his career, he enjoyed giving reporters fake names such as Per Vars (perverse) and seeing how long it took before they caught on to his ruse. He was very approachable and more than one of his fans recounted establishing an actual friendship with him via email. He replied to all his emails himself and would take time to really answer people’s questions.

Unfortunately, some people took things too far. Quorthon said that more than once he received images of mutilated animals and “girls putting crucifixes you know where.” He expressed dismay that people couldn’t see the difference between metal theatrics and the person making the music. He said that it was disappointing that people had this need to see him as some sort of diabolical madman living in a cave and drinking bat’s blood. He thought of himself as just an ordinary guy.

He wasn’t entirely correct with the “ordinary guy” assessment. He was a far better person than most.

It’s unfortunate that with Quorthon’s many outstanding qualities, the one quality that some people insist on focusing on to the exclusion of everything else is his physical appearance. I think that he was rather amused (and somewhat bemused) that certain fans saw him as some sort of a sex object.

Quorthon was just a year and two days younger than me. He did so much more with his life than I ever did with mine. I admire and envy his abilities, and I think the world is a far sadder place for the loss of this unique and interesting individual.

I’m pretty sure that Quorthon received an open invitation to the Hall on High at his passing, but it’s likely that he doesn’t spend a lot of time there. Despite his enigmatic persona, he cared very much about people. I imagine he’s still helping and guiding others in his way.

With love and respect always,

Cie