They stopped performing live early on and never toured; frontman, founder and main songwriter Tomas "Quorthon" Forsberg was the sole constant member and at times responsible for all instruments.

According to Quorthon, he settled on the name 'Bathory' after a visit to the London Dungeon, although Jonas says that it was also inspired and taken from the Venom song "Countess Bathory".

[14] The debut album, Bathory, was recorded in June at Heavenshore Studio (a converted garage) in Stockholm[12] and released in October that year.

[15] Quorthon described Bathory's early sound as a "mixture" of Black Sabbath, Motörhead and GBH,[7] singling out GBH's album City Baby Attacked by Rats and Motörhead's Ace of Spades and Iron Fist,[16] and was also influenced by the Exploited,[17] Sex Pistols, Disorder, Riot/Clone, Anti-Nowhere League, Kiss,[18] Anti Cimex, Asocial, Mob 47[19] and Exciter.

These songs have a much slower tempo, acoustic passages, choral background singing, and lyrics about Vikings and Norse mythology.

With Requiem (1994) and Octagon (1995), Bathory changed style once more, this time turning to retro-thrash in the vein of 1980s Bay Area thrash bands.

In August 2004, several members of the Norwegian black metal scene gathered to perform Bathory songs in a set titled A Tribute to Quorthon at the Hole in the Sky festival in Bergen, Norway.

The lineup included Abbath (Immortal), Apollyon (Aura Noir), Faust and Samoth (Emperor and Zyklon), Gaahl (Gorgoroth), Grutle Kjellson and Ivar Bjørnson (Enslaved), Nocturno Culto (Darkthrone) and Satyr (Satyricon).

"[4][5] Black metal acts influenced by Bathory's early records include Mayhem, Burzum,[29] Darkthrone,[30] Gorgoroth, Satyricon,[31] Emperor, Dark Funeral, Enslaved, Immortal, Marduk, Moonsorrow, and Dimmu Borgir.

[32] Ambient rock band Vision Eternel also cited Bathory as influential,[33][34] singling out the albums Hammerheart and Twilight of the Gods.

[35] Swedish black metal band Watain played a live tribute to Quorthon and Bathory at the Sweden Rock Festival in 2010.

The resulting recording was the limited-edition album Tonight We Raise Our Cups and Toast in Angels Blood: A Tribute to Bathory with 7 tracks, and was released on 23 February 2015.