Tsunami

I don't think that it's fair to call them morons, seeing that every person into music is an elitist, more or less. You won't go to the shop and buy an album you absolutely hate, and then proceed to listen to it over and over.
Besides if it sounds more like thrash than black metal, then it's fair to call it thrash metal even if it had a huge influence on black metal, I mean you don't call NWOBHM thrash metal even if it had a huge influence on it.
Of course I haven't listened to all of the albums by Bathory, but the early albums sure sound more thrash than black metal.

The Batlord

I think it's pretty stupid to say that Bathory aren't a black metal band just cause they don't sound like Darkthrone. Bathory, probably more than any other band, built the whole black metal template before any of the second wave of black metal bands ever even existed. Of course they don't sound like the second wave of black metal (the Norwegian scene) because they were too busy setting the groundwork for those bands to not just be a third rate version of the Swedish death metal scene.

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Tsunami

I don't think it's that stupid. I personally don't care whether people consider the first wave of black metal black metal or thrash metal. Surely it's opinionated, very much so, but do you see people calling Slayer and Kreator death metal because they had a big influence on death metal?

The Batlord

Slayer and Kreator may have been influential, but they did not basically invent the whole style that the next wave of bands would run with. Without Slayer, death metal would still have pretty much been the same. Without Bathory, who knows if there would be a black metal genre today, cause they pretty much invented it.

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Tsunami

I disagree with that, someone would have came up with it sooner or later.

Edit: Please, I cannot converse with two-three people at once without producing spam.

The Batlord

Why? When Venom and Hellhammer came along, black metal was just really ugly and noisy rock and roll. Bands like Sarco***o and Necrovore were basically just really ugly and noisy thrash bands. Without Bathory (and to a lesser extent Celtic Frost) developing black metal into it's own sound that was distinct from thrash and death metal (regardless of the similarities), black metal may (keyword, "may") have been rendered obsolete by the development of death metal.

Edit: (I posted my post just after you posted this):

Bathory's first four albums. Bathory, The Return..., Under the Sign of the Black Mark, and Blood, Fire, Death.

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Tsunami

Yes, may, but without Kreator and Slayer death metal might have never born either.

Edit: And I don't know about Under the Sign of the Black Mark and Blood Fire Death, I've been talking about Bathory and The Return.

Unknown Soldier

Based on what I know, when I think of black metal I think of the major influence on the genre being Celtic Frost and the Morbid Tales album. But I pretty much think of Bathory being The first true black metal artist, as their debut album came out the same year as the CF one in 1984. I pretty much think of Bathory being the essential black metal act before their switch to viking metal. Also Sarcofago are another first wave band that helped pave the way for the Norweigen scene (the second wave) and the wave that most people associate with black metal.