Interview with Dutch black metal band COUNTESS
- answered Orlok.
translated by Duzl, thank you!
Recenze/review - COUNTESS - Fires of Destiny (2016)
Ave COUNTESS! Now I am sitting outside on the terrace of a restaurant. It's summer and the sun burns. Nevertheless, from your novelty "Fires of Destiny" I feel the cold. I kept listenening to it over and over and I think that this album is really great! What are your feelings about the new album? And what are the reaction of your fans, what are their reviews and how well does your new songs greeted at the concerts?
Hello Jakub, first of all it’s good to hear you enjoy
the new album. We put a lot of work into this record and we are quite pleased
with it ourselves as well. So far, the response from both fans and critics has
been really good. The new songs were greeted quite enthusiastically too at the
shows we played after the release of the album, where we did three or four
songs from the new record.
In the new album I am literally
fascinated by the interconnection of sharp riffs with keyboards. How was
the new material created? I am interested about the creative process of
Countess? According to the available information, all instruments are signed by
Orlok. Do others participate as well? I
understand about the guitars, but what about the drums?
Well, I did all
the instruments on several records in the past but the new album was recorded
with a full line-up: myself on vocals and bass, Zagan on guitars and Mortüüm on
drums. As for the creative process; all the music was written by Zagan and
myself. Most songs we wrote together this time. This process went quite
smoothly. When all the songs were finished we recorded demos and then the
drummer got the demos and we began rehearsing the songs. The drummer obviously
also had input in this process; he created his own parts.
The lyrics in "Fires of
Destiny" are very interesting and sophisticated. They are about historical
themes, about anti-Christianity, Satanism. Where do you find the
inspiration for such lyrics and do you
wish to discuss the new album? Are you composing music to texts or you have the
opposite approach?
Inspiration for my lyrics comes from everywhere,
really: books I’ve read, movies I’ve seen, but also my experiences in life and
thoughts about life in general. I prefer to write music and lyrics more or less
at the same time; that way you generally get a better synthesis between music
and lyrics. Occasionally, I have music and then write lyrics or the other way
around, but I prefer to do them simultaneously. As for the new album, I think
it has some interesting lyrics covering a variety of topics. Runenlied tells
the story of how Odin came by the runes, for example; the title track is a
typical historical lyric about the battle of Vienna in 1683; Rise Of The Horned
One is a very old-fashioned black metal type of lyric about the rise of the
Antichrist as described in Revelations.
You've always had interesting
covers. Who is the author of draft for "Fires of Destiny" and what
was your motive for the new album?
The cover of the new album is a painting by the 17th
century Flemish painter Pauwel Casteels. It depicts the battle of Vienna; the
subject of the title track, which is why we chose this painting.
You play since 1992. It is for
the band a pretty long time. You could say that you have become a legend. What
were your beginnings? How was the band founded and what was the first impulse
to start playing black metal?
We were just a bunch of
young guys who loved metal and wanted to play metal ourselves as well; like so
many others I guess. And back when we started out, all these new bands from Norway and other bands imitating that style were
getting popular. We didn’t like that modern style at all and wanted to create
real black metal, the way we felt it was supposed to be: filthy, raw, primitive
and with no commercial appeal whatsoever. We didn’t think this new ‘black
metal’ was really black metal or even really metal, for that matter.
Dominant instrument for Countess
are keyboards. I must say that keyboards perfectly complete the cold and
"gloomy" atmosphere. I think it is terribly difficult to learn to
play this instrument. Did you learn how to play the organ from somewhere? Do
you have any musical education?
Well, I wouldn’t say keyboards are dominant in our
sound, but they are an integral part of our sound, that’s true. That’s why we
use them live as well. The songs just don’t sound the way they were supposed to
sound without keyboards. I don’t think playing keyboards is terribly difficult;
in fact I think it’s a lot easier than playing guitar but that’s just my
experience, maybe it’s different for other people. I never played organ or
anything; I taught myself to play keyboards just like I taught myself to play
guitar. I did educate myself a little, you know, reading books on music theory
and stuff like that.
Last album was released on the
label Barbarian Wrath. This year, are you releasing this album at your own
expense. Why? Were you not satisfied with the work of the label?
No, we have always been very satisfied with Barbarian
Wrath. Barbarian Wrath still has our total support. We just felt it was time to
take all matters concerning the band into our own hands. We had offers from
others labels as well, but we turned these down because we just wanted to do it
ourselves.
From your creation, it is
possible to feel the inspiration of the famous band BATHORY. Which album
of theirs is your favorite? Quorthon
died in 2004. Have you met him before?
That’s a hard question. I think the second through
fifth album Bathory albums are very, very close to each other in quality, each
in its own way. My favourite, if I have to pick one, as an album, is probably
Blood Fire Death because it has elements of both the early and the later sound
and thus it is probably the most complete Bathory album. And no, I never met
Quorthon.
You are from the Netherlands and
you are playing black metal since 1992.I must admit that I dont know about too
many black metal bands from your country. I have fixed the Dutch as a death
metal superpower. Can we find more black metal bands there? And how does the
Dutch fans perceive your work? After all, the Netherlands is not Norway.
Yes, there have always been black metal bands in the
Netherlands, starting probably with Necro Schizma who released their Erupted
Evil demo in 1989. Also, early Asphyx had quite a black metal vibe as well,
especially on their Crush The Cenotaph demo (also from 1989). Of course, back
then, before this so-called second wave started, there wasn’t much of a
distinction between death and black metal anyway. Currently, I’d say some good
Dutch black metal bands worth checking out are Cultus and Infinity.
In the beginning Zenon played the
guitar. I searched on the Internet, but I could not find much information about
him. How long have you been playing together and what had happened? Why did he
leave the band?
Well, we didn’t play together very often. In fact, I
think the only time we played together was when we recorded the first album. He
lost interest in the band soon after and as far as I know, he never did
anything in music again. That goes for most people who were in the band in the
early days, as far as I know.
The main character of the
Countess is you, Orlok. But you also perform live. How does it work?Do you
have permanent band members or do you "hire" musicians? Do you
comment upon your colleagues as to how
to play the songs which you have created?
Well, I did Countess on my own for quite a while, but
in those days the band didn’t play live. When we returned to the stage in 2014,
we got a full line-up together again. Since then, we have been a real band
again. Of course, I expect the other people in the band to play the songs the
way they are supposed to be played, but that doesn’t mean they can’t have any
input.
How does it actually go with Countess with regards to concerts? Do
you like to play your songs live? Do you prefer the big festivals or small,
intimate clubs?
Yes, of course we like to play our songs live. We enjoy
playing both festivals as well as small clubs. These are very different experiences,
but they’re both cool. Two years ago we played at Under The Black Sun, for
example, a big open air festival in the woods, which was really special. But
when we released our new album this year, we did a small show to present the
album at a pub that could hold maybe 50 people and that was cool too.
What about the plans of Countess
in the upcoming months? Can we look forward to a tour with the new album?
We did a few shows after the release of the album, but
we won’t be doing a whole tour. There probably will be some more one-off shows,
though. The next one will be in Finland in October at the Tampere Black Mass
II.
Thank you very much for the
interview. I hope that the new album will sell well and hope to see you soon
somewhere in the gigs. Good luck to you!
Thank you for your interest in the band and the
interview and good luck to you too!
Recenze/review - COUNTESS - Fires of Destiny (2016)
Recenze/review - COUNTESS - Fires of Destiny (2016)
