October 01, 2015

'Ad Maiorem Sathanae Gloriam' released twenty years ago

Two decades ago today, Countess' third full-length 'Ad Maiorem Sathanae Gloriam' was released. Time for Orlok to take a trip down memory lane and write down some recollections from the creation of this classic record . . .

"In September 1994 I took a trip to Regensburg to deliver the master tape of 'The Return' to Opyros, who would release it on Nazgul's Eyrie Productions. The trip included a visit to one of Elisabeth Bathory's castles, Lockenhaus, where the pictures for the booklet of 'The Return' were taken. Upon our return to Regensburg, we wrote the lyrics to 'The Wrath Of Satan's Whore' together on a napkin in a Spanish restaurant and altogether this journey proved rather inspirational. So when I got home again, I immediately began working on new material.

Before long, I had enough songs written for a new album. I recorded these as demo's and sent them to Opyros (this was before 'The Return' was even released, mind you). He was quite enthusiastic about the new stuff and suggested it might be interesting to record the new record in a real studio this time. Hammerheart recommended 'The Nick' in Mheer for these recordings, where he had just been to record the first Bifrost album 'Pagan Reality', so we booked the studio for late January 1995 and prepared for the recording sessions.