New album 'The End Of Time' to be released May 1

On May 1, we will release our long-awaited new full-length album, entitled ‘The End Of Time'.

'The End Of Time' is our seventeenth full-length and features ten tracks of uncompromising metal music, blending first wave Black Metal and traditional Heavy Metal in a way only Countess can. Perhaps a bit more concise than previous releases, the record clocks in at just under 45 minutes.

Everyone can get a first taste of the new album as of today. A digital single has been released for the song 'Beyond The Veils'. The single is available on all major platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music and is also available as a free download on our offical Bandcamp site.

The album's full track list:

01. Battle Dawn

02. Iron Dragons

03. Across The Rainbow Bridge

04. Quest For The Book Of Wrath

05. Call Upon The Gods Of Chaos

06. A Thousand Torches

07. Beyond The Veils

08. Lord Of The Millennia

09. March Towards The End Of Time

10. Slaves Shall Serve

New EP 'Live By The Sword' to be released March 24

On March 24, we will release a new EP entitled 'Live By The Sword'. The EP features five songs: three band new ones, inlcuding the first song written for the band by our guitarist Valgard who joined us in 2019, and two new versions of older songs. These are 'Desisdaimonia' that was originally released on our sophomore album in 1994 (and played live last year for the first time since 1995) and 'On Wings Of Defiance', the title track from our 2011 full-length.

Tracklist:

1. Raven Banners Fly (3:50)

2. Spectre (4:33)

3. Ballad Of Sigrid The Haughty (7:03)

4. Deisidaimonia (4:45)

5. On Wings Of Defiance (8:42)

The EP will be available on all major digital platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music and Deezer as well as on our official Bandcamp store.

New single 'De Vloek Van Het Goud' out on September 17

On Friday, September 17, we will release a new single entitled 'De Vloek Van Het Goud'. The song was recorded during the 'Banners Of Blood' sessions, but not included on the album. The title means 'The Curse Of The Gold' and the song tells how greed, symbolized by gold, came into the world. Its main sources are stanzas 21-22 of Völuspá. The idea that the thrice-burned witch and goddess was reborn each time as one of the three Norns – which I find very compelling – was first put forth by Freya Aswynn if I am not mistaken (in Leaves Of Yggdrasil, p.77-78).

As for the translation of her name, ‘Gullveig’, in the two Dutch translations of the poetic Edda, by Jan de Vries (1938) and Marcel Otten (1994), two different options are chosen. De Vries does not translate her name at all and simply ‘dutchifies’ it as ‘Gulweig’ while Otten translates it as ‘Goudroes’ (literally ‘Gold Fever’). I decided to differ and translate her name as ‘Gouddronk’, which sounds good to my ears and is quite literal (‘gull’ meaning ‘gold’ and ‘veig’ possibly meaning ‘drink’).

'Fires Of Destiny Over Europe' memories

Time for another trip down memory lane . . . Orlok looks back on our shows with Blackdeath and Barathrum in 2017.

"In February 2017, we did a short tour with Blackdeath and Barathrum. What made this especially cool was that it took place almost exactly twenty years after our shows with Barathrum and Sabbat. Herjann, who was our keyboard player in 2014-2015, put a lot of work in putting the shows together. In addition to being the tour manager, he would also join Blackdeath on stage as live guitarist.

In the morning of February 23, we set off for Paris, where the first show would take place. After a drive of about six hours, we reached Paris where we would play our first-ever show in France. The club, Le Klub, turned out to be located in the heart of the city, practically next to the Notre-Dame. 

Arriving in Paris.

'Banners Of Blood' track by track

It's been three months since the release of our new album. The album has received an excellent reception from fans and critics alike. In this blog post, we discuss the album track by track.

New album 'Banners Of Blood' to be released February 11

On February 11, we will release our long-awaited new full-length album, entitled ‘Banners Of Blood'.

'Banners Of Blood' is our sixteenth full-length and features twelve tracks of uncompromising metal music, blending first wave Black Metal and traditional Heavy Metal in a way only Countess can.

The albums features two songs in Dutch and, for the first time, a song in Russian: 'Ledovoye Poboishche' ('Battle On The Ice') tells the story of Alexander Nevsky's great victory over the crusader knights in 1242 CE.

The new album also marks the first appearance on a Countess full-length of guitarist Valgard and keyboardist Häxa. 

Everyone can get a first taste of the new album as of today. A digital single has been released for the song 'Last Man Of Honour'. This song was inspired by the life of Saigo Takamori, who is often considered to have been the last true samurai and who was born on this day in 1828 CE. The single is available on all major platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music and Deezer as well as a free download on our offical Bandcamp site.

The album's full track list:

1. Sword Of The Millennia
2. Below The Sky
3. Wall Of The North
4. Ledovoye Poboishche
5. Night Of The Fallen
6. Banners Of Blood
7. Pagan Man
8. Fall Of The Achaemenid Empire
9. Slachting Der Saksen
10. Last Man Of Honour
11. Toortsen Uit Het Verleden
12. Sword Symphony

New single out on August 7

While we are still working hard on our new album, we will already release a brand new song on all major platforms on August 7 (Elizabeth Báthory's birthday, coincidentally). Below is the official video for the single.

Zagan leaves Countess

With regret we have to announce that our guitarist Zagan has decided to leave the band. He made this decision because his heart is no longer in being part of the band, as he feels he has accomplished all he can with Countess. While we are obviously sad to see him leave, we cannot but respect his decision.

Zagan joined Countess in 1995 and was part of the line-up that played quite a few shows in the mid-nineties - including our legendary tour with Barathrum and Sabbat - and recorded the 'Hell's Rock & Roll' EP. After the split of the live band at the end of 1997, he still occasionally worked with the band in following years. In 2013 he rejoined the band full-time and was instrumental in the resurrection of the live band the next year.

Zagan on stage in Augsburg in 2014

Over the years, Zagan definitely left his mark on the Countess sound. Not only because of his great leads, but also because of his input on arrangements and of course because of the music he contributed to the band. He was responsible for our classic anthem 'Hell's Rock & Roll' and most recently wrote a substantial amount of material for our latest full-length 'Fires Of Destiny'.

We wish Zagan all the best for the future and the best of luck with whatever his future endeavours may be. Enjoy some of his most notable contributions to the Countess canon in this special playlist:

Looking back on fifteen full-lengths

This month, our official playlist takes the listener on a condensed trip through our entire discography. The playlist features one song from each of our fifteen full-lengths, picked by Orlok. For the occasion, Orlok looks back on all of these records and explains why he chose the tracks he did.

The official playlist on Spotify

"The first track is from our third album 'Ad Maiorem Sathanae Gloriam' (1995). This was a special record for us, since it was the first one recorded in an actual studio. Though this caused quite a bit of stress since we had just three days to record and mix everything, this proved to be a very educational experience and also led to the album having a pretty good sound. This was also the first Countess album to garner some positive reviews, much to our own surprise. The full story of the album can be found here. The album has a very distinct sound and some really good songs, the best known of which are undoubtedly 'The Priest Must Die' and 'The Wrath Of Satan's Whore' that have both become classics and are still being played live. Here I went with the former, because it is a great opener - on record as well as live.

New singles released

We have released a couple of new digital singles this year: new recordings of classic songs with a few arrangement tweaks and improved production.

A new version of 'The Wrath Of Satan's Whore' was released on April 16. Originally released on 'Ad Maiorem Sathanae Gloriam' in 1995, this song is a definite classic. Read all about the song's history here.

On July 17, a new version of 'Ritual Of The 7 Priests' was released. This song was first released on 'The Return Of The Horned One' in 1994 and, like 'The Wrath Of Satan's Whore', is still a live staple today.

Like the new version of 'Heilig Vuur' we released last year, all these new versions are available as free downloads on our official Bandcamp site.

A new version of 'In Hate Of Christ' was released on November 16. Originally released on 'The Book Of The Heretic' in 1996.

Though released in 1996, this song wasn't played live until almost two decades later.

Newsletter midwinter 2017

Welcome to the midwinter edition of the official Countess newsletter. In this edition we look back on what has been keeping us busy the past year.

Midwinter sale: 25% off everything

If you place an order at our webstore between now and December 31st, simply use midwinter as your discount code and you’ll get 25% off your entire order!

Free download: new version of 'Heilig Vuur'

In September we released a brand new version of our classic track 'Heilig Vuur'.
In appreciation of the fans who have supported the band over the past 25 years, we decided to make this single available as a free download on our official Bandcamp site.
Additionally, the single is available for a normal price from all major digital outlets such as iTunes, as well as for streaming on Spotify and YouTube.

Classic tracks: Chapel Of Doom

In a brand new instalment of our 'classic tracks' series, Orlok looks back on the history of 'Chapel Of Doom'.
"The origins of this song go back to 1992. At the time, I was singing in a band called Forgotten. The band only lasted a few months and never released anything. We mainly played covers of bands like Danzig, Celtic Frost and Massacre. We did have the intention to write original material as well, though, so I wrote some lyrics for the band.

At the time, I had several prints of works by H.R. Giger on my walls and one night I poured myself some vodka and simply sat in front of my favourite of his works, 'The Spell II' from 1974. Staring at and immersing myself in the painting, it didn't take long before lyrics came to me. I wrote them down on my typewriter and simply called the song 'The Spell'.

The original version released on 'The Book Of The Heretic'

When nothing came of Forgotten, I forgot about the lyrics I had written for the band for a while until I found them again a few years later, somewhere in the summer of 1995, while I was working on material that would become 'The Book Of The Heretic'. I had a few musical ideas that I figured would fit very well with these lyrics and before long the song was written. I did change the title to something I felt was more fitting than the rather generic 'The Spell'. At first the song became 'Into The Chapel Of Doom' but I eventually shortened that to just 'Chapel Of Doom'.

New single 'Heilig Vuur' released today

Today, we have released a new single. Since 2017 marks Countess' 25th anniversary, we recorded a brand new version of the classic title track from our 2004 Dutch-language album 'Heilig Vuur' ('Holy Fire'). With a few arrangement tweaks and improved production, the new single sees the song reach its full potential.

The single also marks the first appearance on a Countess release of our new keyboardist Häxa, who joined our ranks last year.

Newsletter midsummer 2017

Welcome to the midsummer edition of the official Countess newsletter. In this edition we'll have a quick look at what has been keeping us busy for the past half year.

Midsummer sale: 20% off everything

If you place an order at our webstore between now and June 30th, simply use midsummer as your discount code and you’ll get 20% off your entire order!

Fires Of Destiny Over Europe

We had a great time on the road in February with Barathrum and Blackdeath; both great bands as well as excellent company.
This picture of all the bands was taken at the final show in Arnhem.

'Hell's Rock & Roll' EP released twenty years ago

Two decades ago today, our legendary 'Hell's Rock & Roll' EP was released. Time for Orlok to look back on the creation of this record.

"Back in early 1997, we decided to record a few new songs and release these as an EP. Zagan and Warhead came up with the idea to do so at 'Freelation' in Rotterdam because they knew the engineer, who had been their history teacher in school . . . so we went to this studio and talked to the guy, Peter Vlietstra, who seemed a cool guy indeed and we set a date for the recording.

Those were the days: looking back on our 1997 shows with Barathrum and Sabbat

Since we are exactly two weeks away from doing a short tour with Barathrum, almost exactly twenty years after we first toured with them, we figured this would be a good time to look back on these legendary shows.

The following is a slightly edited and expanded version of a report Orlok wrote for Morbid Tales #6 back in 2007. All right, here we go: a trip down memory lane . . .

"In early 1997, the line-up that had been together for two years by then, admittedly with a few interruptions, was on the brink of breaking up (what a surprise – we may have split up more often than we played 'Countess Bathory'). Then all of a sudden we got two offers for gigs, one in Bussum and one in Wassenaar and we thought; whatever, let’s continue. Those gigs turned out pretty cool and got us enthusiastic about the band again. We decided to record three new songs for a mini CD and when around that time Opyros informed me that he was putting together a tour for us, Barathrum and Sabbat from Japan, we were pretty excited. It would be a privilege to play with the legend that Sabbat is and ever since Demonos and I first met in January 1995 (when I was recording 'Ad Maiorem') we had wanted to tour together.

Newsletter midwinter 2016

As the year draws to a close, we can conclude that 2016 has been another memorable year for Countess. We released a new album and our second album was released on vinyl 22 years after its original release . . . in this newsletter we’ll take a look at some key events from the past year and we’re announcing a special midwinter sale.

Midwinter sale: 20% off everything

If you place an order at our webstore between now and December 31st, simply use midwinter as your discount code and you’ll get 20% off your entire order!

New album 'Fires Of Destiny'

In June, we released our new album 'Fires Of Destiny'. Our fifteenth full-length, the record features ten tracks of uncompromising metal, blending first wave Black Metal and traditional Heavy Metal in a way only Countess can. The album is available everywhere, including Bandcamp, iTunes and Spotify.

Live album recorded twenty years ago

On November 2, 1996 we recorded a live album that was never released. In honour of the twentieth anniversary of this occasion, Orlok recalls the album's history.
"Back in the mid-nineties, when we played live people were always telling us that our songs sounded much better live than they did on the albums. So we got the idea to do a live album. We arranged a gig at the place where we usually rehearsed in Schiedam, which was also sort of a club and there was a studio there as well, which would make recording the gig relatively cheap and easy.

The intended cover for the live album

We picked a bunch of songs for inclusion on the album and rehearsed these pretty well. Most were from the first four albums, but we included a few new ones as well. On the day of the gig we rehearsed in the afternoon, then set up the recording equipment together with the engineer. Then we just played the gig, which went really well. We didn’t feel any real pressure because of the fact the gig was being recorded.

'The Return Of The Horned One' released on vinyl

Almost twenty-two years after its original release on CD by Nazgul's Eyrie Productions, our sophomore album 'The Return Of The Horned One' has now been released on vinyl in a joint effort by New Era Productions and Heidens Hart. In commemoration of this occasion, Orlok wrote down some memories from the creation of this legendary record.

"In the summer of 1994, the line-up that had been in place for a while and recorded the demo 'The Wolves Awake' more or less ceased to exist. We never split up officially, but just kind of stopped rehearsing. I had still been writing new material throughout the year, though, so in September I decided to record a new album anyway.

The vinyl version of the album

'Fires Of Destiny' review round-up

It's been one month since the release of our new album and so far the response has been great; both from fans and critics. We therefore decided to publish a collection of some cool quotes from several reviews (with links to the full reviews).

"Fires of Destiny truly is a legacy worth talking about and Countess have earned all the bragging rights with this album with it being the culmination of over two decades of hard work and devotion coming to the excellent fruition that this piece is."
- Metal Addicts

"They always deliver and they will always be Countess, firm, loyal and strong-willed. So yes, I will recommend this album. It's different, it's vintage, it's varied and it rocks. What else could you possibly want?"
- Merchants of Air

"Fires Of Destiny is een lekker gevarieerd album geworden, bruut bij tijd en wijlen en ongekend melodieus."
- Rockmuzine