The Return of the Horned One

The debut album from Countess, The Gospel of the Horned One failed at basically every level. It was unoriginal, poorly performed and terribly produced. Countess’s sophomore release, The Return of the Horned One resolves a number of the problems of the debut, but not enough to qualify it as a success. While the distinct Countess sound begins to emerge, extremely unbalanced production results in another awkward listening experience.

A number of the signature aspects of Countess’s sound emerge on The Return of the Horned One. Orlok’s psychotic growl is front and center. The guy has one of the most distinct voices in black metal: high pitched and sharp with an almost singsong cadence. The hack drummer from the last album has been replaced with a very predictable drum machine. This isn’t the best part of the Countess sound, but it is an undeniable aspect of it.

Where the album goes wrong is in the mix, which is really uneven. With the exception of the guitar solos, the guitars are practically inaudible. I have never heard guitar so far back in the mix on a metal album before. Moreover, what can be heard is very weak and puttering. In contrast, the bass is super loud, with every single note being audible. At times it’s so loud that it almost sounds like a rubber ball bouncing about in an empty gymnasium. A lot of this probably has to do with Orlok being primarily a bassist, not a guitarist. He might have felt more comfortable with the bass performance than the guitar performance. Whatever the reason is, it sounds extremely strange. Another problem with the production is that the vocals are so loud that sometimes they wash everything else out.

The songwriting is hit and miss. Fortunately, the band is over its Bathory worship phase, and while Bathory is obviously still a major influence, Orlok is starting to do something unique with the Bathory template. “Ritual of the Seven Priests” has exciting dramatic shifts that foreshadow the excellent theatrical pieces of the next few albums. “Into Battle” is a quick, playful instrumental full of energetic and melodious keys played in a bagpipe tone. Other songs are quite ineffective. “A Cry of Hope Forever Gone” centers on a rather goofy bass line. “Bloed in de Sneeuw” is a really strange acoustic ballad with growled vocals that doesn’t quite fit together. Almost every song is damaged by the awful production.

While Return of the Horned One is a step in the right direction, the production problems impede it from being an enjoyable listen. The songwriting is brave, but clearly Orlok is still going through some major growing pains. A lot of the techniques that fail here are actually done to great effect on the next two albums. Worth a listen for a Countess diehard, but newcomers should look to the next three albums, which are all stellar.

(Originally written for http://deinos-logos.blogspot.com)

The follow-up to “Gospel of the Horned One” is actually worse than the debut. Were it released today, it would certainly be called bedroom black metal because that’s what it sounds like. The main drawback is the shitty production: powerless drum machine, keyboards that sound crappy and cheap most of the time, and the (for the most part) weak and down mixed guitar. The sound is dominated by the vocals, the bass and the keyboards. It’s of course positive that the vocals aren’t as low in the mix as they were on the debut, but in general everything concerning the production is more low-fi than on the debut. The production also lacks treble, the sound is muddy and bassy in a bad kind of way.

I already mentioned that the vocals are higher in the mix than on the debut but this just brings to light the fact that Orlok sounds pretty horrible on this album. His voice is too dry for my taste and he also overdoes his vocals in an effort to sound even grimmer. Vocals are very important in black metal and the screamed vocals on “The Return of the Horned One” do nothing for me.

As for the song writing itself, I can say that the songs are more varied than on the debut. The band has progressed a bit and even added a touch of their own to the sound, we are no longer talking about a pure Bathory/Hellhammer rip-off. We’re basically talking a mixture of raw Nordic black metal and old school black metal with keyboards added. The problem is that while most of the songs are more varied, the quality level still remains pretty low for most of the album. In general, the riffs and arrangements are rather predictable and this in combination with the horrible production effectively undermines most attempts to stay focused and enjoy the music.

Some overall clumsiness also remains, just check out e.g. the instrumental “Into Battle” where the lead guitar plays out of time with the rest of the instruments to the extent that I’m forced to smile. On “The Wolf Cries Evil” the guitar and bass are clearly out of tune with each other, adding further discomfort. A moment of fun occurs in the beginning of “Deisidaimonia”, as I recognise the guitar melody: it’s the melody from Pet Shop Boys’ hit song “It’s A Sin”! Hey Orlok, explain yourself out of this one, will ‘ya?

Despite all my ranting, I found a couple of enjoyable tracks. One of them is “Ritual of the 7 Priests”. This track starts with some ritualistic chanting and actually manages to create a good black metal atmosphere. In the middle of the track there’s a great ritualistic part with synths, bass guitar and chanting that reminds me a lot of early Necromantia. Yes, finally we get some quality music and I do my best to ignore how bad the sound is. “Since Man has Wielded Swords” is a track consisting of only keyboards, acoustic guitar and clean vocals. This track is a welcome change to the black metal stuff because during it you don’t have to stand the drum machine and the awful distorted guitar. “Bloed in de Sneeuw” is a good mid-paced closing number, incorporating some acoustic guitar in a manner that reminds me of Immortal’s debut. So, even if Countess progressed a bit on this album, it still turned out worse than the debut as a whole.

After hearing much about this trve kvlt underground black metal one man project (for the most part) I decided to check it out. The Return of the Horned One was the first thing I heard and it was by far one of the most horrible albums I've ever heard in my life. Never have I been so bored out of my mind and never have I hated an album so much. The first time I heard this album, it sounded like some sloppy shitty satanic band was playing in my basement and I'm hearing them about 2 floors up. I was laughing out loud when I heard Fire and Blood. The silly out of place bass riff made me want to give up on humanity. The chugging part of The Wolf Cries Evil was so sloppy and so out of place with the drum machine that it sounds like a complete fucking joke. Now you're probably wondering why I'm giving this album 100 right?

Like I said that was my first listen to the album... and one thing about it made me want to give it another chance... The Ritual of the 7 Priests! It was by far one of the greatest songs I've ever heard in my life. It had horrible drum programming that began to sound like it belongs in some 70's disco/funk band near the end of the song, and awesome fucking lyrics made me fall in love with the song. Ever since that day I've been screaming out THE ANTICHRIST IS BORN on numerous alcohol induced occasions. The lyrics are just fucking great. They rhyme so well together and manage not to be cheesy. They're powerful and evil and evoke hatred and a lust for destruction and carnage. After listening to the song about a dozen times I got used to the production and now to this day I love it. What sounded like a drunken shithead praising Satan and playing slop in my basement, actually sounded like a very awesome fucking black metal band.

The moment I really fell in love with it was after hearing Bloed in De Sneeuw. A powerful, dark, gloomy track with great Dutch lyrics that rhyme well. Then I started to enjoy the rest of the album. Aleidis is a total fucking badass track. I got used to the bass riff in Fire and Blood and began to love the song. I don't even understand how this mental transition happened for me. Into Battle is a funky little instrumental tune. The Wolf Cries Evil is an awesome slop ridden track. And Deisidaimonia has awesome fucking riffs. After falling in love with this album, I got used to this basement type production, the overly sloppy guitars (I mean ,shit, the riffs are like 3 chords at most. How could you possibly fuck this up?) And the horrendous drum machine. The programming is so simple and so awful that it’s just perfect. And sometimes it even sounds funky and something that you can dance to. I'm not joking. Listen to the ending of Ritual of the 7 Priests and tell me that you don't want to dance to that shit? It's so funky and works perfectly with that one chord riff being played in the background. It's terrific and it even influenced me to make my drum tracks simple and shitty sounding as well.

There are a couple of downfalls but none of them are enough to make me want to bring the rating down. The keyboard intro is boring. A Cry of Hope Forever Gone is a shitty instrumental song having one riff played over and over again for 5 minutes. And Since Man Has Wielded Swords is a horrendous short little 2 minute narration with Orlok's awful clean vocals. They're pretty off key but I eventually got into them after hearing the material on The Book of the Heretic.

This album is just fucking great. Orlok is without doubt one of the greatest black metal shriekers of all time. He has this powerful fucking shriek that you will love. Unfortunately this bastard started using distortion effects and put the vocals low in the mix in the newer albums, but oh well. This, along with Ad Maiorem Sathanae Gloriam and The Book of the Heretic, are the best Countess albums. Later material is still good but nothing compared to the greatness of these 3. Definitely try to hear the material on this album. You will love it. At first you may be like me and hate it, but you there is no fucking way that you could hate Ritual of the 7 Priests and Bloed in De Sneeuw...