No compromises, no excuses, no mercy. Just Countess doing what Countess does. If that is not enough for you then you should probably be dead.
Source - Funereal Drone
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"New Countess album is out!" should be enough for just about anyone with some knowledge about black metal. And also "It's another good one!" if anyone wonders. Having been around since 1992, Countess really has nothing left to prove to anyone. Ancient Lies and Battle Cries is another example of "piss of, I'm doing what I want and I'm doing it well" orthodox black metal. It's done by its own rules and isn't trying to please anyone or conform to anything. And why should it, anyway? He's the artist, we're the listeners. So. There's the sound. It sounds, the end. All is clear, all is audible, the instruments are even a bit too separated, and it's a sound so simple yet so efficient that it is irrelevant. It's simply there, and the thing carrying the music is the music itself. Never mind the programmed-sounding drums, or the well audible bass straight from the Seventies, or even the clinically clear guitars making the album sound like a well programmed MIDI, it doesn't matter. Once the first riffs start, real riffs, then more of them, and then the development, the melodies, the solos, the arrangements, the surprises... You will forget about the sound. It's good, and if played loud it's better. Ancient Lies and Battle Cries is one of those albums you will want to have on cassette and on vinyl too, just to see what it feels like, and it will probably feel like listening to something forbidden. But no matter what it sounded like or what equipment you played it on, the music would still be great. Real songs, anyone? Real songs!!! You can tell them apart, you feel something while listening to them and you remember you have listened to them. That, the precious thing most musicians forgot about while trying to be smart, that thing is here. It brings fury, glory, melancholy and distance, it brings lunacy and genius, and - well - you can scream along with it too. Or just sit there amazed at how many ideas this guy has, and how he managed to pull them off. A few added synthesizer passages overlaying the important parts couldn't have been simpler, and there's nothing particularly fancy about the way they sound, but you will believe them. As well as believing that someone here is at war.
No compromises, no excuses, no mercy. Just Countess doing what Countess does. If that is not enough for you then you should probably be dead. Source - Funereal Drone Comments are closed.
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