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Hymns
of Winter
track on
compilation TAPE 1993 by Thurisaz Productions
1: Bloed in
de sneeuw
line-up:
Orlok (instruments, vocals)
     
Review: I realise that this track has been put on
the second Countess album The Return of the Horned
One, and that that's a better place for it than on a
compilation cassette, but we have to realise that it's
predating that album a year and the Hymns of Winter
cassette was released by Countess' Orlok himself. Bloed
in de sneeuw ('Blood in the Snow') is widely
regarded as the first black metal track with Dutch
lyrics, and I won't disagree with that. One could argue
that Apator and Exmortis had been there before him, but
Orlok's track is authentic black metal - orthodox, if you
will - while Apator is subversive art and Exmortis always
strikes me as a quite undefinable form of amateur metal. Bloed
in de sneeuw is one of those tracks that is oozing
with proper black metal atmosphere, regardless of its
'soft' use of keyboards (I hear the Viking albums of
Bathory in there, ergo the keyboards are okay) and/or
slight mishaps in its performance and/or its
unintended(?) rough unpolished production. After all
these years it's still one of those tracks from the
oldest days of Dutch 'Second Wave' black metal I really
like! For those that are curious: I don't think there's
really that much difference between the original 13
Candles mix and the Countess 'remix'...
Source: NLBMe exclusive, October 2011.
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