Countess
The Revenge Of The Horned One Part 2
[Barbarian Wrath]
After being completely blown away by Part 1 of the Revenge of the Horned One double album, I couldn't wait to hear the second part. However, after getting it, not much grabbed me. It initially struck me at first not as a companion of Part 1, but rather the remains of what didn't make it to Part 1. Well, it takes time--it turns out this album is more of a 'grower' than something that amazes on first listen. What makes the big difference is the vast increase in use of keyboards and lead guitar. Many songs are based almost exclusively on keyboard lines, and many of those and many other songs rely quite heavily on the solos or melodic fills of Zagan--his half-guitar-hero shredder, half blues-box filler abound in songs like "Blood Wedding" or "On Armageddon's Battlefield". While there are still the fast, angry moments (the aforementioned "Blood Wedding", the album-opener "Behold My Wrath") and the more upbeat, almost rock-ish moments ("Tyrant of the Motorway"), much more time is spent in slower, epic tempos
like "Child of the Millenia" or "Ballad of the Swords". Some songs, like "Nightwind", get downright doomy. So, while there's nothing that immediately hits you over the head, there is a lot of work on putting melodies in the songs that eventually worm their way in and have you remembering them days later. In this way it seems more like The Shining Swords of Hate, though done with a much more varied song palate and more of the identifiable Countess songwriting elements as on the albums Ad Maiorem Sathanae Gloriam or Book of the Heretic.
Like Part 1, there is a thirteen-minute epic closing out the original songs on the album. On this album it's titled "The Legend of the Fall". The first parts of the song are very compelling, consisting of those Hellhammer-derived streams of power chords that Orlok is so good at writing, combined with his good sense for rhythms and knowledge of how to work melodic hooks in with leads or keys. The ending, though, rather than building a succession of solos that work together to lift the song, is fairly disappointing. It works as a 'call and response' where two lead guitars trade long passages back and forth, but merely serve up lackluster, noodling melodies rather than anything memorable. It even devolves into copping little classical music lines like "Hall of the Mountain King", "Pomp and Circumstance", "Auld Lang Syde", almost like a showtunes-style review of 'My First Classics'. Disappointing, really (maybe that's why Zagan got kicked out of the band?), and almost totally ruining one of the better epic tunes Orlok has written. Also like Part 1, at the end is the obligatory cover tune, this time Manowar's "Metal Warriors". Well, Countess's rendition kicks the shit out of the original and makes a refreshing change from the standard "cover a Venom, Bathory, or Hellhammer track" for black metal.
In short, it's not as compelling on first listen as Part 1, but aside from a few missteps, is just as strong musically, more varied in mood and approach, and ultimately just as worthy and still essential for all fans of Countess and 'orthodox black metal'.
© 2003 lord vic
Like Part 1, there is a thirteen-minute epic closing out the original songs on the album. On this album it's titled "The Legend of the Fall". The first parts of the song are very compelling, consisting of those Hellhammer-derived streams of power chords that Orlok is so good at writing, combined with his good sense for rhythms and knowledge of how to work melodic hooks in with leads or keys. The ending, though, rather than building a succession of solos that work together to lift the song, is fairly disappointing. It works as a 'call and response' where two lead guitars trade long passages back and forth, but merely serve up lackluster, noodling melodies rather than anything memorable. It even devolves into copping little classical music lines like "Hall of the Mountain King", "Pomp and Circumstance", "Auld Lang Syde", almost like a showtunes-style review of 'My First Classics'. Disappointing, really (maybe that's why Zagan got kicked out of the band?), and almost totally ruining one of the better epic tunes Orlok has written. Also like Part 1, at the end is the obligatory cover tune, this time Manowar's "Metal Warriors". Well, Countess's rendition kicks the shit out of the original and makes a refreshing change from the standard "cover a Venom, Bathory, or Hellhammer track" for black metal.
In short, it's not as compelling on first listen as Part 1, but aside from a few missteps, is just as strong musically, more varied in mood and approach, and ultimately just as worthy and still essential for all fans of Countess and 'orthodox black metal'.
© 2003 lord vic