4. On The Wings Of Azazel (live)

music & lyrics by Orlok
This song was taken from the unreleased live CD.

When we were planning to record this mini CD, 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.

We had one day to record three songs, so things were pretty relaxed, especially since we had rehearsed the songs really well. We spent an hour or so setting up the drum kit (Warhead brought his own Pearl-and-Zildjian kit to the studio, exact details of which can be found in the mini CD booklet) and then we started playing. Zagan played his Ibanez S 440 SH through a Marshall Valvestate 8082 Bi Chorus 200, using no effects other than his Boss HM-3 while I played my Aria Pro II, through a Hughes & Kettner Bass Kick 505, not using any effects at all.

We soon found out Peter Vlietstra had quite high standards. After the first take of the title track we went into the control room feeling this was a pretty good version but the engineer was shaking his head, telling us this take sucked. He played back the tape and pointed out exactly what was wrong with it so we recorded it a couple more times until the engineer was satisfied as well.

Strangely enough the song we had feared might give trouble, Son Of The Dragon, because of all the breaks, was done in one take and the song that really gave trouble turned out to be Dokkum 754, not because we made mistakes or anything but because we somehow had a hard time getting the feeling right.

When we finally had a version on tape we could all live with we were getting hungry and ordered some pizza. After dinner we finished the recordings. Zagan recorded all the rhythm guitar parts another time and then he started on the guitar leads, adding a Boss CE-3. For the leads in the title track he switched to his Ibanez RX350-BK to get a warmer, bluesier feeling into them which turned out quite well.

Only one song, Dokkum 754, needed keyboards – which were done by Zagan, the engineer and myself – so that did not take a lot of time which left only the vocals after which Peter Vlietstra quickly made a rough mix we could take home and listen to before we would do the real mix, scheduled for a week later.

The next week we went back to the studio, accompanied by Opyros, where to our horror we found out there was a little bass mistake left in the title track. First Peter Vlietstra tried to use a computer to correct it but since he didn't really know how the thing worked there was no option left but to record the bass part in that song again. So Opyros and I went to fetch my bass while Zagan and Warhead borrowed the engineer's car to get an amp. The amp we had used a week earlier was unavailable to us now so I had to use Warhead's own small Vantage VB30. When the bass part was finally more or less OK we could start mixing, at last, which, thankfully, went smoothly and after adding On The Wings Of Azazel from the live CD as a bonus track on the master DAT we were done.

Of course, when this mini CD was recorded the real problems started when the pressing was delayed for months. The guy who handled this for us had promised it would be no problem at all to have the mini CD's ready by April 19, when a presentation gig was scheduled, but then, adding apologies to weak excuses, he said we would at least have them before the tour with BARATHRUM and SABBAT would commence on April 29, but of course that didn't work out either and in the end the mini CD wasn't released until June!

In spite of all this shit we were quite satisfied with the result when it was finally out, feeling this was finally a release really representative of what COUNTESS was all about, but now I feel that even when this mini CD obviously is by far the best COUNTESS release musically it still does not quite capture the essence of the band. I don't think this is the mini CD's fault (even when it could have been better, of course, I think the guitar sound is a little thin, for example), I have come to think by now the true magic of COUNTESS' MkIV line-up simply cannot be captured on tape or CD or video or whatever – it can only be experienced live! I fully realized this for the first time when we rehearsed again in January '99 after not having played together for more than a year. We plugged in, turned up the amps (after all, all men play on ten!) and as soon as Zagan's slide announced the beginning of The Priest Must Die the magic was there again.