COUNTESS - Bloed In De Sneeuw 2012

This song was the first Black Metal song with lyrics in Dutch. It was written in 1993, when we had just started rehearsing with the line-up that would eventually record the demo 'The Wolves Awake'. At the time, we listened a lot to bands like Master's Hammer and Masacre, who sang in their own languages, which inspired us to also try that.

I came up with the title 'Bloed In De Sneeuw' and wrote a lyric for it. At the same time, Othalaz showed me a riff he had that I liked and we began constructing the song. Othalaz' riff became the verse riff and I came up with the chorus. However, the lyrics didn't fit very well so I changed those (as far as I remember, the original lyrics were much longer, but these have long since been lost). When the song was finished, we decided to record it. Since we weren't sure how this would turn out, we decided to record it as a 13 Candles project track and put it on the 'Hymns Of Winter' compilation rather than include it on 'The Wolves Awake' for which we had enough material anyway.

When the compilation was released, reactions to the song were very enthusiastic. Besides being a really cool song musically, admittedly heavily inspired by 'Viking era' Bathory, the Dutch lyrics gave the song something 'extra' that was apparently more than just the novelty factor. So we started rehearsing the song with Countess and we even played it live once (in May 1994). However, for reasons I cannot remember - if any - we didn't include it on the next Countess album, 'The Return Of The Horned One' when we record that later in 1994. Then when we were signed to N.E.P. and we were preparing the album's release, Opyros insisted we add 'Bloed In De Sneeuw' to the album because he really liked that song. We didn't have time to record it again, though, so we just did a remix of the original 13 Candles version and tacked that onto the album as the final track (admittedly, there is hardly any difference between the remix and the original mix).

When the album was released, again the response to 'Bloed In De Sneeuw' was really good. So when, in March 1995, we had another Countess line-up together and began rehearsing, we decided to include the song in our live set. We did change the song a little: we moved the lead section from the end to after the second chorus, before the break in the middle. We felt that made the song 'flow' better. As far as I remember, we played 'Bloed In De Sneeuw' live at every gig we did from then on. It was also recorded for the live album in 1996. While the full live album was never released, the live version of 'Bloed In De Sneeuw' was eventually released as a bonus track on 'Heilig Vuur' in 2004. 'Heilig Vuur', of course, was an album entirely in Dutch. A few years later, we recorded a new studio version that was released as a bonus track on 'Blazing Flames Of War'.

This year, we decided to do another new version, in celebration of Countess' 20th anniversary. While the 2007 version was a very 'stripped down' version, without any keyboards, this version is closer in spirit to the original version.

Taken from the Official COUNTESS Blog : http://countessmetal.blogspot.gr/

Sturm und Drang

"Sturm und Drang, (German: “Storm and Stress”), German literary movement of the late 18th century that exalted nature, feeling, and human individualism and sought to overthrow the Enlightenment cult of Rationalism. Goethe and Schiller began their careers as prominent members of the movement.

The exponents of the Sturm und Drang were profoundly influenced by the thought of Rousseau and Johann Georg Hamann, who held that the basic verities of existence were to be apprehended through faith and the experience of the senses. The young writers also were influenced by the works of the English poet Edward Young, the pseudo-epic poetry of James Macpherson’s “Ossian,” and the recently translated works of Shakespeare.

Sturm und Drang was intimately associated with the young Goethe. While a student at Strasbourg, he made the acquaintance of Johann Gottfried von Herder, a former pupil of Hamann, who interested him in Gothic architecture, German folk songs, and Shakespeare. Inspired by Herder’s ideas, Goethe embarked upon a period of extraordinary creativity. In 1773 he published a play based upon the 16th-century German knight, Götz von Berlichingen, and collaborated with Herder and others on the pamphlet “Von deutscher Art und Kunst,” which was a kind of manifesto for the Sturm und Drang. His novel Die Leiden des jungen Werthers (1774; The Sorrows of Young Werther), which epitomized the spirit of the movement, made him world famous and inspired a host of imitators.

The dramatic literature of the Sturm und Drang was its most characteristic product. Indeed, the very name of the movement was borrowed from a play by Friedrich von Klinger, who had been inspired by the desire to present on the stage figures of Shakespearean grandeur, subordinating structural considerations to character and rejecting the conventions of French Neoclassicism, which had been imported by the critic Johann Christop von Gottsched. With the production of Die Räuber (1781; The Robbers) by Schiller, the drama of the Sturm und Drang entered a new phase.

Self-discipline was not a tenet of the Sturm und Drang, and the movement soon exhausted itself. Its two most gifted representatives, Goethe and Schiller, went on to produce great works that formed the body and soul of German classical literature. "

Article taken from Encyclopedia Britannica

"Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 18th century 'Angry Young Men' movement in Germany, 'Sturm und Drang'. Translated into English as 'Storm and Stress', this short-lived movement was characterised by raw emotion, drama and rebellion. Melvyn is joined by Tim Blanning, Emeritus Professor of Modern European History at Cambridge University; Susanne Kord, Professor of German at University College, London; and Maike Oergel, Associate Professor of German at the University of Nottingham."

Carl Orff`s "O Fortuna" (History and Lyric Translation)

Taken from Wikipedia

"O Fortuna" is a medieval Latin Goliardic poem written early in the 13th century, part of the collection known as the Carmina Burana. It is a complaint about fate and Fortuna, a goddess in Roman mythology and the personification of luck

 

In 1935–36, "O Fortuna" was set to music by the German composer Carl Orff as a part of movement "Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi" of his cantata Carmina Burana, which it opens and closes. It opens on a slower pace with thumping drums and choir that drops quickly into a whisper building slowly into a steady crescendo of drums and short string and horn notes peaking on one last long powerful note and ending abruptly. A performance takes a little over two and one-half minutes.

                                                      THE POEM                                                        

    Latin                              English     

 O Fortuna                       O Fortune     

                                                 velut luna                       like the moon 

                                                 statu variabilis               you are changeable 

                                                 sember crescis                ever waxing  

                                                 aut decrescis                  and waning

                                                 vita detestabilis             hateful life 

                                                 nunc obdurat                first oppresses

                                                 et tunc curat                 and then soothes

                                                 ludo mentis aciem        as fancy takes it

                                                 egestatem                      poverty

                                                 potestatem                    and power                                             

                                                 dissolvit et glaciem      it melts them like ice

                                                 Sors immanis               fate - monstrous

                                                 et inanis                      and empty 

                                                 rota tu volubilis          you whirling wheel

                                                 status malus                you are malevolent

                                                 vana salus                   well-being is vain 

                                                 semper dissolubilis     and always fades to nothing

                                                 obumbrata                   shadowed

                                                 et velata                       and veiled

                                                 michi quoque niteris   you plague me too 

                                                 nunc per ludum           now through the game

                                                 dorsum nudum             i bring my bare back 

                                                 fero tui sceleris            to your villainy

                                                sors salutis                    fate is against me 

                                                et virtutis                      in health  

                                                michi nunc contraria   and virtue

                                                est affectus                    driven on

                                                et defectus                     and weighted down

                                                semper in angaria        always enslaved 

                                                Hac in hora                  So at this hour

                                                sine more                      without delay

                                     corde pulsum tangite  pluck the vibriating strings                                           

                                               quod per sortem             since Fate 

                                               sternit fortem               strikes down the strong man   

                                        mecum omnes plangite!     everyone weep with me! 

                                                                           

Herne The Hunter

An EXCELLENT scene taken from "Robin of Sherwood" series.

Below is an article (Click on the picture and "Save Picture As..." to read it. Its in a quite big resolution) about the legend of Herne The Hunter. The "Robin of Sherwood"series is also mentioned there. This article is scanned from SPEAR OF WODEN Mag #2 (Published in 2000 a.y.p.s.)

Conan The Barbarian (1982) - Behind The Scenes

Here is some rare photos (That float on internet since sometime now) from behind the scenes of the 1982 (Ofcourse!) Cult masterpiece "Conan The Barbarian".  

Golden Dawn - Thermopylae Memorial 2012

Viva La Muerte! - The Life of José Millán Astray

Biography taken from : Spartacus Educational

Millán Astray, the son of a lawyer, was born in La Coruña, Spain, on 5th July 1879. Astray entered the Infantry Academy in Toledo on 30th August 1894 and graduated as a second lieutenant two years later. After spending six months in an infantry regiment stationed in Madrid he went to the Escuela Superior de Guerra to study for the general staff diploma.

In November 1896 Astray left his course in order to volunteer for active service in the Philippines where a nationalist rebellion against Spanish rule was taking place. The following month he became a national hero when he successfully led thirty men against two thousand rebels at San Rafael.

After winning three medals for bravery, Astray returned to the Escuela Superior de Guerra in June 1897. He graduated in 1899 and by January 1905 had reached the rank of captain.

In 1910 Astray joined the staff of the Infantry Academy of Toledo where he taught military history and tactics. He missed the excitement of warfare and in August 1912 he was transferred to Morroco. Astray remained in Africa until 1917 when he returned to Madrid. The following year he began to argue that Spain needed a mercenary army to serve in Spain's colonies. Tovar Marcoleta liked the idea and in 1919 sent him to study the French Foreign Legion in Algeria.

Astray was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and in January 1920 was named head of the Spanish Foreign Legion (Tercio de Extranjeros). He appointed Francisco Franco as his second in command. The first volunteers arrived in Ceuta in October 1920. Astray told his new recruits "you have lifted yourselves from among the dead - for don't forget that you were dead, that your lives were over. You have come here to live a new life for which you must pay with death. You have come here to die. Since you crossed the Straits, you have no mother, no girlfriend, no family; from today all that will be provided by the Legion." Astray added: "Death in combat is the greatest honour. You die only once. Death arrives without pain and is not so terrible as it seems. The most horrible thing is to live as a coward."

The Tercio de Extranjeros quickly developed a reputation for brutality. Astray and Franco encouraged the killing and mutilation of prisoners. Arturo Barea, who served under Astray in Morroco in 1921, later wrote: "When it attacked, the Tercio knew no limits to its vengeance. When it left a village, nothing remained but fires and the corpses of men, women and children."

Astray insisted on leading his men into battle. On 17th September 1921 he was hit in the chest by an enemy bullet. He returned to action three weeks later and on 10th January 1922 he received a bad leg wound.

 In 1923 Astray was replaced by Francisco Franco as commander of the Tercio de Extranjeros. Astray was sent to France to study the organization of the French Army. The following year he joined the staff of the High Commissioner in Morroco. On 26th October 1924 he was ambushed by local rebels and his wounds led to him having his left arm amputated.

Astray returned as commander of the Tercio de Extranjeros in February 1926. He continued to lead his men into battle and the following month he lost his right eye when a bullet hit him in the face. In June 1927 he was promoted to Brigadier General and was given command of the Ceuta-Tetuán district. In January 1930 he was attached to the Ministry of War and eventually became a member of the Supreme War Council.

Astray held extreme right-wing political opinions. He fully supported the dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera and was dismayed by the abdication of Alfonso XIII and the establishment of a Republican government. In October 1934 he supervised the use of the Tercio de Extranjeros to repress the left-wing insurrection in Asturias. He later told a journalist that he was involved "a frontier war against socialism, communism and whatever attacks civilization in order to replace it with barbarism".

Involved in the military uprising against the Popular Front government in July 1936. On the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War Astray was recruited by General Francisco Franco to join his staff in Seville. Soon afterwards he was placed in charge of the Nationalist propaganda operation. Astray also played an important role in persuading other senior officers that Franco should become commander of the Nationalist Army and chief of state of Spain. In his speeches Astray openly claimed that he wanted to establish a fascist government in Spain.

At a speech in Salamanca on 12th October 1936 he told the audience: "Catalonia and the Basque Country are two cancers in the body of the nation! Fascism, Spain's remedy, comes to exterminate them, slicing healthy, living flesh like a scalpel."

During the Second World War Astray was a great supporter of Nazi Germany. He encouraged men to join the Blue Division that fought with the German Army on the Eastern Front. Astray hoped that an Axis victory would lead to a new Spanish Empire in Africa. After the war Astray went into retirement. Millán Astray died of a heart-attack on 1st January 1954.