During a bitter January week in the year 1995 Orlok recorded the third COUNTESS album, Ad Maiorem Sathanae Gloriam.
There is an improvement in songwriting on Ad Maiorem compared to the previous album, but it's still not songwriting that I can be satisfied with to this day. Looking back, I think the Revenge of the Horned One albums are the earliest that I'm still satisfied with today as far as the songwriting goes.
The sound was the major step up from the first two albums. That was only logical, since instead of the primitive equipment used to record these, Ad Maiorem was recorded in a real studio. This was actually my first experience with a real studio and it was an entertaining, if sometimes somewhat difficult, and educating experience. The main reason the album turned out sounding well was that the engineer really tried to do a good job. He was kind of a pop singer; I think he had a minor hit single in the 70s or so, without any experience with metal, let alone this kind of extreme metal.
Nevertheless, he tried to understand the music and he was very constructive. I would have loved to work with him again, and in fact I tried to call him when time came to record The Book of the Heretic, but it turned out he had moved in the meantime and I couldn't track him down, which is a real shame because I'm confident that The Book would have been an incredible record had it been recorded in the same studio and with that same engineer as Ad Maiorem.
- Orlok / Countess interview, Heathen Harvest, 2013
I am eternal hatred...
I am fire and I am ice...
I have thousands of names...
I only laugh at your puny cries...