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I have this huge poster in my room. It's the scanned and printed out cover of Cradle of Filth's "Cruelty and the beast" album. The person who did this for me has been greatly rewarded for this lovely gift.
The image shows a woman sitting in a bath tub filled with blood.

I found out the story behind this image only yesterday. Sam mentioned reading a biography of Elizabeth Bathory. The blood countess of Transylvania. I had heard of her, but had never heard of the stories I was then told...

She has been called every imaginary name from 'the first female vampire', a witch, to a demon - judge for yourself how serious these terms are to be taken, it was the 17th century, *everyone* was a witch.
What we may safely assume however is that she was a woman of an extremely sadistic nature. She is said to have murdered as much as 500 girls- preferably virgins, as her obsession with aging made her believe their blood would guarantee her eternal youth and beauty.

Some people would just call the woman mad.

But then it is generally claimed she was perfectly conscious of every step she undertook. I have read through several of her histories and found blaming her education is the most accurate way of explaining how a woman can possibly so cruel. She has had some rather odd experiences at a very early age, both sexuality and violence have always been familiar to her. She also might have been influenced by the frequent visits to her bisexual aunt, who always had 'plenty of available girls' around.

I have always liked the sceaming woman bit in Venus in Fair, part of Cradle's 'Bathory Aria'. Knowing now why she is screaming doesn't add to the song's charm.
I used to imagine it was about a woman screaming with both terror and delight as she was being raped by some dark, evil, undefined beastish power.

Because I think *that* would have been normal.

Read more about Erzbet Bathory

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~Quote of the day:~
I'm the kind of person living on nostalgy and melancholy. Living in and from the past. Not really enjoying the present. Afraid of the future.
Hans' diary.

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~Music:~
I dwell on the same. Nightwish and Mortifer. Um, and the jam and bread song has been popping into my head now and again.

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