We recently had the amazing opportunity to check out the glorious new single, “Lady Bathory”, from Derek Smith and The Cosmic Vultures. You can listen to “Lady Bathory “ on Spotify Here and on Bandcamp Here

Listening to the latest single, “Lady Bathory “ , from Derek Smith and The Cosmic Vultures, is a musical experience, that every music lover should experience, “Lady Bathory “ is a “flawless musical composition that will be instantly treasured.

An antagonistic and confrontational rock and roll composition that leans into the unhinged and blurs genre lines, all while adding a newfound snarl to Smith’s recent folk- and psych-leaning releases, “Lady Bathory” follows this past January’s silky “Hollow Choir” and a pair of expansive 2025 art-rock EPs in Temporary Circus. And it continues to extract a fire burning deep inside Smith as he opens up his creative soul to both complement and contrast all of the craziness in the world.     

The song is about confusion,” he admits. “We have come to the point on this planet where we don’t know what’s real or fake anymore. We can’t trust anything we see or hear. Everything is a fucking lie.” 

To illustrate the point, Smith cracks the spine on a history book and relays the tale of Countess Elizabeth Bathory of Ecsed, a Hungarian noblewoman and alleged serial killer once accused of torturing and murdering as many as 600 young women at the turn of the 17th century, inspiring several vampire legends and pop culture adaptations in the modern day.  

“She was accused of killing hundreds of women, mutilating them and bathing in their blood,” Smith offers. “This was clearly documented, but I wonder how much of it was true? I remember reading that she believed that the blood of these young women would make her young if she bathed in it. And uh, well, as the lyric goes, ‘I take a dip like Lady Bathory… and so… my life is so serene.’” 

Lady Bathory” takes some of the grand rock and roll ambition of 2024 album Opus and raises the stakes, extracting a newfound heaviness through angular guitars, a locomotive rhythm section, and menacing Hammond B3 organ notes that rise up out of the speakers through aural hypnosis. 

Helping Derek assemble this sonic puzzle were two significant collaborators in Erik von Geldern and Don Schweihofer, who produced and engineered “Lady Bathory” at their Berlin Audio Productions in Massachusetts. With Derek Smith and the Cosmic Vultures evolving into more of a solo project with key collaborators, this new track features von Geldern contributing guitars, bass and keys, while Schweihofer lays down the drums and percussion.    

“Lady Bathory “ reveals another breathtaking layer of the amazing artistry of Derek Smith and The Vultures.

More new music from Smith, with von Geldern and Schweihofer riding shotgun, alongside is on the way, leading to perhaps an EP or new album later this fall. But for now, it’s “Lady Bathory” who takes center stage, and her reign of terror some 400-plus years ago was the type of historical tale that gave Smith the inspiration to let his own rage burst out of the speakers.