It may sound a little harsh, but there’s absolutely nothing spectacular about the debut album by Germany’s DARK FORTRESS. This German five piece has choosen a rather safe way of getting their music out to the underground by presenting themselves the usual way – totally in black, with lots of corpsepaint and spikes. The album sleeve features a band logo by Christophe Szpajdel and coverart by Kris Verwimp, and the production was done at Studio E, courtesy of Markus Stock (EMPYRIUM). All in all this ain’t necessarily a release I would expect from Red Stream Records who usually go for the more obscure stuff. But you know what? I couldn’t care less as I still enjoy the material. The band’s convincing combination of Black and Death Metal partly even reminds me on late DISSECTION, even though DARK FORTRESS are certainly more atmospheric and melodic sounding due to the use of keyboards. But they seem to be rather skilled musicians and therefore easily manage to get you in the right mood throughout their almost one hour lasting roller coaster ride. Unfortunately an obvious mistake was made during the mastering (or pressing) of the CD’s as there’s little time spaces in-between songs that are usually connected and therefore certainly shouldn’t be there. But this is still far better than most of the hyped Gothenburg crap as it’s more dark and aggressive sounding, yet not lacking some memorable melody lines. If you don’t mind professional, powerful productions and a songwriting formular that was used in a similar way before several times already, you should definitely check this out. Good one.

The debut album of this melodic Black Metal band from Germany is brought again to life by Century Media with a new approach to the original cover art, remastered sound and with additional bonus songs. Originally released way back in 2001, this new edition still sounds fresh and powerful after all these years. The band is still going strong nowadays and some of their members went on to play with bands like CELTIC FROST, TRIPTYKON, SECRETS OF THE MOON or THULCANDRA just to name a few, so you know there will be quality involved here. Back in the day many people compared this to DISSECTION, MAYHEM and SACRAMENTUM and up to this day that remains the same. Still, this is a very good and competent Black Metal album that has many elements based in Thrash Metal like early SLAYER and SODOM and also many Death Metal parts in the vein of early MORBID ANGEL and DEATH with very obvious Heavy Metal references to KING DIAMOND and IRON MAIDEN as well. The band is capable of evoking emotions through their music as they do know where to add that melodic and melancholic touches here and there to bust into a sudden explosion of darkness and pure aggression. Vocally they do remind me a lot of the late Jon Nödtveidt and it’s obvious that they are also deeply influenced by the mighty Metal of Death we all hail in “The Somberlain”. Yet, for those who passed on this band this is the right time to rediscover this debut album, considered by many as their best. As a bonus they added their demo from 1997 and the songs of their split with BARAD DUR, in a similar style, probably more Black Metal sounding although with rawer production values. Also this has been re-released in a double vinyl edition, but it differs a bit from the original double vinyl released 16 years ago as in the original there were some cover songs (by UNANIMATED and EMPEROR) as bonus but no demo nor split track (those cover songs have been added to Century Media’s re-release of the "Profane Genocidal Creations" album – Frank). I am sure more than one will be enchanted to hear what the band is doing nowadays as they have already released six more albums, all of them in the same melodic Black / Death Metal style although the line-up changes and time have contributed in shaping the band with a more proper identity. www.facebook.com/officialdarkfortress, www.centurymedia.com