Dark Fortress – Anthems From Beyond The Grave
(Live in Europe 2023)
It isn’t unheard of for Black Metal bands to release live albums, the almost mythic status of Mayhem’s – Live In Leipzig proves that, but it’s rare. Black Metal by its very nature will never be mainstream music. Most concerts are small scale and few BM bands actually perform live anyway, so here we have quite a rare thing.
Wonderfully evoking the 90s emergence of Melodic/Symphonic BM, the latest release from Germany’s Dark Fortress sets things up within the first few seconds. Brooding, atmospheric, symphonic; not in a pompous, grand sixty piece orchestra kind of way, in a creepy, haunting 90s keyboard strings way which creates exactly what I want from a BM album…. atmosphere. BM is a feeling more than it’s ever been a genre and by the middle of track two, Catawomb, I’m feeling it, and everything I love about 90s Black/Gothic Metal comes to mind: it’s as if 90s era Cradle Of Filth, Moonspell and the mighty Dissection had birthed some dark musical beast in the heart of the German wilderness. And well it should, because this is not a new band. They’ve been releasing albums since 2001 and I’m quite sad to say this is their final official release, but what a way to go.
All the classic BM elements are here; tremolo picking, semitone chord changes, arpeggiated chords, however unlike much other BM the production is excellent; no lo-fi “enormous reverb lost in the mountains sound” here, this is straight up in your face modern sounding metal and considering it’s live both the recording and musicianship are excellent. My only small criticism of the production is that the Snare Drum occasionally seems to leap out of the mix, but other than that I’ve got no complaints. Vocals are clear and prominent in the mix and most of the lyrics are quite understandable; that’s to my ears that have had many years to attune to this style of vocals, others might disagree!
Most of the material is exactly what you’d expect from a Melodic BM album but the band are not afraid to blend styles and genres. Isa, one of the stand out tracks for me, has clean singing and reminds me very much of the Irish band Primordial. Pulling At Threads, also has clean singing and contains a distinct Groove Metal breakdown that could easily be from a Pantera deep cut. Chrysalis, has a Progressive feel with swirling delay guitars, rhythmic displacement and time signature fluctuations, while Insomnia is melancholic and epic, and the Outro, Sycamore Trees, could be Tom Waits if he’d ever decided to record a Gothic Metal album! My only real criticism of the album is the song Evenfall. The vocals are not great here, but taking into account that the recording is live and the melancholy nature of the song, the less than stellar vocal performance actually kind of works and adds to the depressive mood of the track.
Overall this album is very good. It isn’t pushing the genre to new heights but it is giving us good songs and well produced Melodic, Progressive, Symphonic Black Metal. My only regret is that they won’t be producing any more music, but what a great way to end a career.
Rating: 7/10 – Very Good
Label: Century Media Records
Releases: January 17th 2025
Wayne McAloon | Now Spinning Magazine