The era of Dark Fortress in Black Metal witchery started back in 1994 when guitarist Asvargyr - after having split with his previous band Carnage due to musical divergence - wanted to pursuit a novel musical direction for himself. The band manages to sound mysteriously atmospheric, evil and unexpected and grabs the listener's attention almost instantly - especially if you particularly dig the Black Metal genre.
Even though this album is covered by a evil veil, they manage to sound melodic in some cases while their style is a mixture which can be compared to bands in the likes of Immortal, Unanimated, Dissection and Satyricon. There are clean vocals at certain points but the majority of the vocal lines come straight from Satan's large intestine (not to mention the pancreas of course). The typical Black Metal motifs in songwriting and drumming are also self evident here but these guys manage to have a somewhat unique sound of their own - being largely helped by the special production of this album.
The lyrical conception of the album tries to differentiate itself for the typical Black Metal theme and cliches by dealing with subjects such as paranormal beings, human vanity and other stuff like that.
There are many parts where the band sounds epic, combined with some Black Metal all mixed up in the unique Dark Fortress - style. It is quite hard for a Black Metal band to compose a unique masterpiece that will distinguish itself from the other releases of the kind. If you are a supporter of the genre or an experimentalist trying to dig into something new then these guys may appeal to you with their dark and haunting musical ideas and propositions.
The album's scheduled release is set for the 30th of January 2006 by Century Media. And now let me go back to my blast beats from hell...
- Album Highlights: Ghastly Indoctriantion, CataWomb, To Harvest The Artefacts of Mockery and REvolution: Vanity.