Spectres From The Old World

Venerated black metal specialists DARK FORTRESS return with a new album, "Spectres from the Old World"! After a six-year gap, Germany's darkest sons continue where "Venereal Dawn" (2014) left off conceptually, but are expanding DARK FORTRESS' musical horizons by descending faster and with spiteful intent into the cosmic abyss. Indeed, "Spectres from the Old World" is more direct, more aggressive than its predecessors. These musical themes play out fiercely in "Coalescence," "The Spider in the Web," "Pazuzu," and the pivotal title track. Here, DARK FORTRESS prove that they remain committed to black metal's netherworld spark. "Pali Aike," named after an actual Chilean hellscape, finds vocalist Morean marshalling his bandmates to very center of time-worn volcanoes to an epic thrum. "Isa," in many ways the opposite of "Pali Aike," feels very cold, its dissonance and grooves inspired by antediluvian ice storms. The triumvirate is complete with the limpid black expanse of "Swan Song." At no time in DARK FORTRESS' history have they reached so far out into the darkness, only to find the domain of astronomy non-existent, the end merely an end.