ALBUM REVIEW: Spectres From The Old World – Dark Fortress

After six years on campaign elsewhere, the DARK FORTRESS garrison have once again coalesced to deliver the band’s follow-up to 2014’s Venereal Dawn, and eighth full-length: Spectres From The Old World. In lieu of the withdrawal of keyboardist Paymon, former live member Phenex – who has since been in the service of other notable black metal acts SATYRICON, IN THE WOODS… and THE RUINS OF BEVERAST – joins the DARK FORTRESS ranks once again. Stalwart guitarist Asvargr remains in formation alongside TRIPTYKON guitarist, engineer and producer V. Santura, flanked by human artillery-piece Seraph and ALKALOID frontman Morian. The machinations of the hyper-melodic Bavarian black metal project are once again in motion, and they have come forth with an album of exquisite atmosphere and refined song writing – once again reasserting their place in extreme metal’s inestimable pantheon.

The quasi-abstract artwork aptly sets the tone for an album which takes for its themes particle physics, cosmic machinery and ancient deities. The piercingly cold blue hues pouring out onto the igneous rock gives the listener every indication that they are about to delve into an icy and inhuman atmosphere of sinister beauty and cruel indifference. The album opens with the distinct bleating of Soviet satellite Sputnik, layered with indistinct radio chatter, and from thereon DARK FORTRESS lead the listener into blistering introductory pair Nascence/Coalescence – an early reassurance that the band’s intuition for melding melody with hostility has gone nowhere. Amongst the most striking qualities of Spectres From The Old World is the subtle yet masterful implementation of effects, keyboards and sampling which serve to enhance DARK FORTRESS’ signature hyper-melodic style without overshadowing it.

The result is an album which rewards close listening without demanding it – a masterclass in a restrained, creative approach to production and mixing from the band’s helmsman and engineer V. Santura. Another hallmark of V. Santura’s distinction as the band’s leader has been his skill in surrounding himself with talented individuals and galvanising their talents into DARK FORTRESS’ foreboding architecture. Morean’s virtue as a vocalist consists in his precise articulation which allows the lyrics to become the focus  of his performance, rather than relying on the obfuscating shriek more typical of the black metal style. The foil to this approach, however, is an emotively neutral delivery which is more mechanical than organic.

One very notable exception in this regard is his performance on lead single Pulling At Threads, which showcases Morean’s ability to incorporate cleaner tones. Given DARK FORTRESS’ laudable disregard for black metal orthodoxy, making more of Morean’s adaptability could only have benefitted the album’s song writing overall. Meanwhile, Seraph’s drumming performance is once again virtuosic: tonally agile and receptive, the album’s title track simply wouldn’t be what it is without Seraph’s highly developed percussive vocabulary – alternating seamlessly between accelerating the track’s pace, and creating moments of intrigue by playing around the rhythm and punctuating blast-beating passages with fills.

While Spectres From The Old World is among DARK FORTRESS’ briefer releases, it clocks in at just under an hour. To be sure, the album largely earns it’s protracted running time, and thoroughly explores the wealth of musical ideas which have accumulated over the six years since Venereal Dawn’s release – however, one can’t help but think that a compromise between creating a vast atmosphere and generating vigorous intensity here and there wouldn’t have been to the listener’s benefit. For instance, the anthemic Pali Aike – which takes its name from a volcanic crater in Chilean Patagonia – stands out amongst the album’s pacier numbers and lends an earthbound feel to an album more concerned with the abstractions of physics and cosmic entities. Generally, though, the album tends to lose direction as it progresses. In Deepest Time feels tonally disjointed, while requiem-piece Nox Irae doesn’t quite do itself justice in closing an album which has been all about melody and mostly about speed.

Aside from some structural considerations, however, Spectres From The Old World succeeds in reaffirming the band’s infamous melodic legacy: many individual tracks stand amongst the band’s best in their extensive back-catalogue, and one might imagine them being superbly rendered in a live-setting.

Rating: 8/10

Spectres From The Old World is out now via Century Media Records.

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