A trip through the dark spheres of the moments just before the reaper comes. When I listened to “Séance”, I finally understood why the human being has such a fading character.

Do you know the feeling when you insert a CD in your player, and already after the first few notes you are sure that this is gonna be a real masterpiece? This is exactly the feeling I had when I listend to “Séance” for the first time. 

Dark Fortress are Black Metal, oh yes, but not normal Black Metal. Avantgarde, nonconformity, influences from new Dimmu Borgir to old Burzum (mostly the slow instrumental-only parts), and a theme which could’t be expressed better than through this kind of Black Metal: Séance, the state between life and death, the moment before you see the light at the end of the tunnel (or probably don’t). And this theme always gets through when you listened to this more than an hour continuing album. Every single song has a very dark aura and spreads feelings such as sadness, depression, neverending hate, fear, the dark side of the human nature, psychosis – and agony. 

 

It starts fearsome, with a bizarre intro, subtile melodies, cold but beautiful, and it grows to a big construction of dark feelings, death and doom. Perfect the sound, “Séance” is well-balanced, but not overproduced in any way, thanks to Alex Krull and his Mastersound Studios. Majestic, melancholic guitar melodies dominate on “Séance”, even some very melodic soli come up, like in “CataWomb”, and there are keyboards, yes there are, but far away from standard Melodic Black Metal-keyboards. Subtile, atmospheric, discreet, spectral. One element of Dark Fortress, I have to mention especially, is Azathoth. Believe me, I have been in Black Metal for a long time now, but his vocals belong to the most morbid, the most extreme (in fact, they are not as hysterical as many others, but more hateful), the most possessed and the most expressive ones I have ever heard.

While the first songs are more the faster way, there are also some very slow, almost doomy songs like “While They Sleep”, which includes a transversal, hypnotic percussion solo-part, like a dying heartbeat, and also some fascinating, filigree, disharmonic appearing orchestral strings. Also the calm moments of “Séance” show a maximum of intensity, this album is a trip, a trip through the dark spheres of the moments just before the reaper comes. When I listened to “Séance”, I finally understood why the human being has such a fading character.

“Requiem Grotesque”, also one of the slower songs, includes a part which Varg Vikernes (when he wasn’t a fucked-up idiot yet)  couldn’t have done better (remember “Hvis Lyset Tar Oss” & “Filosofem”): Ultimate despair, the knowledge of the final end, and an endtime feeling, underlined by the hopeless screaming vocals. “To Harvest The Artefacts of Mockery” is again a fast Black Metal-monster, black lava flows out of the boxes, hateful verses are spread through superb guitars and a booming bass, while “Poltergeist” includes the best leadguitars on the whole album and a great spectrum of tempo variability. “Revolution: Vanity” then shows the darkest side of Dark Fotress, slowly, melancholic melodies, dodgy rhythms, the pulse of Avantgarde. A black soul tries to exlpain itself. “Incide” is the most special track on “Séance”: the sound of a heartbeat in the background and in front hysterical, fearsome screams, stertorous breathing, yelling in agony, downfall of a human body who’s arrived at his last moments. Fantastic acoustic moments appear in “Shardfigures”, subtile, and manic, very manic, in the vein of bands like the glorious Shining, before heaviness returns. The last hymn, “Insomnia”, which closes the ceremony, is again faster, more aggressive, but not less intensive and shows one more time the ability of Dark Fortress to compose melodies for eternity, melodies, dark, deep and down.

Definitely, “Séance” is a source of black energy, and I know we foremost have January, but this album will be one of my favourite ones in 2006. Dark Fortress have risen from the underground and have found their own way of Black Metal, their own way of expressing their being. Dark art on a very high level of energy, authenticity, individuality and force of expressiveness. And most important: Dark Fortress could give the Black Metal-scene a new impulse.