I'm hearing that the London show on december 20th will NOT be in Shepherd's Bush Empire but in the O2 Academy Islington. Hope to see you there!

So, the big day has come! The mess that is called Dark Fortress arrived together with everyone else in Antwerp yesterday, in various states of sickness and mental preparedness. Hof ter Lo is an awesome club, and the show went very well. It's a great honor to be a part of this apocalypse on wheels, and we're psyched to hear from the mighty Frost himself that they wanted a good package and chose us for it.
Both Shining and Satyricon have been influential in the history of Dark Fortress, so to be summoning the blackness together in a union of powerful music and personalities feels fantastic.
Yesterday we also played the live premiere of The Valley, which was particularly exciting since we had never (!) played it together until we went on stage. But it went well, and we know we can trust each other blindly on stage.
Today we will support headliners Shining in Alkmaar, and we're happy to finally play in The Netherlands again, even if it's just for this one show. But we will be back in Seraph's and my home territory in February on a headlining tour. By the way, the new Merch is in and we are selling it at the shows. More info how to order it will follow soon.

So see you around! Don't miss this tour, it has all the makings of becoming something to remember.

greetings, Morean

To clear things up:
Dark Fortress will not play at the Eindhoven Metal Meeting on the 19th of december. Despite the rest of the line-up of the Finale in Black tour - Satyricon, Shining and Posthum - playing this show, we will play at Ketzer Fest (www.ketzer-fest.de) in Essen/Germany this day instead.
Hope to see you there!

Contrary to the last DARK FORTRESS album “Eidolon”, “Ylem” is not strictly a concept album; however, most songs have a common theme - invocations of the death principle from different perspectives. “Ylem" is the term for the state of the elements before the Big Bang; in alchemy, it refers to the primordial matter from which all elements were created. The return to a state of “Ylem” automatically signifies the end of everything that exists now. There is a spark of life in every living cell, but also a seed of entropy and death. The insignificance of the feeble evolutionary detour that is man is evident, for our future is clear: we will be nothing but dust and bones on a scorched, lifeless rock waiting to be devoured by the sun. This vision is also the basis of Stephen Lenfestey's artwork for the album.

Musically, it is safe to say that they took the next step in their development - as DARK FORTRESS have always done. “We all keep growing as musicians, and we would never make the same album twice. Where “Eidolon” was a compact missile, shot to kill instantly, on “Ylem” we explore the stylistic diversity inherent in this band deeper than ever before. There is a lot of slow, very heavy stuff going on, some truly rotten clean parts, but also insane blastbeats, some orchestral darkness, and tons of killer riffs to break your neck to. It is our ambition that every song is its own world and has a strong and unmistakable identity. We exploited this ambition to the fullest here”, explains Morean (vocals).

DARK FORTRESS recorded in V Santura's (guitars, also guitars in Triptykon and Noneuclid, and former live-guitarist for Celtic Frost) Woodshed studio without any outside influences or distractions.

“Ylem” will be out on the following dates:
Germany/Austria/Switzerland January 22nd, 2010
Europe January 25th, 2010
USA February 9th, 2010

For a first taste the band has revamped their myspace and based it on the aforementioned artwork as well as launched the titletrack of the album. However, more songs will be revealed soon, as the band will be playing several on their upcoming tour with Satyricon, Shining and Posthum in December.

FINALE IN BLACK-Tour
Satyricon, Shining, DARK FORTRESS, Posthum
02.12.2009 (B) Antwerp - Hof Ter Lo
03.12.2009 (NL) Alkmaar - Victorie *
04.12.2009 (F) Paris - Trabendo
05.12.2009 (D) Essen - Turock
06.12.2009 (CH) Pratteln - Z7
07.12.2009 (D) Munich - Backstage
08.12.2009 (I) Bologna - Estragon
09.12.2009 (SL) Ljubljana - Channel Zero *
10.12.2009 (A) Vienna - Szene Wien
11.12.2009 (SK) Spišská Nová Ves - Cultural Hall
12.12.2009 (CZ) Prague - Abadon
13.12.2009 (PL) Krakow - Studio Club
14.12.2009 (D) Hamburg - Markthalle
15.12.2009 (DK) Aarhus - Train
16.12.2009 (D) Osnabrück - N8
17.12.2009 (D) Frankfurt - Batschkapp
18.12.2009 (D) Glauchau - Alte Spinnerei
19.12.2009 (D) Essen - Zeche Carl, Ketzer Fest **
20.12.2009 (GB) London - Shepherd's Bush Empire
* without Satyricon
** DARK FORTRESS, Forgotten Tomb, Corpus Christi and others

After months of intense songwriting DARK FORTRESS entered V. Santura's Woodshed Studio a couple of days ago to start laying down the drum tracks for their 6th, still untitled studio album. The follow up to 2008’s acclaimed album “Eidolon” is scheduled to be released in early 2010 via Century Media Records.

V. Santura further comments: "The recordings are going very smooth so far and the drums sound just fantastic. Seraph is doing a really great job. This time we are aiming for a more natural and dynamic sound in order to keep all musical details, a certain raw dirt and personality that most modern productions lack of. Our upcoming album is going to be very diverse and probably the heaviest material we ever wrote."

Due to personal reasons Draug is forced to cancel his appearance at our gig at the Welt in Trümmer Festival on the 7th of March.
Original bass player Njord, who played on the "Rebirth of the Dark Age" Demo and "Towards Immortality" Split CD, will be his sub for that gig. It's very cool to have him play for Dark Fortress again, after all these years...
So be there, it might be a very unique occasion...!
Cheers,
DF

Here is a link to Morean's second blog - "Lies, pt.1: Sex, Drugs & Rock'n'Roll" -  for headbangersblog.mtv.com:

Sex, Drugs & Rock'n'Roll

You can check out the first blog about The Necronomicon here:

The Necronomicon

For all those who wonder what happened to Draug:

We had to play our last 2 shows - at club Underworld in Athens/Greece and Summer Nights Festival in Austria - with session bass-player Joe of the band Sleep Is Wrong (where he plays together with Seraph; myspace.com/mehothra), since Draug was not able to play those shows for personal reasons. However, Joe is not a permanent replacement, and Draug will play all the upcoming shows again himself.

Cheers again to Joe for helping us out and doing a fantastic job!

It's great to finally present our fans the first-ever DARK FORTRESS promo video, which should be an excellent & sophisticated alternative to all the lame bootleg clips with crappy sound that are uploaded to YouTube usually. The "Edge Of Night" clip was filmed at an abandoned church and should captivate anybody with its dark and morbid atmosphere!

Check it out at our MySpace Site or on Youtube!

In a few days, there will be an option to see this video in a higher resolution on our official webpage www.thetruedarkfortress.com.

Despite all rumours, the Dark Essence Allegiance tour featuring DARK FORTRESS, HELHEIM& VULTURE INDUSTRIES will take place as planned, see below for the exact dates:

 

07.03. DE - Zella-Mehlis - Gasthaus Einsiedel
08.03. DE - Aalen - Rock It
09.03. NL - Rotterdam - Baroeg
10.03. UK - London - Purple Turtle, Camden
12.03. DE - Essen - Turock
13.03. DE - Ingolstadt - Paradox
15.03. AT - Salzburg - Arge Kultur
18.03. CH - Uster - Rock City
20.03. NL - Tilburg - Little Devil
21.03. DE - Lübeck - Treibsand
22.03. DE - Leipzig – Hellraiser

 

 

Attention British Fans:

There was some confusion about the show in London: The show in Camden Underworld had to be cancelled, but the show is still going on, but at Purple Turtle in Camden instead!