24-bit / 44K HD audio master.

Formed anno 1994, German black metal act DARK FORTRESS have established themselves in the top ranks of the genre with fascinating full-length masterpieces that meet the standard created mostly in northern Europe’s prolific scenes with ease. For the past two decades, DARK FORTRESS have gone from strength to strength. Across seven full-lengths, the Landshut-based sextet stretched the boundaries of black metal, while remaining pure to the tenets of a genre that pivoted (and continues to do so) solely around the axis of the dark and all that resides hideously inside of it.

But right now, in 2017, it is time to look back at the very beginnings of this ambitious group by releasing restored and remastered recordings created between 1996 and 2002. “Tales From Eternal Dusk”, the band’s debut album released via Red Stream in 2001, was not touched notably during V. Santura’s work on such reissues but was expanded with a full disc of additional tracks: “When we finally received the official pressing of the album”, the current Triptykon guitarist and owner of the renowned Woodshed Studio explains, “pride and some sort of anger mixed: between every song there was a two-second pause, no matter if the songs were supposed to fade into each other or not, which sometimes interrupted the natural and intended flow of the album. Getting rid of these unintentional pauses was the only change I applied to the album during “remastering” it. As a bonus, we’ve included the entire recording session from 1997 for the “Towards Immortality” MCD as well as the 1996 demo to make this release a complete collection of our early years. The MCD's original release featured only the songs “The Cryptic Winterforest” and “Towards Immortality”, the third song “Emperor Of The Majestic Nights” was exclusively released on the very obscure “The Second Vision... From The Mystic Forest” compilation from 1998, and we wanted to make this song available to a broader audience.”

A visual revelation during the creation of these reissues occured when approaching the cover artwork of both albums. Painted by Kris Verwimp (Absu, Enthroned, Marduk…) and completely newly scanned in late 2016 for these reissues, label and band were quite surprised realizing the colouring of the original CD pressings was far from the actual art. “Tales…” had a severe purple touch, “Profane…” a very greenish one, thus with these reissues, fans can finally see all details of such beautiful paintings in their original colours! So, look forward to re-visit and re-experience milestones of DARK FORTRESS’ history.