Dark Fortress - Stab Wounds

Band/artist - Dark Fortress
Genre(s) - Black metal
Origin - Germany
Album - Stab Wounds
Year of release - 2004

Once one of my most favourite albums in the genre, I've kinda neglected Stab Wounds and Dark Fortress itself for the last couple of years in favour of a more atmospheric style of black metal. Chronically positioned in between two symphonic albums and two more modern-ish, even slightly progressive releases, Stab Wounds is neither symphonic nor altogether modern. It's simply well-polished, tightly played black metal, generally seething with anger and with with a knack for glorious riffs that rage, rip and tear - see for instance Stab Wounds or definite highlight Rest in Oblivion - while employing darker harmonies in the slower, DSBM-influenced Like A Somnambulist in Daylight's Fire or A Midnight Poem. Still it's remarkably accessible in comparison to what I usually post and while it may never reach quite the intensity of a Lunar Aurora or a Nagelfar (album coming soon), it stands its own as a valuable addition to to any collection.

1. Iconoclasm omega
2. Self mutilation
3. Stab wounds
4. When 1000 crypts awake
5. Despise the living
6. A midnight poem
7. Rest in oblivion
8. Vanitas... no horizon
9. Like a somnambulist in daylight's fire
10. Sleep
11. Endtime (Katatonia cover)
    

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