German black metallers, Dark Fortress, have announced that they are currently putting finishing touches to their eighth studio album.

Guitarist and producer V. Santura comments: “We have been working intensely on our new album over various sessions in the last couple of months. The title will be Spectres From The Old World. We decided to keep quite silent and vague about the process but now the recordings are basically completed. We have just finished recording all of the lead vocals with Morean on Monday, and only a few last details and two guitar solos are missing. Again, I am blown away by the power and versatility of Morean’s vocals. Spectres From The Old World will probably be perceived as less “progressive” than its two predecessors Venereal Dawn and Ylem, but it is more compact, super intense and I love the sheer power and dark energy it bursts forth.”

The album will be mixed and mastered in October and early November at Woodshed Studio in Germany and released worldwide via Century Media in late February 2020. More news will follow.

Furthermore, the classic third Dark Fortress album, Stab Wounds (2004), will be re-released via Century Media Records on November 22nd.

“I am more than excited that our third album Stab Wounds will finally be re-released. This has been long overdue since the album hasn’t been available for more than half a decade now, neither on CD or vinyl nor even on any digital platform such as Spotify. Stab Wounds has always maintained a huge significance for us as a band and I see it as the album that really defined the style and core of Dark Fortress’ sound for the first time. With the re-release of Stab Wounds and the previous re-releases of our first two albums in 2017, our whole discography is finally available again. Century Media did a great job in giving the re-release a classy and noble design and I am especially enthused about the remastering which makes this the ultimate release of Stab Wounds in my opinion.”

As a first taste for what is about to come the track “Despise The ‘Living’’’ is released today: “I was honestly a bit surprised that Century Media picked the song 'Despise The Living' as the first song to promote Stab Wounds. 'Despise The Living' hasn’t been part of our live repertoire for ages while we still play a bunch  of other songs of “Stab Wounds” quite regularly. 'Despise The ‘Living’’' feels like one of our “forgotten” songs to me, but I like the idea that it receives some attention again. On Stab Wounds all lyrics were written by our vocalist Azathoth at the time, but 'Despise The Living' was the first song that I ever composed entirely for Dark Fortress. I remember it was an incredibly hot summer day in 2002 which is quite the opposite to its very “icy” vibe, but it also displays quite some fire and enthusiasm.”

Check out the remastered version of “Despise The ‘Living’" below, or via Spotify.

Stab Wounds will be released as Gatefold 2LP, Limited Edition CD Digipak and digital album. Strictly limited silver vinyl (100 copies) and transparent blue (200 copies) are available at the Century Media Store, here.

Order/stream/download here.

Stab Wounds tracklisting:

"Iconoclasm Omega"
"Self Mutilation"
"Stab Wounds"
"When 1000 Crypts Awake"
"Despise the 'Living'"
"A Midnight Poem"
"Rest in Oblivion"
"Vanitas... No Horizons"
"Like a Somnambulist in Daylight's Fire"
"Sleep!"
"Endtime"

“Despise The ‘Living’":

Dark Fortress are:

Morean - Vocals
V. Santura - Guitars
Asvargr - Guitars
Phenex - Keyboards
Seraph - Drums