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This was the debut from Dark Fortress, who this past year released the deeply impressive "Stab Wounds". I was curious to hear some of their older material, and had been told that this album was in fact superior to their latest offering. Like so many things I hear, this turns out to not be true, but this is still a really good album.

The style is not much different here, being melodic Black Metal in the general Emperor vein, only with way more emphasis on the guitars, and in fact only a bit of keys here and there for mood and atmosphere. As with most German BM, the guitar tone is heavier and more clearly produced than is usual for 'bathroom metal'. The songs here are epic and sprawling, with a lot of time shifts and complexity to the riffing. This does keep the tunes from hanging together as cohesively as they could, but there is still some headbanging, killer riffage on this album, and some very good leadwork that verges on a Gothenburg sound here and there. Overall this is more laid-back than "Stab Wounds", and lacks that albums fevered aggression, but "Tales From Eternal Dusk" is certainly a worthy album from a very good and very underrated band. If you like your Black Metal atmospheric, melodic, and more epic than blasty, then you should definitely check this band out. "Stab Wounds" is better than this one, but this is pretty damned good on its own.