[Photo Credit – Jørn Steen]

Watch the Astral Fortress trailer with an introduction from Fenriz.
From their formation back in 1986, to becoming one of Norway’s finest and enigmatic musical exports (with a number of highly revered black metal masterpieces released in the early ’90s helping to solidify their legacy), DARKTHRONE has continued to evolve and challenge in equal measure, throughout their illustrious recording career spanning over three decades. And now, the ever-productive duo of Nocturno and Fenriz continue their own metallic saga with a new selection of fine, vintage sounding headbanging classics in the making .. Astral Fortress

This new studio opus, due for release on Peaceville on 28th October 2022, is a swift follow-up to 2021’s Eternal Hails opus, as a result of DARKTHRONE’s consistent and ongoing writing process, which has been in force for some years now. For DARKTHRONE does not sleep – it only waits.

Carried on the brisk wind of eager rock, with foundations in black, thrash, doom and heavy metal, Astral Fortress is the latest album of stellar, eclectic old metal in the DARKTHRONE odyssey. With a seemingly endless dungeon full of heavy metal influences channelled through DARKTHRONE’s dynamic riff-machine, plus also with many increasing inspirations taken from their own past catalogue. Fenriz comments “As usual, Ted makes music by playing himself and riffs just come to me. I think since 2016’s Arctic Thunder, we have mostly been inspired by our own back catalogue. I can hear many of my riffs eventually sounding like a plethora of bands but this seldom seems to correlate with what others hear. As you’ll know by now I never talk about the lyrics or the inspiration behind them and I would never want any lyrics that I like of others to be explained to me but I will tell you this, it is darker than ever, it is seething with hell.”

Even though sprinkled with atmospheric touches such as synthesizers and mellotron on Astral Fortress to great effect, the DARKTHRONE sound remains stripped down to the core; always primitive and organic. DARKTHRONE has truly become its own beast within the metal world.

Astral Fortress was recorded at Chaka Khan Studios in Oslo, the same location used for the Eternal Hails album, with Ole Øvstedal and Silje Høgevold.

Astral Fortress tracklisting

  1. Caravan Of Broken Ghosts [07:53]
  2. Impeccable Caverns Of Satan [05:34]
  3. Stalagmite Necklace [05:22]
  4. The Sea Beneath The Seas Of The Sea [10:10]
  5. Kevorkian Times [04:27]
  6. Kolbotn, West Of The Vast Forests [01:54]
  7. Eon 2 [04:40]

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