Human Fortress
Epic Tales & Untold Stories

We begin 2021 by reviewing something epic. Human Fortress comes with their most epic release to date, and it is called Epic Tales & Untold Stories. It sure looks like something very epic, and it contains some collected works through the band’s now two-decade long crusade. It is a 37-minute release with the previous untold stories that is the one we get as a vinyl; the CD contains a bonus disk with the best of with songs the band has selected very carefully. It should be mentioned that the vinyl has one bonus track that is not on the CD-version, and that I find a bit sad that they don’t make a combined CD-vinyl issue so you can get everything in one go instead of buying both versions. But it is really good that it is all priced as a normal release so the best of bonus disk is sort of thrown in for free, maybe it could have been included in the vinyl release. In this review I look at the double disk CD release as that is the one I have access to.

What strikes me first after playing through this album once is that it feels very coherent, despite being songs from such a long period of time and with different vocalists, everything fits well together. I guess it is very well remastered. The sound is good and the fresh power metal by Human Fortress displays itself through the many tracks, I like how they usually avoid the repetitive stuff that is often commonplace in this genre and that makes for better longevity. It is the first disk that has the most relevance considering that it is the untold stuff, some of it are reworked songs like an orchestral version and one with a different singer, but it is the disk that is most interesting to me. With 23 songs it is a bit much so I usually end a few tracks into the second disk, not because it is bad but sometimes it is a little bit much – but you can play one disk at the time if you want to.

I wish they had done an orchestral or something exciting to Lord of Earth and Heavens Heir to add more excitement to the first disk, as that is one of their real highlight songs and I think they should have taken the unedited version instead to start the second disk. And on the subject of starting the second disk, Knights in Shining Armour would have been great for that, but I don’t really miss anything on this release. And despite what I think of compilations, this is really good as you can disregard the best of if you like to – but why would you want to if you consider how many great songs we have here, like Defenders of the Crown, probably the best song by the band. I do however think that the opening track The Grimoire is the highlight for this release as the other great ones have been heard before already.

Well, if you want a great showcase of what Human Fortress is all about, I can’t think of a better choice than this double CD. Here you get excellent songs, some really epic tales and some untold stories as well. It summarises the epic journey of one of the absolute best power metal bands from Germany, a band that should have enjoyed much more success than they have and this is excellent proof of that. I bow to these knights in shining armour, they keep doing their epic thing.

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