Darker Than Black

DARKER THAN BLACK Records (D.T.B.) was born in 1994 for the purpose of releasing a 7" version of Absurd's "Thuringian Pagan Madness". Due to a lack of funds, this release never materialized. D.T.B. lay dormant until 1996, when it became an official sublabel of Malicious Records for releasing limited vinyl editions. Only the Silexater "2419924" 7" was released during this partnership, as Malicious Records went out of business in 1997. In late 1997 D.T.B. restarted activity as an independent label with the release of "369793", the debut CD of Thor's Hammer. Several other CDs were released throughout 1998 and 1999. Plans were made for a number of releases to come at the end of 1999, from bands such as Thunderbolt, [a264707], [a248184], [a256353], [a256023] and [a260543]. However, in October 1999, German state security forces raided the D.T.B. headquarters. D.T.B. was accused of distributing banned (National Socialist) material in the form of music, merchandise, books, etc. The label was effectively shut down. The albums originally scheduled for D.T.B. were eventually released by Ancestral Research Records, among others, over the next few years. In 2007 D.T.B. was resurrected and has been releasing numerous titles, mostly Black Metal, in all formats ever since.