Fortress Festival 2025 Report: My overall experience of the weekend
Our Fortress is Burning…..from the hot seaside weather
Once again, I went for my yearly outing into the bright Yorkshire seaside town of Scarborough for Fortress Festival. This is the third iteration after two successful years showcasing a varied and multinational lineup of black metal. This year is no exception with another sold-out festival. It’s my third time coming down and it’s nice to see how this has become an eventful congregation of black metal fans from around the globe. After some immense fish & chips (which Yorkshire seems to do amazingly well with) and staring at the sea, it’s time to get into the bands I’ve seen throughout the two days, shall we?
Lovely congregation of black metal fans near the seaside at the venue!
Day 1
Starting off the festival on the main stage were UK atmospheric black metallers Nemorous, who were playing their upcoming new album entirely that hasn’t been revealed yet. I will say that if it sounds like what I heard live, it’s going to be a very good one when it eventually gets released. Great performance to open a weekend. With this festival, the main stage and ocean room bands don’t clash so thankfully people don’t have to make hard choices, unless you’re a fan of Darkher, Osi & The Jupiter or Sylvaine on the theatre stage that clashes with an ocean room band.
My first visit into the ocean room was when I went to check out Perennial Isolation from Spain who were playing their 2021 release, Portraits, in its entirety. They were very cool to see as their vocalist does a good job getting the crowd going for an early band. All around, very decent opener to the second stage. After this I experienced the UK debut of the Australian act Aquilus, who sounded great. The addition of a live violinist going to town always helps for this type of band and made for a lovely experience finally seeing a band like them.
Aquilus. Photo captured by Acidolka
Following that comes a change of pace in the form of black thrashers Devastator, who tore down the ocean room with their ferocious, iron fist thumping music. They opened the set with “Walpurgisnacht” from their latest album and plowed through other classic bangers such as “Spiritual Warfare.” It’s nice to change it up after starting the day with more atmospheric bands. Continuing this change of pace were Spirit Possession, who I could watch live any day due to how face-ripping they are. Just a full-frontal black metal assault, watching their frontman finger-picking and shredding through their riffs that work great live. One for the maniac types that enjoy their quick riffing black metal.
Devastator. Photo captured by Acidolka
After this was another Australian debut in the UK in the form of Suldusk. I really enjoyed how their black/dark folk blend sounded live. It sounded even heavier live and made for a fantastic performance. Another additional violinist was always nice to see and sounded so good—probably one of my favorite Saturday acts. After a much-needed break for food and revitalization, I went to check out Selbst from Venezuela/Chile. My god, they probably stole the show during this day as their atmospheric and dissonant vibes sounded big here. It made for a great performance that hit me by surprise as I didn’t expect them to go hard as they did, certainly makes me more of a fan of this act..
Selbst. Photo captured by Acidolka
After a performance like that from Selbst, it kind of made the last couple acts feel lesser by comparison. I checked out Ruïm, which is a solo project from Blasphemer of Aura Noir, Vltimas and ex-Mayhem. They ended up being a pretty solid act to watch; while not earth-shattering, I liked their presentation and the flaming torches that gave out a haunting, ritualistic feel. Finishing off the day were 1349 who for a more straight up black metal act felt fresh from the variety of acts I watched previously and ended up being a pretty cool performance. Then again, I do remember seeing them 9 years ago and liked them then too. Their aggression live is great, and the amount of fog blasts felt fitting for their music. They are one of the better straight up black metal bands live in my experience.
Overall, it was a good day; I was a lot more focused on checking bands out live but it was a good start to the weekend. It did also give me some of my favorite acts of the weekend like Selbst and Suldusk in particular.
Day 2
I started off the day with a bang at the ocean room thanks to the French band Belore, whose epic form of atmospheric black metal sounded lively and big throughout their performance. It was also nice to see a live flute in action and sounding fantastic throughout. It took me by surprise how much they hooked me into their show. Following this was my first trip to the main stage of the day and I will say, it did spark off what was probably a great day going forward with Dödsrit. They came out all guns blazing with “Irjala” from Nocturnal Will which, when they got to the epic dual lead sections, sounded bloody awesome. They carried through their great showing here with bangers like “Shallow Graves” and closing with “Celestial Will.” They had so much energy, making for one of my favorite performances of the many I saw on Sunday.
Belore. Photo captured by Acidolka
Dödsrit. Photo captured by Acidolka
After this brilliant performance from Dödsrit, I went to check out Autumn Nostalgie which was more of a cool-down after the previous act I saw, but I liked what I heard of them. It was a pretty cool showing of post-black from these guys as they were playing their 2020 release, Esse Est Percipi. I went back to the main stage ready for Moonlight Sorcery who were playing their first show outside Finland. They entered the stage to Final Fantasy VIII music and just ripped the stage down with their great sound of black metal with neoclassical guitar shredding. The synths were also present, making them an absolute force to be reckoned with. If they come to your country in the future, I would highly recommend seeing them.
Moonlight Sorcery. Photo captured by Acidolka
After a well needed break to re-energize for the rest of the day, I went back to the main stage for New Zealand’s Ulcerate. This band just absolutely crushed it with their consuming and atmospheric take on death metal. Being more of a death metal band in a lineup stacked with black metal made them even fresher. The dissonance in their music felt perfectly fitting for the festival nonetheless. They played mainly tracks from their last two albums but they sounded fantastic live. Into the ocean room again I went for Sweden’s Black/Folk act Grift as they played their 2015 release Syner as part of the album’s 10th anniversary. The atmospheric and folky vibes of this album sounded great live and made for a soothing and grandiose showing.
Ulcerate. Photo captured by Acidolka
Finishing off a brilliant Sunday was the headliner for the night, Agalloch who are back in the UK after 10 years. This was a brilliant performance as the Portland band came back with an absolute bang as they sounded big on the main stage that made for a great 90 minutes of Agalloch’s signature riffs and moments. The setlist was great as they played a good chunk of Ashes Against the Grain as well as some classics from Pale Folklore and The Mantle. “Falling Snow” was a blast to hear again live and finishing off with the latter sections of “Our Fortress is Burning” felt fitting given the name of the festival they’re playing. Everyone in the band looked like they were having the time of their lives too. A fantastic closer to what’s been another great weekend at Fortress.
Agalloch. Photo captured by Acidolka
While I saw less bands than Saturday, I felt like Sunday was more stacked and the more memorable day especially with the main stage acts such as Dödsrit, Ulcerate and Agalloch whose performances were just brilliant. That’s how insane this Fortress lineup has been the last two years.
Concluding Thoughts
Overall, another fantastic time at the festival for the third consecutive running as I got to see a load of acts that would probably not come to the UK as much (or at best, just a London date). I got to see the bands that I wanted to watch and delivered such as Dödsrit, Agalloch, Moonlight Sorcery etc. At the same time, I got to discover acts that surprised me with how brilliant they played live as well which included Selbst, Suldusk, and Belore. I got to meet friends from the country I knew and liked seeing that this was a global gathering with people that flew to the UK just for this festival. The area that the festival is held at is really nice too, especially on what was mostly a warm as hell weekend that is fitting for a seaside town like Scarborough. I’ve already sorted plans to come next year due to how good these weekends usually are, and they’ve already announced Old Man’s Child as a headliner for next year which is cool too. It’s certainly a festival that I would recommend people to go check out if they can.
