There are times in your life when you’re compelled to hop on a plane for an unreplicable experience, whether it’s the stars literally aligning for a solar eclipse, the South African Sardine Run, or the birth of a child that you forgot you had. I can’t claim that this year’s Fortress Festival is in the same category as those events, but what I can say is that it is one of the most unique and intentionally curated festivals that any black metal aficionado should not miss.
If you’re not familiar, Fortress Festival is the brainchild of Gary Stephenson and the team at Reaper Agency, and has now wrapped up its fourth year of bringing the best of both black metal vanguards and emergent underground acts to the picturesque Scarborough Spa in North Yorkshire, UK. This was my first year attending, but the general consensus from the numerous repeat attendees that I talked to is that every year seems to surpass the year prior. As a testament to the quality of this festival, next year’s edition is already 70% sold out, even though currently, only Emperor has been announced as a headliner for 2027. I can only hope that my report of this year’s edition captures even a bit of the idyllic insanity that Fortress provides.
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As Scarborough, UK, is a relatively small and unknown town, I bookended the festival with some other metal matters of great importance, including seeing Thy Catafalque in Glasgow, Urgehal in Norway, and generally catching up with friends, all while nursing a sprained knee, a souvenir from Northwest Terror Fest in Seattle a few weeks prior. I won’t go into these sidequests, I’m not Rick Steves after all, but wanted to highlight one town that is worth visiting if you ever make the trek to Fortress–Whitby. Scarborough is nice, but Whitby is absolutely stunning, and if you’re flying in from somewhere that imparts some jetlag, I highly recommend spending a day or two there to either prep or reset from the festival. Every step and angle of the town is breathtaking, from the cornerstone ruined Abbey, to the nearby crowded graveyard, to the winding staircase that leads to a very interesting and solemn-feeling pier. In fact, Whitby is home to the “199 Steps,” which is referenced in Bram Stoker’s Dracula. I can see why this was a source of inspiration, there’s definitely a poignant feel to the place.
Scarborough is a short 30-40 minute drive from Whitby, and is a quintessential quaint British seaside town. It is here we start a weekend of world-class black metal.
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The debate on whether to attend Fortress Festival for me started around eight months prior. The lineup was undeniably strong, but with any overseas festival there’s always a question on the logistics, especially since this year, there was some competition from another North American festival I was eyeballing. (I’m very glad that Prepare the Ground doesn’t clash next year.) The announcement that tipped things over the edge was the introduction of a festival pre-show this year, with Wode, Andracca and Blood Countess on the bill. I’ve been wanting to see Wode for quite some time; 2017’s Servants of the Countercosmos is one of the most complete black metal albums out there, in my opinion. Compared with the gauntlet of some of the mass market metal festivals out there, I also consider an ideal length for a fest to be three days, so the introduction of a pre-show was quite the cherry on top.
The inaugural pre-show took place at Cask & Keg, a pub somewhat near the main venue. Fortress already has a small festival intimate feel, and the pre-show took that further, with a limited capacity of 150 people. I got there early, perhaps too early, as the queueing critical mass started around two hours before doors opening. Venue capacity was quickly met, and the only thing hotter than the temperature were the bands. I wasn’t in the best spot for the opener, Blood Countess, but eventually got a great line of sight for Andracca and Wode, both of whom provided an excellent, riff-filled opening shot to the weekend. All three bands are fairly familiar to the UK metal scene and are actively touring, but haven’t quite made it across the pond yet, so I was glad to see a cross section of the local scene. Andracca will be securing some follow-up listens from me due to their enthusiastic energy and Wode ending with “Celestial Dagger,” was all that I could hope for.
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With the venue and location being such an important aspect of Fortress’ identity, I arrived a bit early to scope out the area and gameplan how to get between stages. Scarborough Spa is prominently located on the coast, and is thankfully removed from the boardwalk busyness of the South Bay beach area. As it’s a bit isolated from the standard beach area, there’s not much to check out in the immediate vicinity beyond an interesting cliff funicular, which made elevated access to the afterparty bars a bit easier. Something to keep in mind is that although Scarborough has some quality places to eat, there aren’t that many interesting options near the venue itself. Thankfully, there were some solid food stand options onsite, and I recommend making use of them so as to not miss any bands between the 10-minute set transitions.
Groza
Opening up the festival was German quartet Groza, whose name and overall aesthetic is heavily inspired by the Polish black metal scene, drawing elements from Mgła, Furia and Odraza. Their performance was a sort of wailing, post-black metal easing introduction into the festival, which I can only describe as an awakening rather than an in-your-face blast. Fitting this atmosphere was their visuals on the background screen, which undulated with the music well, and emphasized the moment rather than the band itself, who of course were all enshrouded in hoodies. It was an appropriate contrast, introducing the audience to the spectacle of the venue, while maintaining a great stage presence.
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Black Cilice
I can now say that I’ve technically seen Black Cilice, although there was so much fog that it was probably the most audio-exclusive live performances that I’ve experienced. Seriously, I think the only other band I’ve seen with more manufactured haze is Sunn O))). This was an intentional decision, as the enigmatic one-band Portuguese band is known for their secrecy, refusing to even have any sort of personnel listings on Metal Archives. Despite this, they garnered a lot of anticipation and interest from people that I talked to, and I was personally curious on how the raw, lo-fi production of their albums would translate to a live stage. They were the opening act to the Ocean room stage, which reminded me of a modern ballroom with antique air circulation. I was surprised about the contrast between their studio albums and live show; the band was restrained and stoic, and the guitar had a fuzzy, grunge feel. I was glad to experience how different they are live, and appreciated the packed, sweaty frenzy of the Ocean room to showcase additional emergent acts that would follow.
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Mesarthim
One of my favorite parts of Scarborough Spa as a venue is the connecting area between the Ocean room stage and the balcony area of the main hall, which provides a great aerial view of the stage. Fortress has a mostly no-overlap schedule, providing 10 minutes between sets, which I thought to be a perfect amount of buffer time. I elected to watch Australian-based cosmic metallers Mesarthim from overhead, since I had a feeling their space-influenced hypnotic style of metal would be accompanied by some interesting visuals. I was right, but not in the way I expected in terms of using the extensive stage screenery. The visual creativity was centered around the band’s get-up, particularly the anonymous frontman’s swirling electronic mask. I’m actually a bit surprised I haven’t seen anyone slap some LEDs on a mask before, considering how much metal seems to enjoy this particular costume choice. Evoking a collapsing star, their mixture of electronic, trance, and black metal was a crowd favorite. My only complaint is that I wish their keyboardist was better lit on stage, as he had a heroic performance!
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Aeon Winds
I can’t claim to know much about Bratislava, but if Aeon Winds is any representation of the metal scene there, I have much to learn. Prior to the festival, I spent some time checking out their back catalogue, which is a varied, well-rounded mix of melodic and folk black metal. Out of all the bands I saw at Fortress, I dare to say that they were the happiest to be there, profusely thanking the audience, making themselves available at the merch booth and taking the obligatory selfie at the end of their set. They played a special set in collaboration with Midnight Odyssey in the back half, and some of their songs, particularly their third, reminded me of Windir. Aeon Winds has been around for awhile, and I hope they continue to build off of the momentum of Fortress to showcase their extensive discography.
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Intermission & Fuel
It is at this point that I unfortunately had to make the hard decision to duck out of Ossaert a bit early, as the activities from the night before required a higher than usual amount of calories. There’s a varied mix of food vendors at Fortress, including the return on Goth Burger, a crowd favorite for obvious reasons. I actually first caught wind of them as a food truck that had to cancel attendance at Damnation Festival in 2025, so I was eager to give them a shot. A consolation prize for having skipped what undoubtedly will be a set that I’ll regret missing, whose frontman’s powerful vocals were still heard in the outside atrium area. One thing to note; a fair amount of vendors either run out of food or wrap up before the last one or two bands of the night, so plan accordingly or tie some granola bars to your bullet belts.
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Akercocke
Perhaps the most death metal inclined band at Fortress, London-based Akercocke didn’t have to travel far to perform a full rendition of their Satanic, seminal 2003 album, Choronzon. From the second they took the stage, they matched an all-business attitude with an impeccable wardrobe, and brought an incredible amount of focus to playing this influential album in its entirety. As with the album, the set started off with a captivating video clip from the “Guardian of the Abyss,” episode of the Hammer House of Horror series, which was an effective way to capture the audience’s attention right from the beginning. It was nice to break up the grim black metal bleakness of the night with some traditional brutality, and it was probably the most riffing and solo-heavy set of the night, which yielded the first proper mosh pit of the day as far as I was concerned.
Something that was acutely apparent with this set is how different the sound mix was depending on where you were in the audience. The overall sound was very drum forward, which I always appreciate, but I chose to run around from the wings of the floor, to the center, to the upstairs balcony, and got very different sound profiles depending on the location. The main hall has a very wide layout, and my suspicion is that the side fill monitors made it a bit hard to hear the intricacies of what is a fairly textured album. Frankly, I was too distracted by keyboardist Sam Loyne’s theatrics too much to care, who punctuated much of his playing with the gesticulations verging between a conductor and a preacher, which caused me to chuckle a few times. A very fun set in a sea of nihilism.
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Dødheimsgard/Vikotnik Theater Talk
Dødheimsgard, and specifically frontman Vikotnik/Yusaf Parvez, holds a special place in my heart as I’ve followed his many bands throughout the years, particularly his contributions to Code’s Nouveau Gloaming and Resplendent Grotesque albums, which singlehandedly ensnared me into the black metal genre. I also was lucky enough to see him contribute to a special commissioned Hexvessel set during Roadburn 2024, and immediately saw his abilities as not just a musician, but showman. Following Fortress, I also was to visit Oslo for the first time, so I made sure to attend his interview with CVLT Never Dies scribe and archivist Dayal Patterson to understand his views on the Norwegian scene and genre as a whole. This occurred on the third and smallest theater stage, an intimate seated room that facilitated some of the band interviews as well as the dungeon synth sets.
It’s certainly the case that Vikotnik’s musical output has gotten to be more esoteric through the years, and in the interview he attributes this to the fact that his view is that black metal has always been about contrarianism. It’s an interesting perspective, as the first wave of Norwegian black metal embraced anti-religious themes, whereas today, they are common as standard tropes, which is inevitable as the genre proliferates. Another quote that led insight into his psyche is that in the early days of the scene, there were heavy battle themes, and that at a certain point, “You have to take off the helmet, and understand what’s behind it.” It certainly gives some context to the cerebral nature of Dødheimsgard’s music, and a portion of the interview focused on his approach to writing and rewriting music, as well as the complex logistics of assembling nine stage members to pull off the Black Medium Current set.
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Later that night, they put on a performance that’s honestly hard to put into words. Vikotnik paced the stage like a shamanic wraith, demonstrating the full spectrum of human emotion that the Black Medium Current features, from the gentle crooning of “Tankespinnerens smerte,” to the jumbled screams of “Det tomme kalde mørke,” and everything in between. It felt tightly planned and yet effortlessly unrehearsed, much like the unexpected twists and turns of the album. I was struck by the casual oddities that Vikotnik exhibited, from doing a spit take of what appeared to be a smoke pellet, to crushing up a prayer bead bracelet as an unceremonious afterthought.
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Accompanying the on-stage theatrics was a carefully synced video backdrop, which was neither psychedelic or unsettling, but somewhere in between. Everyone on stage was dialed in for this spectacle, from the trio of backing vocalists, to the keys and electronics, to the driving force of the drums and guitars. Dødheimsgard left much of the crowd speechless, and the end result was a deluge of social media and forum posts declaring them the performance of the day.
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Whoredom Rife
It is at this point that I came across my biggest regret of Fortress, which was not being able to match the energy level and intensity that a Whoredom Rife performance demands. I was left emotionally and physically drained from the previous set, and have been a fan of V. Einride’s work for a while, so knew going in that this was going to be a fast, aggressive and technical black metal exhibition. Unlike Dødheimsgard, there was no beauty in this set, just uncompromising, high energy Norwegian rage. Vocalist K.R. in particular did a great job of working the crowd, almost daring the audience to rush the stage and it turn into a frenzy with his mannerisms and vocal performance alone. A couple of their songs that I particularly enjoy tend to be on the more melodic side, and I was glad to hear a good representation of their discography, spanning from “Beyond the Skies of God,” to “Den vrede makt,” from their first and latest albums. I had mentioned that Fortress started the day with a subtle awakening, and Whoredom Rife managed to close out the Ocean Room stage with a thunderous, volcanic performance. It’s a personal failing that I had to observe this inferno from the side tables, sipping a beer and recharging my knee.
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Old Man’s Child
My universal question when discussing Old Man’s Child with attendees was what school grade they were in when they first heard them. I’ll admit, my CD-R copy In Defiance of Existence got a fair amount of spins back in the day. I have to give Galder a lot of credit for walking away from the commercially successful Dimmu Borgir to literally go back to his roots by resurrecting this project. Given the incestuous nature of Nordic metal bands, I never really followed what led to that departure, but my made-up narrative was that Galder, clearly skilled in composition, was itching to play and release even more music. This enthusiasm came across clearly with them closing out the night, playing a surprising amount from their albums released in the 1990’s and beyond. It was halfway through the set, when they played “Doom Maker,” when I realized that this was truly a resurrection of the project rather than an attempt to make the rounds on the tour circuit, as the band was in their element and clearly having fun. As the show progressed, waves and waves of nostalgia hit me, as I bobbed my head with imaginary Discman headphones on. A memorable end to a memorable first day.
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The last notes of “The Millenium King,” fade, and I step outside to see the last glimpses of twilight set on the North Sea. Black shirt silhouettes walk about on the sand, headed to the various afterparty bars, the Victorian funicular, or aimlessly allowing for the crashing sound of waves soothe a nervous system that has been bombarded throughout the day. Day 2 lay in wait, containing an even more packed schedule and a set of performance debuts that ended up yielding some surprise announcements. I got excited all over again, and opted to head to funicular.
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Special thanks to Jay Valena of Oskoreien for many of the pictures, whose work and music can be found here. At the time of publishing, Fortress Festival 2027 is already 70% at capacity, and information on lineup announcements and tickets can be found here. Day 2 will be published shortly!
