2025 Line Up
Agalloch
AGALLOCH will headline next year's Fortress Festival with a 2025 European Exclusive show!
"We have not played England since 2015 and have no dates in Europe for 2024. This is why we are so excited to make our return to England at Fortress Fest 2025 in Scarborough. This will be an exclusive European show for 2025 and we will make it a special one! Thank you Fortress Fest for inviting us and we look forward to meeting all of you in the near future!”
Ruïm
We welcome RUÏM to the Fortress '25 line-up and to the UK for the first time for a 2025 exclusive performance!
Formed in 2020 by the Norwegian born, Grammy award-winning guitarist Blasphemer (Rune Eriksen) known from acts such as VLTIMAS and THE TRUE MAYHEM. The band's debut record, ‘Black Royal Spiritism’ is steeped in ominous and eerie, unnerving darkness, and was amongst 2023's best outputs.
Ulcerate
Please welcome unorthodox Death Metal pioneers, ULCERATE to the Fortress '25 line-up! These unparalleled Death Metal titans recently released “Cutting The Throat Of God”, a mind-bending seventh album. Ulcerate will perform on the main stage at Fortress 2025 with a UK exclusive performance for the event.
Forteresse
FORTERESSE make their triumphant return at Fortress Festival 2025!
After nearly two decades of existence and multiple masterpiece full-length album releases, the Canadian black metal band return from their ice-cold slumber to perform on Fortress '25's main stage.
Spirit Possession
Please welcome SPIRIT POSSESSION, a new raw and erratic black heavy metal entity, to the Fortress 2025 line-up! The band emerged from their old school origin depths in 2023 and released a killer second full length record, “Of the Sign…’, six schizo spiraling, deranged hymns of Black Heavy Metal from a lost time.
The Great Old Ones
Channelling the spirit and literary heritage of author H.P. Lovecraft, French Atmospheric black metallers THE GREAT OLD ONES will perform at Fortress 2025.
Belore
Please welcome BELORE to the Fortress 2025 line-up. BELORE is an epic Black Metal project directly influenced by bands like Summoning, Caladan Brood, Emyn Muil and Moonsorrow, as well as various heroic fantasy and medieval worlds.
Perchta
Taking their name from an alleged pagan goddess, PERCHTA were conceived in Tyrol, Austria in 2017 with an aim to preserve and rejuvenate regional traditions. The band makes their UK debut at Fortress 2025!
Akhlys
Following 2020's widely-worshipped "Melinoë" and the recent release of "House of The Black Geminus", AKHYLS, the world's premier channelers of abyssal nightmare, return triumphant to the UK in 2025 to perform at Fortress Festival
Created by Naas Alcameth (Nightbringer, Bestia Arcana) in 2009 to serve as a voice for the muse that arises from the dark lands between death and dreams through chilling ambient darkness.
"Akhlys is honored to take part in Fortress Fest 2025. We will bring our brand of darkness to a region we have never been before, and I couldn't think of a more fitting festival to do this."
Grift
GRIFT return to the UK with a full live band to perform a UK exclusive 10 year anniversary album set of the debut album, "Syner".
"Grift’s ambition is to evoke the mood some people are in great need of; the mood you can’t express through other mediums than music, images, and in some cases even through words. This kind of escapism is about breaking the chains of everyday given norms, and for a short moment becoming a stranger lost in a state of uncertain homelessness."
Perennial Isolation
Atmospheric and ice-cold black metallers, PERENNIAL ISOLATION will come to the UK for the first time to perform their excellent 2021 album, "Portraits" in full at Fortress 2025.
Selbst
After the recent release of his incredible album, "Despondency Chord Progressions", we welcome SELBST to Fortress Festival 2025, and to the UK for the first time.
"This is a great opportunity for Selbst. Personally, and on behalf of the live band members, we are honoured to be part of this experience! We look forward to sharing an unforgettable moment of introspection with the attendees at this gathering."
Moonlight Sorcery
Following two acclaimed EPs, and their incredible debut full-length album, 'Horned Lord of the Thorned Castle' in 2023, we are very proud to announce the first ever live show for MOONLIGHT SORCERY.
"The slumber in frost and cold is over. We are honored to perform at the Fortress Festival as our first international show and we are looking forward to sharing this moment with the audience. It is time to present our Majestic Symphonies of the Nightside!"
Expect nothing but an ice cold blizzard that will conquer your castles, crumble your towers and withhold the daylight forever!
Aquilus
Please welcome AQUILUS to Fortress Festival 2025.
Formed in 2004 by solo-composer Horace Rosenqvist, Aquilus masterfully blends classical music with folk and metal. This will be the first international booking for the band outside of Australia.
"This will be the first time that Aquilus performs in the UK. More than a decade after the debut release of 'Griseus', and upon the release of the new 'Bellum' opuses, Aquilus is finally heading abroad. We're looking forward to playing Fortress 2025."
Suldusk
Please welcome SULDUSK to Fortress Festival 2025.
Formed in 2016 by Emily Highfield, solo-composer of the band, Suldusk weaves a synthesis of dark folk, post rock and atmospheric black metal that creates a resonance which alights both the shimmers and the shadows from the deepest woodlands.
Abduction
Formed in 2016 as a shadowy single-man entity and since expanded into a full live band, ABDUCTION have carved a fearsome reputation in the UK for themselves as a standout act in an increasingly crowded extreme metal scene. We welcome the band to Fortress Festival's main stage to perform their currently unreleased new album.
"Fortress Festival! Abduction returns with glorious elation to the shores of Scarborough. Six of the most desperate and newest hymns of virtue, truth and legacy shall be spat forth in the main theatre in our most inordinate and vital celebration of death yet!" A|V
Devastator
Black Thrash/Speed Metal supremacy hailing from the United Kingdom and currently taking Europe by storm! Please welcome DEVASTATOR to Fortress Festival 2025.