REVIEWED: Fortress Festival 2025 @ Scarborough Spa (Day 1)

As the mainstream continues to sink ever deeper into the mires of nondescript, heavily commercialised mediocrity, atmospheric black metal weekender Fortress Festival remains a superb, darkly cathartic antidote to the norm. Not least owing to its uniquely panoramic location nestled on the North Yorkshire coastline in an iconic Victorian spa whose majestic courtyard, sweeping, crimson-carpeted staircases and various reception rooms are, this weekend, playing host to some 1,750 extreme metal fanatics. Centring on an expansive selection of established and emerging artists spanning pretty much every imaginable facet of black metal in all its myriad frost-stricken, ghoulishly enveloping and airily entrancing forms, the festival’s third, hugely awaited instalment is bursting at the proverbial seams with some of the most darkly compelling and characterful talent the underground has to offer. And from the intangibly delicate, folk-steeped conjurations of Sylvaine through to the intricate, synapse-scorching riffery of Moonlight Sorcery and Abduction’s gargantuan, icily harrowing orchestrations, it’s with no small amount of eager anticipation that we plunge headlong into this tremolo-stricken smorgasbord of malevolent extreme music…

Nemorous

Abundantly steeped in the windswept, melancholia-laden atmospherics that made original incarnation Wodensthrone such a hauntingly majestic entity, Northern black metal collective NEMOROUS kick off proceedings with a richly layered yet bitingly visceral repertoire. With its rapid-fire implosions of blastbeats and diaphragm-rupturing howls erupting out of a sumptuously weighted tapestry of elegantly unfurling fretwork, the opening portion of their set is regrettably hampered by some fairly problematic sound gremlins. But despite this initially rather murky-sounding mix, theirs is a set unmistakably awash with elegantly crafted songwriting. Pulling together exquisitely glimmering atmospheric nuances and sleekly interwoven expanses of cascading riffery alongside a lacerating array of classically frostbitten extreme elements, Nemorous’s viciously energised yet stirringly evocative craft makes for an absorbing inroad to the afternoon’s festivities.

A few minutes into AQUILUS’s artfully restrained yet sumptuously enveloping set and it’s clear we’ve barely scratched the surface of the epic, genre-twisting artistry for which these progressively inclined Aussies are fast building a stellar reputation. Indeed, with a strikingly pared-back instrumental opening that sees lush, fluidly unravelling strains of violin spiral and dissipate ghoulishly into the ether, it’s precisely these intangibly delicate fine details that elevate their sound to the stuff of cinematic brilliance.

Igniting in a synapse-scorching inferno of livid, densely pulverising carnage and frantically whirling orchestral flourishes whose snaking, blackly intoxicating throes abound with apocalyptic enormity, ‘Into Wooded Hollows’ comprises a viciously compelling entry-point into the band’s ingeniously orchestrated performance. And from hammering, insanely propulsive blasts and bile-stricken screams corrosive enough to melt flesh from bone through to gossamer-fine flurries of piano that tangibly glimmer with ethereal beauty, these many innumerable stylistic shifts and transitions are handled with seamlessly cohesive mastery.

Aquilus

While the idyllic, sun-drenched climes of Melbourne, Australia are hardly renowned for their atmospheric black metal output, both Aquilus and blackgaze-infused ensemble SULDUSK are making a pretty compelling case for its contribution to the scene. Favouring a hauntingly transcendental aesthetic that sees gleaming expanses of Alcest-tinged fretwork unfurl before us in a profusion of shimmering, kaleidoscopic intricacies, the electrifying chemistry that binds together this intensely melancholic collective holds the Ocean Room’s sizeable crowd visibly rapt from the get-go. Together with a folk-drenched wealth of lush, tenderly evocative vocal harmonies and evanescent wisps of violin, the Australians meld together the various, stylistically expansive strains of their sound with fluid and audibly practised expertise.

Comprising an electrifying blend of wistfully entrancing neofolk and synapse-scorching extreme metal that witnesses ethereal frontwoman Emily Highfield plunge her lofty siren song multiple octaves downward into a bloodcurdling abyssal shriek, ‘Sovran Shrine’ captures a staggering multiplicity of moods and sonic energies. Absorbing a frantically contorting and ornate flavour that loses none of its stirringly evocative power throughout the track’s densely pulverising and frostbitten dynamics, fiddle player Hayley Anderson is a wondrously versatile and instinctive virtuoso. Capped off with an exceptionally moving rendition of Trees of Eternity’s ‘Sinking Ships’, these hyper-talented performers evoke all the crestfallen desolation and heartrending beauty for which this doom-laden masterwork has long been beloved.

Cloistered away in the uppermost reaches of this veritable labyrinth of historic music halls and assorted reception rooms, it’s easy to appreciate why ethereal Norwegian post-metal talent SYLVAINE opted for the cosily intimate confines of The Spa Theatre on her most recent, sonically stripped-back run of shows. Centring predominantly on material sourced from folk music-oriented solo EP 'Eg Er Framand', tonight’s strikingly minimalist set-up sees every lingering, intoxicatingly expansive echo and minute wisp of reverb amplified to electrifying heights of atmospheric intensity. Embracing a tremendously exposing, unplugged mode of performance that would incite nervous trepidation in even the most seasoned of skilful musicians, rather, this uniquely immersive and uncluttered context offers multi-talented performer Kathrine Shepard some rare, uninterrupted space to showcase her seemingly boundless vocal capabilities.

Standing unaccompanied centre stage beneath pale strains of stage lighting that render the vocalist intangibly luminous and spectral in the densely enveloping prevailing gloom, a low, ritualistic hum of church organ notes rises rich and sumptuously enveloping above the achingly suspenseful quiet of the auditorium. Letting loose a luscious, tenderly affecting stream of vocalisations that swirl and dissolve into the surrounding half-darkness like the most exquisitely delicate of transcendental vapours, old folk ballad ‘Eg Er Framand’ comprises a monumental summoning of feeling. Imbuing every tautly sustained note and airily flourishing crescendo with limitless volumes of unflinchingly raw, unbridled emotion, Shepard offers up a uniquely ethereal and atmosphere-laden interpretation of these timeless, centuries-old classics.

Peppered with a smattering of tracks extracted from the decidedly more metallic facets of her genre-twisting back catalogue, fan favourite ‘I Close My Eyes so I Can See’ combines luxuriant expanses of sultry, distortion-drenched riffage and frantically impassioned pacing to explosive effect. Forging an endlessly riveting repertoire that pairs wistfully sorrowful and ethereal soundscapes with moments of searing, untamed cathartic darkness, this is the unmistakable sound of a soul being laid bare before us in all its intricate, turbulent and tenderly affecting glory.

While 1349 may have long personified all the insane, blastbeat-stricken carnage and grimly putrescent horrors for which Norwegian black metal is globally notorious, tonight’s incendiary set is by far the most epic and definitive manifestation of their hellfire-scorched craft we’ve yet to witness. But despite amassing a towering, utterly ruinous body of work since first coalescing out of some of the most prestigious names in the genre back in 2003, there remains a freshness and palpable joie de vivre apparent in every lacerating, frantically battering inch of the Norwegians’ career-spanning set. And with a decidedly grandiose opening that sees guitarist Archaon and drummer Frost dabbling in a touch of playfully theatrical firebreathing as a host of ghoulishly echoing ambient noise floods the near-pitch blackness of the Grand Hall, it’s clear we’re in for quite the epic headlining set.

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Beneath a luminous, wall-to-wall visualiser depicting a host of livid, scarlet-hued cover art sourced from 2003 debut ‘Liberation’, a manic, multidirectional assault of sound barrier-shattering blasts and gargantuan, tautly muscled groove hurls us headlong into the joyously unhinged throes of ‘Riders of the Storm’. Performing at such a brain-liquefying pace as to render that of a machine gun positively sluggish by comparison, legendary sticksman Frost is on absurdly talented form, displaying pulverising power and meticulous pacing across the numerous, ceaselessly battering, weightily propulsive and battleground-worthy arrangements that comprise his inimitably ferocious repertoire. With its densely packed multiplicity of searing, staccato-laden blasts coalescing into a frantic blur of bewildering warp speed, 2016’s delectably ultra-violent ‘Slaves’ incites an instantaneous frenzy among fans. Together with a seething array of bone-scraping guitar accents and colossal expanses of thickly contorted groove whose ceaselessly churning throes abound with cold, morbidly engrossing horrors, both brutality and infernal darkness reside here in rich, exhilarating abundance.

Jumping ahead almost a full decade to the ripping, intensely sinister territories of monstrous 2024 long-player ‘The Wolf & The King’, and there’s an audibly darker aesthetic at work here, together with increasingly layered compositional variation and structured complexity. Via a deathly, militaristic procession of starkly percussive blasts, ‘Ash of Ages’s’ dissonant strains of ink-black, viciously writhing guitar pull us under with grimly inexorable magnetism, its scabrous, nightmarishly elongated throes palpably reeking of the grave. Elsewhere, ‘The God Devourer’s’ gnarly, tombstone-heavy grooves and riff-laden symmetries bring ample diabolical menace and majesty to the mix. Bone-shatteringly brutal, abrasive and stricken with sepulchral horror, this is classic black metal at its most uncompromisingly visceral and chaotic finest.

Stay tuned for Day 2 of our Fortress Festival coverage, coming soon...