Fortress Festival completes line-up for 2025

Fortress Festival, the UK's biggest black metal gathering, will return to Scarborough at the end of May next year for two more days of the finest underground picks you could ask for.

Having already announced headliners 1349 and Agalloch (returning to the UK for the first time in a decade for a special, European-exclusive show), as well as exclusive performances from Abduction, Ulcerate, RUÏM, The Great Old Ones and more, the festival have completed their line-up for next year. Joining the bill will be Autumn Nostalgie, Crimson Throne, Nemorous and British outfit Fen, playing their 2009 debut The Malediction Fields in full.

“The Malediction Fields era was an incredible time for us”, say Fen. “We were feeling our way through the genesis of the band, defining our sound and very much doing things on our own terms. It was an exciting period of discovery, experimenting with ideas, textures and ambience as we observed the post-black metal sound and ‘blackgaze’ scenes emerge around us.

“What better place to celebrate our history and perform that album in full than at Fortress Festival? An event almost tailor-made for the atmospheric, reflective-yet-furious ambiences we were looking to create. To do so with Agalloch as headliners – one of the first bands we ever played with and an act who showed us so much support and encouragement – just underlines how beautifully fate has decreed that this must happen! Until then – keep it bleak and cometh the hour, we will then bring the bleakness…”

Fortress takes place at Scarborough Spa May 31-June 1, 2025. Check out what happened at this year's event in our massive review.

Read this: Remembering when an unknown metal band sent Britain into a Satanic panic