2024 Line Up
Vemod
Please welcome VEMOD - one of the most promising and visionary bands of the vibrant, eclectic contemporary metal underground - to the Fortress 2024 line-up!
The trio has recently risen from the dead and chiselled their incredible sophomore full-length album, "The Deepening" from the same sonic granite that its predecessor, "Venter på stormene" came from over a decade ago.
Domhain
Please welcome the final band to be announced for Fortress 2024! DOMHAIN blend doom and atmospheric black metal, progressive and post-metal into long-form songs filled with myths and remembrances.
The band's recently released mini-album, "Nimue" ft. Jo Quail is ethereal metal at its best, anchored by the band's unique dynamics and vocal harmonies.
"We have all been looking at Fortress Festival's incredible lineup with awe and we can't express how happy we are to be invited to this amazing event. This will be our first show in the UK Mainland and we are looking forward to playing some new tunes there, meeting everyone and sharing the stage with bands we love."
Der Weg Einer Freiheit
Progressive, avant-garde black metal experimentalists DER WEG EINER FREIHEIT have never stopped smashing through the boundaries of the genre they’ve called home since forming in 2009. And after the 2021 release of their fifth album, Noktvrn, the band return to the UK for an exclusive show on the main stage at Fortress Festival.
Fluisteraars
Drenched in raw atmospherics and folkloric mysticism, and with three incredible full-length albums and many other EP & split releases in their pocket, it is finally happening; After 15 long years, FLUISTERAARS are coming to perform live in the UK at Fortress Festival '24. The band have only performed live once in their career, and besides their forthcoming 2024 performance at Roadburn, Fortress Festival is currently their only planned live show.
"After Iceland, we are looking forward to playing on another island. Again, an island full of mythical history that we hope to get a taste of. We will play a set with various songs from our entire oeuvre. We'll see you there."
Misþyrming
Please welcome MISÞYRMING, a visceral and unapologetic force from Iceland, to Fortress Festival 2024 to headline the Ocean Room stage.
Thy Light
We are honoured to announce that THY LIGHT will make their only 2024 live appearance in the UK at Fortress Festival. A beautiful fusion of depressive and atmospheric black metal.
"We are honoured with the invitation from Fortress Festival and the opportunity to manifest our art at one of the UK's most important festivals when it comes to underground music. This will be one of our few live rituals in 2024 and it will surely be a special one for us."
Ultha
After their mesmerising and emotional performance at Reaper Festival, we welcome our good friends in ULTHA back to the UK for a special one-off appearance at Fortress Festival.
"The overwhelming reactions to our appearance at Reaper Festival in July of 2023 are still vivid in our minds. We were so humbled and never expected such love from a place of this world we only played once before. If only we had known! But instead of grieving the lost time and missed chances, we are stoked to say: we are getting the chance to do it again, sooner than we expected and to an even bigger crowd, at one, if not THE, marquee festivals of the UK metal underground: FORTRESS FEST 2024.
It is such a tremendous honor to get invited back to play our third ever UK show to so many of you who never tired of asking us to play your beautiful island. Thanks to the Fortress crew for inviting us. It's truly an honor! We shall bring a special set for you all and play with equally as much heart as we put into writing the music we create. It will be our 10th anniversary next year and we said we will only play some selected and very special shows – this is a prime example. Fortress Fest, we can't wait and shall see you in June of 2024."
Waldgeflüster
Please welcome nature-bound and emotional black metal act, WALDGEFLÜSTER to the UK for the very first time. The band make their UK debut and only 2024 appearance at Fortress Festival.
Triptykon
Please welcome the first headline act to be announced for Fortress Festival 2024! Switzerland's avant-garde extreme metal act, TRIPTYKON. We are honoured to welcome the band back to the UK next June for a rare UK exclusive headline performance.
Tom Gabriel Warrior, one of the most influential figures in the metal scene and founding member of the pioneering bands Hellhammer, Celtic Frost, said: "We feel absolutely delighted and truly honoured to have been invited to return to the UK to perform at Scarborough's exceptional Fortress Festival in 2024. Anybody familiar with my extended musical path knows how important the UK has always been for me and my work, both in terms of influence and artistic progress. A concert on such personally sacred ground is thus always something I am looking forward to immensely."
Blood Countess
Please welcome BLOOD COUNTESS to Fortress Festival 2024! Hailing from the darkest corners of North East England, Blood Countess deliver a savage take on the classic second wave black metal sound.
"Fortress Festival is rapidly becoming one of the UK's most exciting extreme metal festivals. To perform amongst our peers and well respected bands is an unmissable opportunity for Blood Countess and as always, we aim to deliver an extreme, relentless and maniacal set! See you in 2024!"
Regarde Les Hommes Tomber
Please welcome the second headline act to be announced for Fortress Festival 2024! REGARDE LES HOMMES TOMBER return to the UK for a 2024 exclusive headline performance inside the Ocean Room at Fortress.
Mortiferum
Please welcome a towering and dreadful benefaction of atmospheric imposing death metal ruin to Fortress Festival! MORTIFERUM (US) will spew forth onto UK soil for the first time in 2024.
Gaerea
A mindful mélange of menace and mourning! Please welcome the dissonant and otherworldly black metal act, GAEREA to the Fortress 2024 line-up!
Wolves In The Throne Room
WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM will headline Fortress Festival with a 2024 UK exclusive “Two Hunters” set - this will be the first time the iconic and legendary album will be performed live in the UK in its entirety!
Wolves in the Throne Room said: "We are very pleased to be presenting our classic album Two Hunters in its entirety for the first time on British soil. We have chosen Fortress Fest to host this special event. This album is very dear to us and we are very keen to share it with the metal maniacs who will be in attendance."
Dödsrit
Hailing from the deep forests of Borlänge, and decaying concrete of Amsterdam comes DÖDSRIT, the final band to be announced for Fortress Festival 2024 today. The band make their UK debut and their only 2024 UK appearance at the event!
Blackbraid
Please welcome the much anticipated UK debut and 2024 exclusive show from solo indigenous black metal project, BLACKBRAID.
Jon Krieger of Blackbraid said, “It's official! Blackbraid will be coming to the UK next year, for the mighty Fortress Fest. I can't express how excited I am to not only bring Blackbraid to the UK for the first time, but to be doing it at such a unique festival, surrounded by some of the best black metal artists in the world. This will be our only UK appearance next year so we wanted to do or best to make sure it was truly one to remember. A big thank you to Fortress Fest for making this one possible, see you next summer!”
Panopticon
After their long awaited UK debut at the sold out Fortress '23, we are excited to announce that PANOPTICON will return in 2024 with a UK exclusive and ten year anniversary performance of their 2014 album, "Roads to the North".
Austin Lunn, the sole member of Panopticon, said, “‘Roads to the North’ was the sound of a young man, only 31 years old at the time reflecting on changes and growth in life, as the symphony of life plays on regardless of mistakes and broken strings. 2024 will be ten years since its release, and it feels like the right time to bring this album in its entirety to the stage for yet another time of reflection on the simultaneous, incredible beauty and horror of this time we have on earth.”
Furia
The return of FURIA! The band recently released news that the long-awaited release - "Huta Luna" album will be released on October 10th via Pagan Records. Fortress '24 will be a 2024 exclusive and their only planned show on UK shores.
Abyssal
Please welcome the UK's otherworldly and mysterious dark ambient death metal entity ABYSSAL to Fortress Festival 2024!
Fellwarden
Please welcome the worldwide live debut of Fellwarden to Fortress Festival 2024! This will be the band's only planned live show.
Fellwarden was a concept forged by The Watcher (Fen) back in 2014 to give voice to an epic, exultant form of black metal that nonetheless carries with it echoes of deep lamentation and remembrance.
Frank Allain of Fellwarden said, “Whilst Fellwarden was always conceived as a studio project first and foremost, I’ve always stated from the get-go that I wouldn’t rule out the prospect of performing live should the right opportunity arise. Fortress Festival 2024 is that opportunity. Nevertheless, Fellwarden will not be an entity that performs for the sake of it, that plays shows regularly as a ‘gigging band’. As a musical outlet steeped in narrative and atmosphere, it is imperative for us that anything we engage with aligns with this philosophy. So, as it currently stands, Fortress Festival 2024 is all that is in the calendar – and it may very well stay this way in perpetuity, who knows. It therefore promises to be a special performance and quite possibly the only opportunity to witness this material in the live environment.”
Lamp of Murmuur
Please welcome LAMP OF MURMUUR to Fortress Festival 2024! Few artists in recent memory have swept through the dark underground with the excited fervour that Lamp of Murmuur has achieved since first appearing with a string of demos in 2019. We are excited to announce the band will perform a 2024 UK exclusive show at Fortress.
Lamp of Murmuur's new album is a statement of might and power, destroying all preconceptions the project had made in the past, while also serving to cement its position as a driving force in modern-day underground metal.
Sunken
Please welcome atmospheric black metal act, SUNKEN to Fortress Festival 2024 and to the UK for the very first time. Check out their sorrowful, intense and extremely personal "Livslede" full-length album, released on Vendetta Records back in 2020.
Obsidian Kingdom
Please welcome OBSIDIAN KINGDOM to Fortress Festival 2024 who will be performing their 2012 masterpiece, "Mantiis" live in its entirety! This will be a 2024 UK exclusive show for Obsidian Kingdom with no plans to perform this album anywhere else in the world.
Taking part in the long-lived tradition of rock operas – from David Bowie to King Diamond –, “Mantiis” embarks the listener in an eerie musical trip, noted for the coherent exploration of a wide range of styles and emotions. The band spares no sound resources in order to portray the most varied scenes, from quiet despair to utter violence; meaning a bizarre step outside the boundaries of extreme music.
Obsidian Kingdom said, “We're going to bring ‘Mantiis’ to the stage this one time. And Fortress Festival seems the perfect place to do it, since the members of its organisation are so very keen on the album, and the UK being one of the first countries which would ask us to perform it back in the day.
Falls of Rauros
Please welcome FALLS OF RAUROS to Fortress Festival 2024! This will be the band's first ever performance on European soil and the only planned UK show.
Formed as a two-piece recording experiment in the final months of 2005, Falls of Rauros have since expanded into a fully-realized and collaborative quartet. Intent on exploring the common ground between black metal, rock, and folk music, the group’s collective goal is not to build bridges to connect disparate genres, but to chisel the raw materials of each into something seamless and new, rich with detail and texture.
Ante-Inferno
We cry aloud and the silence of the grave cries back – and all the aeons beneath our feet shudder as one. Please welcome ANTE-INFERNO to the Fortress 2024 line-up.
"We ready ourselves to return once more to the Fortress – one year since we unleashed our frenzied battle cry into the fervent horde that we found there within its walls of mouldering stone. We celebrate our arrival with more than mere words. We bring a new live performance with us. It will mark a year spent crafting and recording what will soon become our third full-length release. A year of leaning over the bubbling cauldron of life and death, invoking new, diabolic compositions into existence."
Andracca
After recently channeling his dark magic through a mixture of melodic malevolence, bleak fury, sinister atmosphere, and classic icy might via the release of his new record, 'To Bare the Weight of Death', please welcome ANDRACCA to the Fortress 2024 line-up.
"We greatly anticipate returning to Fortress Festival, alongside the strongest Black Metal line-up we've seen so far in the UK, armed with a brand new album. It will be a pleasure to play our part in the aural assault!"