Fortress Festival 2025 – Scarborough Spa, Scarborough, 31/05/25-01/06/24 (Live Review)

Fortress Festival 2025 - Scarborough Spa, Scarborough

I’m so happy to be back at one of the world’s best black metal festivals. I love it here at Fortress Festival, and I can’t wait to work through such a great lineup again. If you haven’t been here before, make sure you don’t miss the 2026 edition.

Last year’s Fortress was excellent. I saw every band available, with the exception of a mere few when I needed to find food, essentially. This year I’m going to try an adopt a more sensible approach, (at least from one perspective), and not kill myself trying to catch everything again. Having said that, I’ll still be trying to watch as many bands as I realistically can, while factoring in food, downtime, circumstances, etc. This year’s lineup is so good though, that every band is worth seeing, and in an ideal world I’d do just that. Regardless, we’ll see how we get on. And also, there are some bands playing this weekend that are just absolutely mandatory.

Before we get into it – as was the case last year, I have once again been blessed to be able to use the stunning photographs from the very talented Aleksandra Hogg, (which is why they are far, far, far superior to the photos I normally take when left to my own devices). I urge you to check out her work at Acidolka here, here, or here. Continue reading “Fortress Festival 2025 – Scarborough Spa, Scarborough, 31/05/25-01/06/24 (Live Review)”

Ahamkara – The Harrow of the Lost (Review)

Ahamkara - The Harrow of the LostThis is the second album by UK black metal band Ahamkara.

I’ve been waiting for a new Ahamkara album since 2014, which is a shockingly long time to wait for anything. The Embers of the Stars was a damn good album though, so now that a new record is here, it was not one I wanted to overlook. Unfortunately, it seems there was a good reason for this delay, as the promo blurb tells us – “Following ten years of silence after the release of their debut album “The Embers of the Stars” and the untimely death of vocalist Steven, Ahamkara return with a new lineup and new album “The Harrow of the Lost”, an unflinching exploration of the transformative nature of grief.” Continue reading “Ahamkara – The Harrow of the Lost (Review)”

Stormkeep/Winterfylleth/Saor/Ninkharsag/Arð/Nemorous/Cairns – Rebellion, Manchester – 05/08/23 (Live Review)

Stormkeep - Live Manchester RebellionIt’s a sold out show today at Manchester’s Rebellion, a venue I always like coming to. There’s a good atmosphere, and loads of quality bands to be had. What more could you want? Spoiler alert: today was an excellent day. Continue reading “Stormkeep/Winterfylleth/Saor/Ninkharsag/Arð/Nemorous/Cairns – Rebellion, Manchester – 05/08/23 (Live Review)”