Fortress Under Siege - 'Atlantis' (official album stream)

Οι Fortress Under Siege δημιουργήθηκαν το μακρινό 1994 από τον Φώτη Σωτηρόπουλο μετά την διάλυση των Gladiators / Fatal Morgana (η ίδια μπάντα είναι που άλλαξε όνομα, τί ύμνος το "Close at Hand" που το πρωτάκουσα σε μία συλλογή του Metal Hammer;) και μας παρουσιάζονται κάπως έτσι:

«Fortress Under Siege hailing from Athens, Greece established on mid 90's delivering power metal connecting traditional and lyrical heavy metal with technical and melodic power metal.»

Οι Fortress Under Siege έμειναν ενεργοί για μία τετραετία (τους έμαθα από την κομματάρα "Legacy in Stone" σε μία συλλογή του Metal Invader) και επανήλθαν το 2010. Έχουν κυκλοφορήσει τρία full length albums ("The Mortal Flesh of Love" 2011, "Phoenix Rising" 2014, "Atlantis" 2020), ένα ep ("Fortress Under Siege" 1996), ένα demo - promo και τέσσερα singles. Εστιάζουμε στο πλέον πρόσφατο δισκογραφικό τους πόνημα ("Atlantis") που κυκλοφόρησε το φθινόπωρο του 2020...

Δελτίο τύπου: «This 50 min work of music, comprises of 12 tracks, 10 of them are full songs whereas the remaining 2 are small instrumentals. It took us quite a long time to complete it, almost 6 years separate the last two releases from each other.

This mainly happened because we had to change two singers, Nikos Roussakis and Mike Livas, until we decide to shift our previous guitarist, Tasos Lazaris to the vocals and welcome Themis Gourlis to the rhythm guitars. Needless to say, that the biggest drawback for us was that we decided to replace Mike Livas just before the end of the recordings and had to record all vocals from the very beginning.

The lyrical themes vary from ancient Hellenic mythology like the mythical ancient king Theseus in “Seventh Son”, or the legendary duel of Trojan prince Hector with mighty Achilles in “Hector’s Last Fight”, to Spartacus as the everlasting symbol of struggle for freedom against tyranny and oppression in his self-titled song and comic hero Conan, as seen in the 1982 movie masterpiece of John Milius in “Vengeance”, or a quick reference to fierce Viking warriors in “Lords of Death”.

Furthermore, there are other songs with a social-sensitive view describing problems like the one of overprotecting mothers in “Love Enforcer”, or school bullying in “Time for Rage” and the problems of human communication in “Silence of Our Words”.

Last but not least, there is the self-titled “Atlantis” which is an allegory for all those things that you yearn and desire and you seek your entire life but you never reach, like a femme fatale, always in vain and a beautiful ballad called “The Road Unknown” which refers to unfulfilled dreams.

Recordings took place at “Devasoundz Studios”, except bass and keyboards that recorded at “Hungry Seagull Studios”. Production, all engineering and mixing was undertaken by Fotis Benardo (Septicflesh, Rotting Christ, Innerwish), whereas the mastering by George Neratzis (Pain Of Salvation, Abbath, Dark Funeral, Gus G), two great persons and true professionals, we enjoyed every single moment working with them.

The artwork of “Atlantis” is an original painting of Yiannis Koutrikas, one of Greece’s greater and most famous artists, a real masterpiece. All band photos shot by Haris Ergatidis, a very talented photographer, at “Piree”, a great place for art and performance events and the cd layout made by Theodore Tarlandezos, a very gifted graphic artist and good friend of the band also responsible for the layout of our two previous albums.»