by Eduardo Rivadavia
Vocalist Jioti Parcharidis, guitarists Torsten Wolf and Volker Trost, keyboardist Dirk Marquardt, bassist Pablo Tammen, and drummer Laki Zaios make up the Human Fortress, a power metal band founded in 1997 in Hannover, Germany, and dedicated to expounding upon everything that is glorious and epic about heavy metal. Having similarly dedicated bands like Manowar and Rhapsody as co-legionnaires, the sextet followed an eponymous EP in 2000 with two albums bursting with Dungeons & Dragons metal in 2001's Lord of Earth and Heavens Heir and 2003's Defenders of the Crown.