http://infernalstronghold.com/

http://www.myspace.com/infernalstronghold

RELEASES

Black Vinyl, 1st press of 700 with custom double sided printed glue pocket jacket with printed inner sleeve

TOUR

09/24/09 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Barbery w/ Hellbasterd, Resistant Culture, & Stations

All Dates Below w/ Cannabis Corpse
09/30/09 – Richmond, VA @ TBA
10/01/09 – Washington, DC @ TBA
10/02/09 – Philadelphia, PA @ Belmont Warehouse
10/03/09 – NYC, New York @ ABC No Rio w/ Mutant Supremacy
10/03/09 – Brooklyn, NY @ the Charleston w/ Atakke
10/04/09 – Boston, MA @ TBA w/ Ramming Speed

REVIEWS

Noisy black metal filtered through a crusty punk attitude is what Philadelphia’s Infernal Stronghold is all about.  The tracks are lightning quick and the tempo is intensely speedy as well.  Kicking off the album with a raw passion and a frantic pace is Curb The Trend.  The drums are rapid fire and border on reckless disregard as they blister along.  On Taghut they slow it down into doomy realms though the song is still covered in tar and pitch and quickly explodes into a firestorm of hyper drumming only to then drift back into lethargic realms once again.  Crashing Trucks into Churches exists within Transilvanian Hunger styled melodies and a cacophonous tempest of crashing cymbals.  The title track ratchets up the force as it hits with the speed and brutality of middle-era Marduk but without the tightness.  Nordic disharmony surfaces in A Dog You Call God and then smashes fist first into a bouncy, almost death metal rhythm.  An actually catchy riff is the driving force of Snorting The Ruins of Sodom.  The track quickly drifts into some Celtic-Frost-through-Darkthrone-blackening midtempo grooves.  As a nod to the band’s ideological roots, the album’s closer is titled Buried by Grim and Crust and is an ashen furnace of mutated punk and black metal.  Eddie Chainsaw’s vocals are noisy and sound as if his throat is coated in blisters.  Sometimes the noisy and trebly production reduces the tracks into a rumble topped with hissing cymbals.  Infernal Stronghold’s second album is a tsunami of intense black metal but without the trappings of metal attitude instead resorting to a more apocalyptic crust punk slant.  So if you like your black metal married to Discharge and then played at warp speed then Infernal Stronghold is definitely for you.”  – Nocturnal Cult

“Remember when black metal was closer to thrash/punk than other forms of metal?  Though there are still plenty of groups that take influence from the raw and fast paced styles that many of the genre’s founding acts made use of, plenty more have completely changed.  One of the latest groups that remembers black metal’s punk roots is Philadelphia based Infernal Stronghold whose newest album Godless Noise comes at you full force with blistering speed and heavy riffs.  It’s definitely worth checking out, especially if you prefer the rawer end of black metal.

One of the first things that listeners will notice about Infernal Stronghold is that they are loud as hell and in your face.  Godless Noise is composed of ten tracks of fast paced black thrash that has an anarcho punk edge to it, meaning that although the songs are very harsh and loud they have some memorable riffs to them.  This is one of those groups that uses a fairly raw production, but they have still managed to make sure that all of the instruments are distinguishable from one another and that their music doesn’t turn into one distorted mess.  But despite the fact that the majority of Godless Noise is focused on fast paced riffs, there are also some interesting moments where the band slows things down slightly.  For example, on the title track of the album the band slows the tempo about a minute or so into the track and hits listeners with a really creepy sounding high pitched riff before heading back into thrash territory.  Overall these guys have some killer riffs and a ton of energy and anyone who picks this disc up should enjoy it.

Vocalist Eddie Chainsaw has a screaming style that fits right in with traditional black metal, as his screams are fairly high pitched and sound very similar to what many of the other black metal vocalists offer.  Though Godless Noise has been mixed in such a way that the instrumentals occasionally drown out the vocals, Chainsaw has such a high level of power and intensity that even when the instrumentals start to go over him his screams can still be made out.  I wouldn’t necessarily say that the vocals on this release are my favorite genre, but they fit very well with the fast paced and heavy instrumentals and that’s what counts.

Infernal Stronghold’s combination of black/thrash metal with some anarcho punk works well and creates a sound that hints at black metal’s past while still feeling completely relevant in 2009.  If you’ve been looking for more black metal that is raw as hell and has some catchy riffs as well, Godless Noise should be an album that you pick up this year.  In addition to this, these guys are also another indicator that America’s metal scene still has some groups that can tear it up as well as their European peers.”  – Chris Dahlberg // Cosmos Gaming

“Infernal Stronghold are another entry in a growing list of bands who play what is essentially black metal, but don’t necessarily associate themselves with, or have a background in, the metal scene. These guys from Philly claim to be a punk band who happen to sound an awful lot like black metal. Or maybe a black metal band comprised of individuals who identify as punks – I dunno, whatever….

Yeah I guess I can hear elements of hardcore in their sound: the vocals are a bit different – less harrowingly evil, slightly more discernible, – and the riffs are maybe a bit less purely black metal, but mostly it’s black metal; the blast beats are plentiful, the cold, grim riffs abound. And pretty good black metal at that. Well worth checking out.” – Gordon B. Isnor // Left Hip

“Philly’s Infernal Stronghold are a DIY band through and through. They are releasing the CD version of their latest disc themselves, while Forcefield Records will be releasing the vynil version (limited to 700 copies). Godless Noise consists of 10 songs of raw, blistering black metal, clocking in at under 27 minutes total.
From the opening “Curb The Trend”, to the closing “Buried by Grime & Crust”, your ears will be assaulted by a unrelenting raw attack of noise. Punky, thrashy black metal with minimal melodic elements, delivered with more energy than a massive powerplant can generate, and tons of anger to boot. There isn’t a whole lore more to say about it than that. If you want your black metal raw and spastic, then this is what you need to get.
B-            ” -Goz // GASPetc.com

“Production – 4.0 / 6.0
Songwriting – 5.0 / 6.0
Musicianship – 4.5 / 6.0

US Black metal that isn’t trying to be at one with the forest or overly ambient and ambitious, Infernal Stronghold (formerly known as Stronghold) bring a Garage rock, punk fueled simplicity and intensity to the table on their second full length album.

Delivered with a feral, raw tone and a no nonsense 26-minute duration, Godless Noise is an apt title for this raucously enjoyable slab of primal, punk infused black thrash metal that isn’t usually my thing. But the band’s grungy, regular guy who works at Subway image and lack of spikes, corpse paint or bullshit strikes a chord with me. But for fans of Impaled Nazarene and Malveillance this thing is a must have.

The short (2-3 minute) tracks blaze by with a feedback drenched energy and ferocity that’s organic and real, but also with a barely there, almost grindcore sense of melody and prose, due to the punk influence. Drummer R.B.D (who also serves as the live drummer for fellow Pennsylvania black metal act Woe) is a chaotic vortex behind the kit as the guitars buzz with a live but rusty, grimy shrill tone that’s neither processed nor triggered but never sounds like bees in a tin can either. It’s like you are listening to the band performing in a basement and they are ripping your face off in person.

Tracks are hard to single out as the 26 minutes is almost a sheer barrage of blackened tremolo picked power chords but “Destruction of Life….Unworthy of Life,” “Crippling Blasphemous Persistance” and the latter stage of the album including “A Dog You Call God,” “Fuck Thou Shalt Culture,” “Snorting the Ruins of Sodom” and “Buried by Grime and Crust” are particularly gnarly. Only the brooding groove in the mid section of the title track offers any sort of respite from the…ahem…..Godless Noise.” – Erik Thomas // MetalReview.com

“Infernal Stronghold is a punky blackened thrash band that always seems to put out awesome releases. This is their latest album, and, as always, it is a strong one. These guys sound a lot like Hammerwhore in my opinion, which is a compliment in my book. The vocals on this release do tend to get on my nerves at times, but these instances are few and far between. This is highly recommended, especially if you liked the last post from these guys.” – Renrats’ Metal Bazaar

“So if you had a punk band start a fight with a Black metal band during a Crust/ Sludge show this is where Infernal stronghold would have been born. Way to Punk to be Black metal and the vocals are way to black metal to be punk and the anti tuning and total noise element of the feedback and muddy guitars is so much a crust nod to there style . If you want to call it a style or just musical mash up that makes it all the more fun to listen to. Infernal Stronghold are just making music the love without regaurds to anyone else. The best way to end this review would be if Dark Throne and Born Against became one band you would have Infernal Stronghold . THE END……” – Absolute Zero Media

“Infernal Stronghold sort of take the blackened punk template from Darkthrone with all of the black metal filthiness in place and kick up the pace a notch. Add a bit of a snarl to the rasped shouts, some tremolo picking galore, a rather messy production, and voila! Blackened punk ‘n roll at your service!
“Godless Noise”, the band’s sophomore full-length, is 26 minutes of the aforementioned hybrid with generally short songs. At times, the mix works quite well as most of the band’s music, frankly, leans more towards noisy, raw black metal with plenty of speed more than anything else. Reasonably well played, well written short songs blow by quickly” – Live4Metal.com