Infernal Stronghold-Godless Noise

Official Site
Label: Forcefield Records
Released: July 2009
Release Type: LP/CD Full Length
Genre: Black/Thrash/Crust

Further quenching my thirst for the blasphemous cacophony that is Infernal Stronghold is their second full length album aptly titled Godless Noise. As with all their releases I've encountered, the LP of Godless Noise is wrapped in a beautiful package. Gorgeous printed matte jacket covered in obscure and endless details as well as necessary information (song titles and the like). The inner jacket is a slick glossy picture on one side and lyrics and legal info on the other side. Offering to be limited to 700 and only 12 bucks i can't see how anyone could pass this up. I'm sure the cd is just as nice, although to quote the guys themselves "10 songs, 27 minutes. Sounds waaayy better on vinyl."

Now with the music. Infernal Stronghold retain their taste for a rough production that sounds organic, powerful, and cacophonous, but never hazy and obscuring. They have found a perfect match of old school European d-beat mixed with 90's Norwegian black metal and an overall polish that comes from the competence and understanding of a modern day, level headed engineer. The vocals are vicious and strained, mid-range black metal rasps, to crusty shouts, all dirty and raw. The guitars shred through thrashy riffs amidst a razorwire mesh of distortion and static, leaving the bass to be support and the unadulterated drums to maintain its own space. The dirty and thrashy vibe, coupled with the black metal vocals and aesthetic tied to the punky sections cement this lp as heads above the rest.

For the most part, the songs are short and varied blasts of blackened thrashcore(think of Anti-Cimex collaborating with Horna playing old Sodom songs or something along those lines) that manipulate fast sections of blast beats to d-beats, to mid-paced thrash affairs and all that lies in between. "Crippling Blasphemous Persistence" stands to be the most black metal track offered on the album, a catchy tremolo picked riff coupled with a powerful blast beat carry the song and even a slower section with a very somber riff that highlights Infernal Stronghold's arsenal of tricks and abilities; this track is probably my favorite on the album.

Infernal Stronghold do an excellent job of mixing all elements to their sound equally, creating a unique sound that stays true to the title Urban Blasphemy. The lyrics offer commentary on(against) religion, political/societal issues, as well as personal and interpersonal issues. I found the lyrics to be quite good and refreshing when compared with countless bands spewing fuck yous or fuck religion; a bit more introspective than that.

Infernal Stronghold are geniune with their music and don't look to impress anyone or do anything for anyone else besides themselves and their fans. Support them and buy their shit, nice guys and great merch that's dirt cheap. Buy here for the LP/CD, and here for older releases/merch.

-F

Infernal Stronghold/GATT- Pests

Official Sites:GATT----Infernal Stronghold
Released: February 2009
Label: Metalwar/Bullshit Propaganda
Release Type: 7" Split limited 500
Genres: Black Metal/Crust/Death Metal/Thrash Metal

Being just one of the goodies I picked up from the awesome Repulsion show, Pests, is a butting of heads between Philly's own Infernal Stronghold and GATT of Indonesia. What drew me to this release immediately was the beautiful packaging. The jacket is covered in beautiful gold detail via silkscreen and the inside is the same. There's writing galore and plenty to keep you intrigued and interested. If the pretty packaging wasn't enough, there's two patches included, much in the same style (with the dark gold print it's pretty hard to tell what's going on in the patches, but who cares? they look neat). Anyway, before even listening I was won over by the amount of effort simply put into presentation on both band's behalf.


So never hearing either band I was skeptical, worried that all this packaging was a guise to cover up shitty music; thankfully I was wrong.


Hand scratched into the inner rim of the vinyl one can tell that the first side is Infernal Stronghold's offering. With a cacophonous and hallowed out production, Infernal Stronghold play a very crusty version of black metal. Vocals drenched in reverb and throat blisteringly vicious, they spew lyrical venom in a very punkish attitude (although, from what I can tell there's only one singer, he kinda sounds like the chick from Nausea every now and then). The riffs exemplified jump from punk rumblings to thrashy outbreaks (listen to the second track to see what I'm talking about) all without conflict or any filler. The guitarwork is excellent and catchy. Quickly becoming a favorite, Infernal Stronghold absolutely slay with this thrashy crust meets black metal approach, something I'm a complete sucker for. They even incorporate some neat thrash breaks and blast beats, fan-fucking-tastic.


On side B we get GATT which made me an instant fan in the first 3 seconds. I cant really describe how awesome it is, but there's brief feedback then this slimy, throaty, "bleh!" (only thing close to it I can think of are some of Belphegor(AUT)'s blehs) that unleashes a really heavy thrash riff. If i had to finger them, I'd call GATT crusty death metal, similar to Hellshcok (although a hellauva lot better). Plenty of tempo changes, deep throaty vocals and downtuned thrashy riffs amidst blast beats, midpaced stomps and d-beats keeps the momentum flowing for GATT's side. The vocals are spot on, mid-ranged rasps, deep bellows, and high-pitched screeches, really ace. Each song is composed excellently and has enough variation to keep you pounding your fist but never allowing you to get lost, bored, or confused. I'm a big fan simply with this release alone. Crusty and heavy as hell, GATT absolutely fucking slay here.


This shit's cheap enough, defiantly buy it and support two bands who actually kick ass and seem to put a lot of effort into their music. Buy here

-F