Thrashing black metal band Infernal Stronghold from Philadelphia, PA, had built up a strong reputation over time before it ceased writing riffs for Satan. D.U. ran a short piece on the group in 2011 while the band was still active in archive zine issue #42, which read in part:
“The boys from Philadelphia have a few releases under their belts, mostly in the form of demos. But before we get to a few of the official releases, Infernal Stronghold is a kind of a five-piece black metal band with plenty of passion live and on album. But live they come off more like a thrash band with lots of blasts and a few Celtic Frost gallops. They don’t dress like a black metal band at all, which is nice, but most of their releases’ layouts say ‘we are a black metal band.’ They also say, ‘We aren’t concerned with giving you information in a coherent way on our albums. Check out our MySpace page if you want any of that.’
“The first full-length (Onslaught Records), Excommunicated, has a Schizophrenia-era Sepultura influence—not a bad place to draw influence from! The production is clear for the genre. The band re-recorded some demo tracks as a bonus. … Godless Noise (KVN) is the current full-length on LP and CD, and Infernal Stronghold definitely brings the noise on this one. Performance and production wise, this is much more black metal, but not so typical. The lyrics clearly show that these guys have no time for organized religion at all. No time whatsoever.”
Besides the two albums, the band released some EPs, including a split flexi with Absu, before shutting down. Some of those are on Bandcamp. However, in good news for underground metal fans, the band recently announced its reactivation on Facebook.
Speaking to D.U. about it via email, drummer Grzesiek said the band reformation came out of he and guitarist/vocalist Eddie getting back in contact. “Long story short, Eddie and I had the conversation we needed to have for years this last August, and things couldn’t be better. We are six songs in to a new full length and are so fucking amped to be hitting the road in February.”
The band’s weekend of shows consists of:
2/20: Philadelphia, PA @ Beaumont Warehouse
2/21: Richmond, VA @ Strange Matter
2/22: Washington, D.C. @ The Pinch
Grzesiek added, “Having Infernal back has been the best thing to happen to me in a long time.” He took the below photo at the first reactivated Infernal Stronghold practice with Eddie, Andy (the new guitarist), and bassist Tony.
Keep up with the guys on Facebook.
