''Stronghold'' is the fourth full-length album by the Austrian

black metal Black metal is an extreme metal, extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include Tempo#Beats per minute, fast tempos, a Screaming (music)#Black metal, shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted Electric guitar, guitars played with t ...

band Summoning. This album marked a change in the sound of Summoning as it was much more "guitar orientated with more compact keyboard-melodies".Summoning's Official website
/ref> "Where Hope and Daylight Die" features Tania Borsky, Protector's ex-girlfriend and a former member of

Die Verbannten Kinder Evas Die Verbannten Kinder Evas is an Austrian darkwave music project founded in 1993 by Richard Lederer and Michael Gregor, signed to Napalm Records. Biography The band originally consisted of Protector and Silenius, members of the black metal ...

, on lead vocals. The album's cover was adapted from 'The Bard', an 1817 painting by John Martin. This album is the first by Summoning to feature audio-clips; the clips used on this album were from the movies ''

Braveheart ''Braveheart'' is a 1995 American historical drama film directed and produced by, and starring Mel Gibson. Gibson portrays Sir William Wallace, a late-13th century Scottish warrior who led the Scots in the First War of Scottish Independence ag ...

'' and ''

Legend A legend is a Folklore genre, genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived, both by teller and listeners, to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human valu ...

''.

Track listing

Credits

Protector Protector(s) or The Protector(s) may refer to: Roles and titles * Protector (title), a title or part of various historical titles of heads of state and others in authority ** Lord Protector, a title that has been used in British constitutional la ...

- vocals, guitars, keyboards * Silenius - vocals, keyboards *Tania Borsky - vocals on 'Where Hope and Daylight Die'

Lyrical references

Stronghold marks the first time in which not all lyrics were derived from

J. R. R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, ; 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philology, philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was ...

* ''Rhûn'' is Elvish

word A word is a basic element of language that carries an semantics, objective or pragmatics, practical semantics, meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of w ...

for "east" and was the name used for all lands lying east of Middle-Earth * ''Long Lost To Where No Pathway Goes'' is taken from the

Lays of Beleriand Lay's is a brand of potato chips, as well as the name of the company that founded the chip brand in the United States. The brand is also referred to as Frito-Lay because both Lay's and Fritos are brands sold by the Frito-Lay company, which has ...

The Lay of the Children of Húrin The Lay of the Children of Húrin is a long epic poem by J. R. R. Tolkien which takes place in his fictional fantasy-world, Middle-earth. It tells of the life and ill fate of Túrin Turambar, the son of Húrin. It is written in alliterative verse ...

and a Tolkien poem about

St. Brendan Brendan of Clonfert (c. AD 484 - c.577), is one of the early Celtic Christianity, Irish monastic saints and one of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland. He is also referred to as Brendan the Navigator, Brendan the Voyager, Brendan the Anchorite, Br ...

's death, called

Imram An immram (; plural immrama; ga, iomramh , 'voyage') is a class of Old Irish tales concerning a hero's sea journey to the Otherworld (see Tír na nÓg and Mag Mell). Written in the Christian era and essentially Christian in aspect, they preser ...

. * ''The Glory Disappears'' is taken from

William Wordsworth William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication ''Lyrical Ballads'' (1798). Wordsworth's ' ...

's poems " Loud Is the Vale" & " Lines Left Upon a Seat in a Yew-Tree" * ''Like Some Snow-White Marble Eyes'' is about when

Húrin Húrin is a fictional character in the Middle-earth legendarium of J. R. R. Tolkien. He is introduced in ''The Silmarillion'' as a hero of Men during the First Age, said to be the greatest warrior of both the Edain and all the other Men in Midd ...

is held captive by

Morgoth Morgoth Bauglir (; originally Melkor ) is a character, one of the godlike Valar, from Tolkien's legendarium. He is the main antagonist of ''The Silmarillion'', ''The Children of Húrin'', ''Beren and Lúthien'' and ''The Fall of Gondolin''. ...

and the lyrics are derived from a poem by

Robert Frost Robert Lee Frost (March26, 1874January29, 1963) was an American poet. His work was initially published in England before it was published in the United States. Known for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloq ...

called "

Stars A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by its gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night, but their immense distances from Earth ma ...

" * ''Where Hope and Daylight Dies'' is from the Tolkien poem, "I Sit Upon the Stones Alone" * ''The Rotting Horse on the Deadly Ground'' is taken from "The Song of Eriol" from the

Book of Lost Tales A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this physical arr ...

. * ''The Shadow Lies Frozen on the Hills'' is lyrically based on two poems found in

The Fellowship of the Ring ''The Fellowship of the Ring'' is the first of three volumes of the epic novel ''The Lord of the Rings'' by the English author J. R. R. Tolkien. It is followed by ''The Two Towers'' and ''The Return of the King''. It takes place in the fiction ...

, in the chapters "A Conspiracy Unmasked" and "Many Meetings" * ''The Loud Music of the Sky'' was taken from Sir

Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'', ''Rob Roy (n ...

's "

The Monastery ''The Monastery: a Romance'' (1820) is a historical novel by Walter Scott, one of the Waverley novels. Set in the Scottish Borders in the 1550s on the eve of the Reformation, it is centred on Melrose Abbey. Composition and sources Scott had bee ...

", Chapter 12th, and from

Dora Sigerson Shorter Dora Maria Sigerson Shorter (16 August 1866 – 6 January 1918) was an Irish poet and sculptor, who after her marriage in 1895 wrote under the name Dora Sigerson Shorter. Life She was born in Dublin, Ireland, the daughter of George Sigerson, a ...

's poem " The Wind on the Hills", and from the anonymous 17th-century poem " The Fairies' Song". * ''A Distant Flame Before The Sun'' the lyrics are taken from the "I Sit Beside the Fire and Think" and "Song of Eärendil" which was written & performed by Bilbo in

Rivendell Rivendell ('' sjn, Imladris'') is a valley in J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional world of Middle-earth, representing both a homely place of sanctuary and a magical Elvish otherworld. It is an important location in ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of th ...

("The Ring Goes South" in "The Fellowship of the Ring")

References

{{Authority control 1999 albums Summoning (band) albums Napalm Records albums