FROZEN SOUL - Glacial Domination
June 22, 2023, a year ago
(Century Media)
New breed DM A-listers Frozen Soul are back with album number two, following up 2021 debut Crypt Of Ice. And yes, it's all cold, freezing cold, but the sounds love the swamps too, opener “Invisible Tormentor” downright Obituarian with the stomp and pummel, and “Death And Glory” just absolutely nails that tempo and vibe, the band sounding like old seasoned vets.
John Gallagher of Dying Fetus shows up in “Morbid Effigy”, not that you'd really notice, and “Annihilation” is a rare example of a cool instrumental interlude. Not that we're really talking about building atmosphere here: despite the band's cool icy theme, there's basically one sound here, and it's not as cold as I imagined it would end up being.
It's Florida DM through and through, and it's done incredibly well, the slower grooves on cuts like the title track absolutely devastating, the all-important but often neglected vocal hooks prominent in the song “Frozen Soul”, everything here except much of a musical personality (although they're holding hard to the brrrr theme, as hilarious/awesome song title “Best Served Cold” proves).
But as far as the extremely impressive current young breed of death metal bands go, Frozen Soul is filling a very important role, and doing it with ease.
