Frozen Soul : "A Place of No Warmth"

Frozen Soul's new album starts off with a bigger, and marginally darker though things are mixed in a manner that does not convey the cavernous cold of the last album, but you can't fault them for growing, and they are not making the same album twice, which is more than you can say for most. Oddly Gerad Way from My Chemical Romance guest on this song. However, he is not bringing whiny emo vocals, but a more black metal rasp. So it's not that invasive of what they normally do. This album has several guest spots on it. The second song features Rob Flynn from Machine Head, who contributes his bark to this more deliberate stomp. It's a big, powerful guitar sound that works well.

"Absolute Zero" is a minute of big chug that speeds up into a blast of sorts. "Dreadnought" finds Devin from Sanguisugabogg joining them. There is a mean bass tone for this song, and it grinds into things with a more Bolt Thrower-like feel. The melodic guitar solos bring this out more. An impressive flow of double bass drives "Chaos Will Reign," which is also the first song with the kind of thrashing groove that empowered "Glacial Domination." This is the band at their most effective, commanding headbanging. 

They step on the gas for "Eyes of Despair". But know how to temper the need for speed with grooving riffage. "Ethereal Dreams" makes me think of early Unleashed. The bulk of the album up until that point has been more deliberately paced, and they still manage to retain balance in a more Slayer-like fashion here. The songwriting here is some of the album's most dynamic. "Skinned by the Wind" is really a solid minute of mean riff, but it works for what it is. "Deathweaver" allows for more build-up. It also has one of the most melodic guitar lines on the album, but digging into the pummelling. "Frost Forged' finds the chug still moving your guts in the best way possible/ 

There is more of an Entombed to the rumble of the last song. The double bass speeds the song up, but they find their groove, and pretty quickly, the epitome of not letting your momentum take your feet out from under you. I will go ahead and round this up to a 10, as I think it will grow on me, and their fanbase will get another dose of the heavy slabs of sound that have been refined by staying on the road. This album drops on May 8th on Century Media. 

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