Frozen Soul - 'No Place Of Warmth' Album Review

52 minutes ago
3 min read

Tracklist:

1. No Place Of Warmth (Feat. Gerard Way)

2. Invoke War (Feat. Machine Head)

3. Absolute Zero

4. Dreadnought (Feat. Sanguisugabogg)

5. Chaos Will Reign

6. Eyes Of Despair

7. Ethereal Dreams

8. Skinned by the Wind

9. DEATHWEAVER

10. Frost Forged

11. Killin Time (Until It's Time To Kill)

Texas Death metal quintet Frozen Soul return with their third studio album 'No Place Of Warmth', releasing May 8th via Century Media Records.

'No Place Of Warmth' kicks off the record with an extremely atmospheric intro, giving almost a minute of tension before Chris Bonner's guitar riff comes crashing in, joined by pounding bass and drums from Samantha Mobley and Matt Dennard respectively, echoes by Michael Munday's rhythm before Chad Green's deep, sinister vocals join the fray. The track is then a pretty typical death metal affair, with some solid dual guitar work, and then comes Gerard Way's vocal. He proved on Ibaraki's record a couple of years back that he can do much more in the vocal department than you'd realise from My Chemical Romance, and this is no different, going for to toe with green and adding a higher layer, working extremely well together.

Moving in to 'Invoke War', which Green announces rather spectacularly with his delivery of the line "I invoke war", underscored by more menacing guitars courtesy of Bonner and Munday. The vocal somehow gets more sinister when echoed later in the track, this time with the addition of Machine Head's Robb Flynn, matching the threat of Green's delivery after a slow build feature verse, keeping the pace of the track nice and consistent in its steady perilous tone.

That pace is then picked right up in 'Absolute Zero', given the fact the track is only 53 seconds long. Green stays consistent in his vocal delivery, but the instrumentals really shine here, particularly the partnership of Mobley's steady bass matching the double pedal work of Dennard, whilst also being given her own brief moments to shine.

'Dreadnought' begins with an amazing, creeping bass riff from Mobley, perfectly echoed in the chorus of Bonner and Munday's guitars. Another pitch perfect feature from Sanguisugabogg's Devin Swank rounds out another heavy hitter of a track that also keeps things very brief.

'Chaos Will Reign' maintains that steady pace, absolutely drenching Green's opening vocal in reverb to match the slight echo in the Verde's rifs. It's another phenomenal shift from Mobley and Dennard in the rhythm section, and keeps the record right on track. Very simple, yet very effective.

'Eyes Of Despair' gives us another typical intro before letting Bonner go absolutely hog wild with a blistering solo before the first verse even begins. This track is the definition of high octane death metal, with Dennard's calves getting a thorough workout with the near solid double bass, even outside of the blast beats, only slowing down in the final third for an absolutely filthy breakdown to bring the track to a close.

'Ethereal Dreams' slows the pace with a horror film soundscape of an intro, giving another slow build with tribal drums ramping up before Bonner lets loose with his fast paced playing. Every note feels extremely deliberate and full of malice, flying directly in the face of the title in such a huge contradiction. More dual guitar work before the outro and fade-out is the cherry on the cake for this hellscape of a cut.

'Skinned by the Wind' is another suitably spooky short song, building on that horror movie vibe of the last track, with another very consistent and deliberate delivery to take us into the final three tracks, transitioning nicely into, 'DEATHWEAVER' with its stop-start intro that evolves into another slow, menacing riff from Munday and Mobley underneath Bonner's flourishes, before the three regain uniformity in the verse to support Green's growling and ending with the oldest trick in the book, a half tempo breakdown fade out, that then fades back in to become:

penultimate effort 'Frost Forged'. Another slower tempo affair with some unsurprisingly stellar work from all 5 members. It doesn't do anything different to the rest of the record, but it doesn't need to. Especially with he seemingly bionic legs of Dennard behind the kit.

'Killin Time (Until It's Time To Kill)' rounds out the album, picking up the pace to sprint to the finish, not losing an ounce of the sinister, with some downright infectious vocal delivery in the chorus to deliver the song title. It finishes how they started and maintained through the entire record, and that's definitely no bad thing.

Would I call 'No Place Of Warmth' a groundbreaking album? Not necessarily. However that doesn't mean that it isn't a phenomenal example of a genre that is saturated with bands that so many claim to be indistinguishable from each other. There's an evident uniqueness to Frozen Soul, and that is on full show in 'No Place Of Warmth'.