Frozen Soul - Crypt Of Ice [CD]

Blue light. No heat. A glacial wall of denser-than-dense sound. Dallas Texas' FROZEN SOUL lives up to their name as the sound of death metal at its most cold and classic. Riff after slow, grinding riff, there's no mistaking the themes of isolation and suffering that permeate the quintet's massive sonic missives. From the first note of their Century Media debut, Crypt of Ice, it's like the march of Game of Thrones' Night King put to sound: nothing subtle about it at all. "The feeling I'm getting from playing in FROZEN SOUL is powerful in a way I wasn't getting from other bands I've played in before", says frontman Chad Green. "The sound. The lyrics. Even the logo itself has a harshness to it that just feels powerful and cold. Add to that the depression of dealing with real life and the venomous people that can inhabit it and the vibe of the band just makes sense." FROZEN SOUL's brand of straightforward, in-your-face death metal is a gasp of fresh air in a genre that's stretched the very limits of technicality. Fully formed in 2018, the quintet has rapidly made a name for itself and churned the underground with a sound that evokes the old school sound of bands like Obituary, Mortician and Bolt Thrower. That reverence for death metal's roots was apparent from Frozen Soul's initial four-song Encased In Ice demo (which includes a cover of Mortician's "Witch's Coven") that was released in early 2019 on California's cave dwelling, knuckle dragging, Maggot Stomp Records. Not that FROZEN SOUL's journey has exactly been overnight. The band's roots can be etched back to 2007 in Green's time as drummer in Metallic Hardcore turned Death Metal band, End Times. With early influences including Trial, Ringworm and Integrity or Texas' heroes, Iron Age",he recalls. "That led me back to my roots - which was, of course, bands like Metallica, and Slayer. From there I fell down the rabbit hole into bands like Grave, Bolt Thrower and Obituary. Eventually, I realized that even if I was playing hardcore, all we were doing was writing death and thrash riffs, anyways!" Blame it on the power of the blunt-force riff and a love for death metal's past, but in part, blame it on being a band from Texas, a state whose metal roots run deep. From Pantera to Power Trip, sheer heaviness runs in FROZEN SOUL's home state's musical bloodstream. "I think being from here gives any band some big shoes to fill", states Chad. "That's why Texas has so many great metal, punk, and hardcore bands." A chance 2016 meeting with guitarist Michael Munday at a local comic book shop over a game of Magic: The Gathering laid the foundation for FROZEN SOUL. The two had an instant chemistry and shared love for the likes of games, music and well of course, Bolt Thrower, that became the primordial ooze from which FROZEN SOUL would eventually emerge. "It all started when we were trying to rekindle End Times, we were writing riffs that were a little too heavy for what End Times was going for", r