The Frost - ... Of The Forests Unknown
Croatia's The Frost have been spreading their blasphemy around since 2004. With only demos, splits, and EPs so far, they have created quite an underground following. Following the tradition of 'kvlt' black metal, the music is very minimalistic, filthy, and of course, corpsepaint is involved. Most of the music is in the vein of bands like Nattefrost, Blood Cult, and Sargeist, but The Frost also deliver a few interesting tracks off of ... Of Forests Unknown. The opening track is a ritualistic drum pattern that is very unorthodox for black metal. It starts out slow and starts to pick up, sounding so esoteric and unique that one would think they were listening to Deathspell Omega. However, the following track is a raw black metal ball buster. "Stopping The Wheel Of Time" features plenty of distorted guitars, rock n' roll groove, evil shrieks, and crunching drums. It is repetitive, but catchy at the same time. Not much changes throughout the album. "While Waiting For The Dawn" features the same black metal minimalistic features, maybe delivering a different melody but repeating the same few riffs over and over.
"Escape From Eternal Isolation" actually features some varied guitar work that isn't as repetitve. It is still raw, actually incorporate more melody into the music. The drums clang away in the background and the vocals only pop on every once in a while, letting the guitars and drums deliver most of the music. The distortion gets really cranked up near the end to create a very eerie reverb the shroud the music, but eventually goes away. "Riding Through The Smell Of Plague" is about the most grimy track on the album and features the heaviest black rock n' roll that The Frost have yet offered, coming off as an earlier Dodsferd clone. "My Dark Night" finally slows things down a bit, sounding more like depressive black metal as the chords are drawn out, creating an aura of evil mystery and darkness. Certainly a great highlight of the album aside from the drum solo track.
The Frost are certainly nothing new to the black metal sound, but they seem to have more gumption and experimental tendencies in them than most would expect. The solo drum track is certainly an eye opener, and perhaps hints at more use of such interesting instrumentals on future work by the band. While they sure won't go the way of atmospheric black metal such as Abruptum or become heavily punk laden, such as Darkthrone, The Frost sure have an interesting road ahead of them. For fans of anyone who like black metal with a raw sound to it.
"Escape From Eternal Isolation" actually features some varied guitar work that isn't as repetitve. It is still raw, actually incorporate more melody into the music. The drums clang away in the background and the vocals only pop on every once in a while, letting the guitars and drums deliver most of the music. The distortion gets really cranked up near the end to create a very eerie reverb the shroud the music, but eventually goes away. "Riding Through The Smell Of Plague" is about the most grimy track on the album and features the heaviest black rock n' roll that The Frost have yet offered, coming off as an earlier Dodsferd clone. "My Dark Night" finally slows things down a bit, sounding more like depressive black metal as the chords are drawn out, creating an aura of evil mystery and darkness. Certainly a great highlight of the album aside from the drum solo track.
The Frost are certainly nothing new to the black metal sound, but they seem to have more gumption and experimental tendencies in them than most would expect. The solo drum track is certainly an eye opener, and perhaps hints at more use of such interesting instrumentals on future work by the band. While they sure won't go the way of atmospheric black metal such as Abruptum or become heavily punk laden, such as Darkthrone, The Frost sure have an interesting road ahead of them. For fans of anyone who like black metal with a raw sound to it.
- Violent Ritual
- Stopping The Wheel Of Time
- While Waiting For The Dawn
- Escape Into Eternal Isolation
- ... Of The Forests Unknown
- Riding Through The Smell Of Plague
- My Dark Night
Blackmetal.com Records
Reviewer: Colin McNamara
Jun 10, 2010
Jun 10, 2010
Next review:
Society's Plague - The Human Canvas
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