Frozen Soul: Heavy Hooks From The Heart

“We’ve found our sweet spot. We’re not as worried about what people are thinking about us…we’re more worried about just having fun. Having faith that if we’re having fun then everyone else is too.” This is how Chad Green, FROZEN SOUL vocalist, sees it when we discuss how the band have dialled in their electric live energy into their newest release No Place of Warmth.

There’s a desire to enjoy what they do within the music that the Texan death five-piece have released. It appears that this time around that is something that they’ve actively looked to deliver on record. “We’ve always been a go with the flow band…I go with my heart as a vocalist. So, the last records, we didn’t have a live intention behind them however with this record and with all that live experience behind us we really wanted to focus on hooks and that entertainment value we provide.” Make no mistake, the music and the general air around FROZEN SOUL is one of enjoyment, but it’s not in anyway detrimental. They’re a band capable of writing and delivering some of the finest modern death metal around. Chad goes on to say, “I feel that with this record and our live shows, we’ve really hit our groove.”

With some artists, a focus on what entertains can water down levels of authenticity and some tread a fine line of entertainment bordering on parody. With elements seemingly in-authentically churned out knowing that they will land with audiences but there is little to resonate with and provide a crucial staying power. While not falling into the parody camp, FROZEN SOUL has had some naysayers comment that their influences are too close to the surface. That they write music that is paint by numbers death metal and therefore falls into the subject of heavily entertaining, but offering little in the way of substance. While Chad freely highlights that having fun is a major driving factor in what they do, there is meaning to what they create. Ruminating on what draws the intent out of his lyrics, “everyone in the band has lots of different cross over interests, movies, D&D, music you name it. So that informs a lot of what we do. But the emotional relevance is informed by what I feel at the time. There’s a lot of life that just happens. I think of my experiences and our (the band) experiences as friends. Dealing with loss and the fact that life is ever changing. You’re never the person you were as a kid. There are always new challenges.”

This organic and authentic bleed through of how FROZEN SOUL combine everyday experiences with their interests is a key factor into how they connect with so many fans. They may be able to write songs that tick all the right death metal boxes for mass enjoyment, yet scratch just a fraction of the surface and there is a genuine frankness to what they create and this honesty is what many latch onto. As Chad goes onto say, “I can’t just write lyrics about nothing and I’ve always needed music to help me get through things in life. As a band that’s why we like aggressive music. So, we write music like that so others can get the same thing out of it. Instead of hiding it, we want it to be there. Everyone has a bad day and might need some help.”

While FROZEN SOUL are by no means unique in their deliberate attempts at providing catharsis through riffs. It’s refreshing to hear that while putting this new album together, they actively thought to trim the fat in places. Rather than trying to overwork a song into a connective conduit between artist and audience, they would occasionally look at the big picture and say, why not just have the instant uplift readily available. This is borne out by the shorter tracks such as Skinned by The Wind, reflecting on their inclusion, Chad is exuberant with how they turned out. “Songs like that, they started out as just mosh parts, which is often how we start and then build a song further. This time we were like, do we even need to do that? Why not just put that hard-ass riff on the record? You don’t have to dig for it, you get it, straight up. It’s the gut feeling; you want to have the fun and you don’t want to work for it.” For those that have heard the album, these moments provide an enthusiastic short and sweet moment that hits hard but stays memorable for precisely the reason that Chad mentions.

“I remember hearing a PR person saying oh it’s pretty hard for a band to do anything on a third album,” laughing, Chad reveals that this was part of the trepidation felt going into this record. “I was like ‘wow, I just wrote one, ok…’.” Thankfully though, there was nothing that held FROZEN SOUL back. Their third album has now pushed them more to the fore than their previous releases. Part of that is down to the sense of fun we’ve already discussed, but as Chad puts it, “we just went for it, worry less and go for it.”

To hear it second hand it might sound a bit trite. However, the earnestness with which Chad speaks about himself, the band and the music they create, one definitely gets the sense that this is how things should be done. Many bands, especially in extreme metal, sometimes either overlook or miss the point entirely. Music is entertainment, take the playing seriously but never forget that you need to have your heart in it and you need to be having the most enjoyment you can in order that the prospective audience will pick up on that.  That is exactly what FROZEN SOUL has set out to do and they’ve achieved it. “How can we make this as fun as possible? Turns out for us, that’s the key. We’ve really hit our groove now.”

No Place Of Warmth is out now via Century Media Records. View this interview, alongside dozens of other killer bands, in glorious print magazine fashion in DS130 here.