ALBUM REVIEW: Frozen Bloom – Olhava

The lines between black metal and the genres that float around the periphery have never been fixed in place, which is appropriate for a style created by stripping death metal riffs of their production. It is a genre focused on atmosphere and the tools for creating that are interchangeable. With their fourth album, Frozen Bloom, Russian duo OLHAVA have created a release so thematically dense that it clearly required more than low-fi riffing and thunderous drumming. Focusing on nature and its sometimes cruel, but beautiful impact, it starts out suitably frost-bitten with the twenty-minute epic The Queen Of Fields before taking the listener on a journey.

The Queen Of Fields is Mother Nature and the track shifts backwards and forwards. Exploring the sudden cold snaps that can freeze newly emerged fauna and flora, its more aggressive sections are interspersed with ethereal, swirling moments of beauty. If Timur Yusupov’s drumming is the onset of spring, then the work by multi-instrumentalist Andrey Novozhilov is the cold regression back to winter. It’s an endurance test of sorts. A constant loop between the vicious black metal stylings and a sense of vastness that comes with the more melodic guitar lines. It’s a track that constantly looks back and revisits the themes introduced. Like its influences, it is cyclical.

For that to fall away into the neo-folk opening of Adrift offers the albums first shock. Promotional materials promised two tracks of black metal and two tracks that freely encompassed different genres. A certain logic would suggest that this would be relegated to side B, but OLHAVA instead interweave the tracks. Diving deep into the themes behind Frozen Bloom, this makes sense. Nature is by turns, harsh and unforgiving, then beautiful and serene.

Adrift, with its backdrop of synthesisers and lead acoustic guitar work is a respite, both for the listener and for nature itself. A period of new growth and recovery. It reframes The Queen Of Fields as the last roar of winter. Frozen Bloom I is therefore the cold snap. The sudden drop in temperature that stops greenery in its tracks. Pushing further into second wave black metal from the opening moments, it’s a punishing listen. However, digging deeper into the mix reveals those same moments of beauty that have been present elsewhere in the album. Then at the six-minute mark, an almost euphoric guitar solo by A. Lunn cuts through the production and brings things to a standstill.

It’s the eye of the storm. Lunn brings in acoustic guitar lines and choral chants and the thunder and lightning from OLHAVA’s wheelhouse builds in the background. These touches that pepper the more standard tracks on the album give the band a voice of their own and fit the influences so well.

Closer Frozen Bloom II is a droning meditation on the aftermath of winter. Rising and falling, it’s the perfect close to an album about nature. The quiet that follows a catastrophic event – be it catastrophic on our terms, or at ground level.

It does bring up something of a pacing issue with Frozen Bloom however. While thematically it makes sense, as an album this blows hot and cold. Frozen Bloom II would arguably be better following Adrift, with a blast of black metal closing the album. It’s a minor point and one that doesn’t take away from OLHAVA‘s achievement, but one that makes this already dense album seem a little unapproachable.

With that said, it’s a wonderful representation of the band’s skill and one that starts to infuse their blackgaze sound with the different sounds they have previously experimented with. Already prolific, releasing four albums in three years, it makes you very excited for what’s next.

Rating: 8/10

Frozen Bloom is out now via Avantgarde Music.

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