ALBUM REVIEW: No Place Of Warmth – Frozen Soul

The temperatures in Fort Worth, Texas average around the thirty degree mark consistently, which is typical for the American South, however for the city’s death metal titans FROZEN SOUL, it’s always at below freezing point. Their ice cold death metal is sounding colder than ever as the band progresses.

Now onto album number three with their latest opus, No Place Of Warmth, the band prove early why they are at the forefront of modern death metal. Showcasing a devastating  display of everything that makes the death metal genre so brilliantly murderous in a sonic sense, and show just how much of a powerhouse band they have grown into.

The album opens with the chilling strains of the album’s title track, which wouldn’t sound out of a place on a classic 80s slasher flick, before a razor sharp groove and a pounding drumbeat steamrolls into place and the commanding vocals of Chad Green take control. An unexpected vocal guest alongside Green in Gerard Way of MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE is a nice touch, and it definitely works well, kickstarting another collection of that ice cold and frostbitten death metal that has become synonymous with their namesake.

After that stark opening, the album rolls on triumphantly, taking out anything in its path with a vulgar display of groove laden brutality on the following track Invoke War, which features another guest in MACHINE HEAD‘s Robb Flynn roaring alongside Green. The pummeling brief sub one minute Absolute Zero and the titanium heavy Dreadnought, which features Devin Swank of SANGUISUGABOGG, destroys your speakers with is bass heavy groove, and when the soaring guitars come into play, it’s game over.

The ferocity continues with the aptly named Chaos Will Reign, a track with a definite hardcore influence in tandem with the completely savage death metal, while the mesmerisingly heavy Eyes Of Despair or the vicious swirl of Ethereal Dreams continues the maelstrom of metal madness.

Skinned By The Wind opens up with a killer sample before a low slung groove comes into play and although this song is brief (as a few are on the album), it more than makes it mark.  The majestic heaviness of DEATHWEAVER follows before Frost Forged and the fantastically titled and fun stomp of Killin Time (Until It’s Time To Kill) ends the album brilliantly.

The aforementioned artists that have guest appearances on No Place Of Warmth are very impressive indeed too, and while collaborations with fellow newer death metallers SANGUISUGABOGG makes logical sense, the likes of Gerard Way and Robb Flynn are much more wildcard choices.. What’s important here is that all three undeniably work and show the scope in which FROZEN SOUL are looking for in terms of taking their music further, and if the appearances of Way and Flynn can open the band, and indeed death metal as a genre, to a wider audience, then that’s a very good thing indeed. 

No Place Of Warmth is an album that will take The Texans up to another level, a level that looks to surpass the general constraints of their genre. The future of death metal is in safe, frostbitten hands with FROZEN SOUL. 

Rating: 8/10

No Place Of Warmth is out now via Century Media Records.