Frozen Soul: Cold School Death Metal
Here at Distorted Sound Magazine, we’ve waxed lyrical about how fantastic the new wave of revival old-school death metal bands has been. Whether it’s been the punky stylings of GATECREEPER and CREEPING DEATH, the pure dissonance of TOMB MOLD and BLOOD INCANTATION or the generally crushing sonic musings of OUTER HEAVEN and NECROT, the new wave of old-school death metal has been bountiful. And its showing no signs of slowing. The newest champions of the revival movement, Texan bruisers FROZEN SOUL, immediately grabbed attention with their 2019 demo before signing with legendary label Century Media Records in 2020 and dropped their debut full-length, Crypt of Ice, on January 8th this year. So debut album, on a major label, with an unprecedented amount of online hype surrounding them – the band couldn’t ask for a better start, could they?
“For not being able to tour and just publishing the singles on the internet, it did insanely better than we thought. Originally when we were going to start dropping singles, we were meant to be on tour with GATECREEPER and DEVOURMENT, but we missed out on that tour and we felt that it would put a dampener on things as we wouldn’t be able to feel the energy from releasing the singles to an audience but to be honest it was amazing. The majority of feedback and comments we’ve had have been so positive, I’ve been overwhelmed with the positive response.” Comments vocalist Chad Green. “Man, I’ve got a lot of crazy emotion going on. It’s been so much hard work, so much thought has gone into this… I’m just ready for people to hear the record in full, front to back. I’m more stoked for what comes next, though.”
Internet hype will only get a band so far, though. Everyone can type into the digital void until their fingers have blistered about how great a band is, how stellar their album is going to be, but unless the band in question can put their money where their fan’s mouths are it all amounts to naught. Crypt of Ice more than meets expectations. Channelling the mid-tempo gusto of genre favourites BOLT THROWER and OBITUARY, mixed with sublime story telling from Green‘s pen, FROZEN SOUL are onto a winner. And, as it turns out, that storytelling is a vital component for the icy fivesome.
“I’ve spent a lot of my life trying to escape the world around us. It’s never been a nice world to me, so creating stories and making the best out of things is what I’ve done, so I bring that to my lyrical content.” Green begins. “I grew up poor, I didn’t have a way to buy music until I got to a certain age so when I would hear a song on the radio I went off what was in my head and created my own meaning, create my own story. I take that into my lyrics and keep things general while telling a story people can relate to. It has meaning, it has analytical elements to the world, but it’s there for you to make it what you want. We have another band called END TIMES, and that album is almost finished – we wrote an entire story that goes along with the record. We tried not to do that with FROZEN SOUL, but it still happened because storytelling as a valuable thing, and it makes music so much more worthy when there’s a story behind it.”
So, what’s the story behind Crypt of Ice? A Game of Thrones inspired tale of ice zombies? A modern retelling of John Carpenter’s The Thing? Nothing so obvious. Rather, Green has masterfully crafted his tale of a vigilante, taking vengeance of those who have committed the worst of acts against their fellow man, and delivering their souls to a Lovecraftian entity called the Wraith of Death, who keeps them eternally rotting in a frozen Hellscape. But is this a cosmic horror tale of vengeance and consequence, or a serial killer so warped that they have created an otherworldly justification for their butchery?
“That’s open to interpretation… Loosely Crypt of Ice is about a genderless being that seeks vengeance against people who have done unspeakable things to others, and that stems from things that have happened to members of the band and family members, anything from mental abuse to sexual abuse. This being punishes these people by inhabiting the body of this person, hunting them down and then delivering them, body and soul, to the Wraith of Death. This person delivers all these bad people to a frozen purgatory where they deteriorate and freeze and suffer with all the hurt they’ve caused – and that’s exactly what you see on the cover of the album.” Green explains. “But what’s happening in reality is this person is torturing them, killing them, then putting them in a freezer. Whether or not you want to take it as the Wraith of Death is all in this person’s head or it is an actually entity compelling them to do it, that’s up to you.”
It would be remiss not to mention the old-school death metal revival that FROZEN SOUL have already cemented their place in. Though the future of touring is still uncertain the new wave of old-school death metal is as strong as ever, and Green is more than happy for FROZEN SOUL to take a place at the top of the pile. “We started this band with the idea to play music that sounded as close to old-school death metal as possibly because that’s all we really listen to. I love this revival, and I honestly think death metal should never have changed. Death metal is what it is, and while I see the need for people to grow and evolve and not be stagnant, if it isn’t broken don’t try to fix it. Death metal isn’t broken, it’s fucking awesome. I totally identify with that. But we won’t be calling ourselves old-school death metal any more… This is cold-school death metal!”
Crypt of Ice is out now via Century Media Records.
Like FROZEN SOUL on Facebook.