LIVE REVIEW: Frozen Soul @ Boston Music Room, London
August appears to have at least considered warming itself up today, but in London’s Tufnell Park the temperature is about to plummet way below zero. Texan death metallers FROZEN SOUL have recently added their ice-cold sophomore full-length to their arsenal and this evening they bring its full and frosty might to the Boston Music Room. It’s the first in a run of UK dates that will see the band take to Bloodstock Festival’s hallowed Sophie Lancaster Stage in just a few days’ time, and keeping them company before they get to Catton Hall are a couple of the UK’s best and brightest.
The first of these are Brighton extreme metallers WALLOWING, armed with a new album of their own in the form of the Church Road Records-released Earth Reaper. Bathed in green light and dressed as the nastiest group of beekeepers you’ve ever seen, the five-piece are mesmerically intense, with their dual vocalists Mark Roberts and Zak Duffield pouring scorn – and smoke – upon an already well-filled room. They’re only on for half an hour, but they use 20-plus minutes of that to play the title track from their new album, generally sticking to a slow doomy trudge punctuated by occasional bursts of blackened and punky intensity. It’s immersive and imposing, if not a little meandering at points, but either way you’d be hard-pressed to find a body in the room that doesn’t leave with a significant and lasting impression of the Brightonians.
Rating: 7/10
The presence of WALLOWING’s Church Road labelmates CELESTIAL SANCTUARY on this bill feels wholly inevitable. The Cambridge four-piece have supported just about every big death metal band that’s come to town in the last two years, and they’re a well-oiled machine at this point. “Are you ready for some death metal?” asks vocalist Tom Cronin as the band take to the stage – of course – to TENPOLE TUDOR’s Swords Of A Thousand Men. He gets an immediate answer as they kick off with Rid The Gormless, the opener of their 2021 debut full-length received ravenously with circle pitting, two-stepping and even a wall of death.
James Burke’s snare cracks through the mix as tight as anything, and the band play a host of crowd pleasers from that debut of theirs alongside a couple of glimpses of their fast-approaching sophomore full-length Insatiable Thirst For Torment, which – trust us – is another certified ripper. They close with Trapped Within The Rank Membrane, a track which has been around a little while now and will also serve as the opener on their upcoming LP; it’s a phenomenal demonstration of the range this band have nailed – thrashy, groovy, doomy, all of the above – and another reminder to mark your calendar for August 25th to witness the next step in the evolution of the New Wave of British Death Metal.
Rating: 9/10
Glacial Domination may be the new one, but FROZEN SOUL have only ever dealt in absolute crushers and they prove it by opening with Encased In Ice which first appeared on their 2019 debut demo. Like a lot of the best death metal bands around at the moment, the Texans have at least a few roots in hardcore, which becomes immediately apparent as vocalist Chad Green’s demands for stage divers are swiftly met. Much like CELESTIAL SANCTUARY, the band have a good range of approaches nailed down, but it really is their knack for groove that sets them apart most of all. Whether it’s an older cut like Beat To Dust, or a newer one like Morbid Effigy, they deliver with all the might of a swinging battering ram, reducing what little is left of the cartilage in the audience’s necks to a fine powder.
As expected, the band do all this in the glare of a cold blue light, but even then Green is forced to go skins about halfway through the set as the temperature in the room climbs higher and higher. The new stuff goes down brilliantly – especially Arsenal Of War which prompts some serious mic-grabbing thanks to its simple caveman hook – but there’s plenty from 2021’s Crypt Of Ice in the mix that proves more than capable of holding its own. They close with the title track off that record, refusing to start until Green‘s request for the “biggest fucking circle pit” is met, and in doing so round out a relatively swift but nonetheless comprehensive demonstration of power from the undisputed masters of cold school death metal.
Rating: 9/10
Check out our photo gallery from the night’s action in London from Karolina Janikunaite here:
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