Frosthelm "The Endless Winter"

    From the endless cold barren lands of North Dakota, comes a band with plenty of pent up aggression that probably comes out of living in a harsh cold environment.
    Frosthelm covers listeners in a thick layer of chilling distorted chaos with their debut full-length release, “The Endless Winter.” This blackened thrash group never offers listeners a dull moment. The compositions are vicious and yet, the incorporation of acoustic guitar riffs gives this album a creative and unpredictable sound. When listening to the album one might find themselves lost in a blizzard of relentless black/thrash guitar riffs with echoes of intense blast beats covering the landscape. The band’s singer strengthens their extreme sound by laying down unapologetic abrasive vocals that demand your attention. Overall, this album keeps listeners on the edge of their music playing devices.
    The beginning of this album really hooked me in, and it instantly peaked my interest. For their first song, “Glacial Eon,” the band’s guitarist presents a soothing sounding acoustic piece. This calm acoustic atmosphere soon fades away and sets up the second song, “Storm of Teeth.” Compared to the first song’s calm effect, a massive heavily distorted guitar riff assault instantly begins to take form. The music pauses for a moment and an audio clip from the movie Hellraiser can be heard, adding a sinister touch to the song. As the cold sounding black metal instrumental arrangement is ferociously tearing away, the singer expresses harsh sounding lyrics with a forceful growl. Track number three, “Forlorn Tides,” continues the extreme frost themed sounding music of despair. Frosthelm’s overall sound is amplified to another level by the drummer’s insane blast beats.
    Now, the band does alter their sound on this album to give listeners a variety of intense compositions. During song number four, “Tomb of Sordid Ruin,” the band decreases the tempo for a bit to create a slow crushing main rhythm that maintains this level of unpredictability. The following tracks continue the black/thrash metal attack and even offer up some heavy grooving rhythms.
    Frosthelm makes sure to effectively demonstrate their musical talents and the band always finds different ways of introducing their style of extreme metal. Track number eight, “The Dragon,” begins with an ominous sounding guitar arrangement. Again, the band does not hesitate and feverishly jumps into a wicked sounding extreme instrumental jam. The final song on this album, “Silent and Dark, the Everlasting,” is one of my favorites on the album. I like how the band develops the music throughout the song and the track fades out with a solemn sounding acoustic guitar riff.
    From how this album was recorded to the musical arrangements, I can’t find a weak moment. Frosthelm really put passion and great work into making this album. “The Endless Winter,” is highly recommend for fans of extreme black/thrash who are looking for a release to keep them engaged until the final song. Just like a unforgiving winter storm, Frosthelm will blanket the world around you with cold chaotic winds and leave listeners in a state of shock, as if they are standing alone on a frozen tundra of black/thrash mayhem.