The band has been a tear of touring multiple times a year in North America and overseas. The band proudly wears the Bolt Thrower influence on their sleeves, and now, with album number three, No Place of Warmth, the band wears that influence from head to toe. The band has opted for an even more bombastic and fuller sound, and this creates an avalanche of heaviness. 11 songs in 35 minutes, and the songs pack a wallop.

Opening with the title track, the band opts to have a guest vocalist – Gerard Way, from My Chemical Romance. An interesting choice. Beginning with an atmospheric and epic buildup, you immediately feel those drums in your chest. The Bolt Thrower vibe takes us to the Warmaster sound. Punishing double bass and tank-driven heaviness, this folks is the closest you will ever get to a new Bolt Thrower record. This mid-paced song is vicious, as well as those guitar solos, calling to mind 1991. Chad Green’s gruff style harnesses the power of Karl from BT, and if you close your eyes you might think Karl is singing. Why Frozen Soul has not had him guest on their albums is beyond me. Gerard comes in towards the end of the song and his style actually flows pretty well.

The title track is a good opener, but it’s bested by the best song the band has ever written, the next song. “Invoke War”. This is the perfect song to do my Anatomy of a Song on. Robb Flynn from Machine Head/ex Vio-Lence fame guests on this song and I will just mention his part fits like a glove and he sounds amazing and pissed off. So this tune starts with the song title being belted out by Chad. The drum buildup, with the vocals, and song getting heavier, gets right into the Holy Shit moment when after Chad’s growl, he is briefly isolated, as he once again growls ‘I Invoke War’, at the 36 second mark. The bludgeoning heaviness erupting sends frozen chills down my soul every time I hear this. He sings the part a few more times, but I am telling you, this mid-paced rumbling, is going to cause sinkhole pits nationwide. Maybe it will lower the gas process, perhaps? The song gallops a bit and then the isolated moment and drums create the perfect part for Flynn’s vox then the duet of ‘I Invoke War’ is belted out. Monstrously heavy and kick ass. I am telling the band-you may want to put this song in the middle of the live set. Not in the beginning – it will wear out the crowd. This song demolishes and Samantha’s bass guitar crushes during these moments.

Devin Swank from Sanguisugabogg has a ‘Bogg like song to lend his guest spot to, with “Dreadnought”. I have nicknamed this song FrozenBogg. It has the caveman-like knuckle-dragging heft of Sanguisugabogg, and Swank’s vocals are perfect, as the ever-present bass guitar seems to be even heavier on this song. This is yet another killer song.

The one thing I will mention is that the guest vocal spots are within the first four songs. I think the band should have placed one towards the end of the album, because the album is so heavily front-loaded with these song placements. Just my wooden nickels’ advice.

“Ethereal Dreams” brings in some speed. Galloping heaviness and old school at the same time. There are some nods to the Mercenary era Bolt Thrower sound at the end of this song, and once again, the song structure is pretty strong.

“Killin’ Time (Until It’s Time to Kill)” ends the album and kinda rocks along in a hoppy fashion. Heavy, but it’s a fun, happy tune, IMO, until the crushing heaviness at the 40-second marker. Devastating. There’s even some isolated bass guitar moments, which are excellent. By the way, do not snooze on “Deathweaver”. A most excellent song that enters the doom/death genre.

Michael Munday and Chris Bonner upped their game with their guitar sound and riffing. Song after song has riff after riff and are catchier than the next. The pounding drums of Matt Dennard need to be mentioned, as his steady play and crushing double bass help elevate this album

No Place of Warmth sounds terrific, has amazing songs, and has that dense tank-like heaviness that will go over even better live. How they top this album is beyond me, but Frozen Soul, continues to crush and only a matter of time before we see the band headlining full fledged tours.

Since then these Texas death metal individuals have seen their popularity increase dramatically.  Armed with the hunger to tour Century Media ensured the band was able to get on tours here in the States, as well as travel to Europe.  The band is on fire with the number of live shows they are getting under their belts and therefore it was time for a brand new album.

Glacial Domination sees Frozen Soul stay tried and true to their debut while bringing in some guest singers from Dying Fetus and Creeping Death.  11 songs in 42 minutes with a cool little interlude, right before the title track.

I’ll go right to the best song on the album and that is the fourth track, “Morbid Effigy”, which features a guest vocal appearance by John Gallagher, of Dying Fetus.  The band shot a cool and fun video for this song too.  The song starts with a Holy Shit moment with an awesome riff and right away this song even has an homage to the Dying Fetus sound.  Check out the riff and then right into the groove and low vocals.  The way the drums come in it’s like a perfect mix of Dying Fetus meets Bolt Thrower.  The song picks up some speed but then gets slower – these alternating speeds are awesome and the guitars are pretty damn heavy.  The production is quite excellent which makes this album hit a bit harder than the debut.  The song settles into the Bolt Thrower type of mechanics the band is getting more known for.  At the 2.27 part, when the vocalist Chad says the “Morbid Effigy” line again, the song takes on a groovier and heavier moment with John from Dying Fetus belting out a growl and then his signature gutturals come in singing and saying the song title and this part is so damn vicious I immediately began to two-step and start swinging my fists through the air lopping heads off one by one.  I cannot imagine this song not in their live set, especially since the band even printed up “Morbid Effigy” shirts.

“Invisible Tormentor” is a good album opener with Chad doing a lot of his barking vocals very similar to Karl, of Bolt Thrower fame.  The song alternates between faster speeds and classic early 90’s era, even late 80’s era death metal.  Not complicated, but very catchy.  Frozen Soul have a knack for creating memorable songs, which continue on this sophomore album.  This song has some cool guitar solos, piped in louder in the mix, and the bludgeoning heavy tank-rolling moments will have you whipping out Realm of Chaos in 0.0 seconds to hear those Bolt Thrower similarities.  The riffs are plenty on this song and it’s a great headbanging song.  This would be the perfect song to open their live set with.  It has fast parts and a lot of groove and then some sludgy slowdowns at the end.

The title track would be the perfect middle-of-the-live set song to play.  In the video for the song the band couples the interlude “Annihilation”, right before it, and in relation to the title track as well as the video it works rather well.  This title track is a mid-paced bruiser with a lot of moments, in some respects resembling Amon Amarth.  I am not a fan of that band, but I do like how Frozen Soul injects these moments.  I’ll tell you why.  This song has a lot of what the European crowds eat up by the gallons.  It has certain queues, that call for throwing up your metal horns, and headbanging and the band is smart in crafting tunes that will transfer over well in a live setting.  I could even see Frozen Soul carrying this song out for a few extra minutes live while having the fans throw up their horns screaming “Yeah, Yeah, Yeah” multiple times.

Glacial Domination does not stray far from the debut album and quite honestly Frozen Soul is crafting a formulaic sound that is working for them.  Is this super original?  No, it’s not, by any means.  You will find similarities to Bolt Thrower, Obituary, Benediction and Cancer, however, Frozen Soul, like those bands, is learning to craft catchy AF songs, which transfer over well in a live setting.  I would imagine Frozen Soul’s output after this will sound similar.  They are getting more popular and are a touring machine now.  I really like this band a lot and their homage to this particular death metal style warms my dark and blistered heart.  Great shit!

Hailing from Texas Frozen Soul came pretty much out of nowhere and got signed to Century Media Records and their new label got their name out with some fabulous promotion and album videos.  The band was previously singed on the awesome Maggot Stomp Records and I really enjoyed their 2019 ep – Encased in Ice.  3 of those 4 songs were re-recorded for this debut album, so basically this is 7 new songs.

The title track kicks off this 10 song 39 minute death metal extravaganza and you’ve probably seen the video for it.  The label did an excellent job with getting this video plastered from here to Mars.  Starting with an atmospheric intro buildup the song goes right into a full throttle blast beat and it’s highly evident Bolt Thrower are their main influence, once the mid-paced rumbling heaviness soon takes center stage.  The band focuses on the meaty and heavy riffs.  This is a damn fine opener.  “Arctic Stranglehold” starts with the crushing riffs and thunderous double bass, ripped right from the IVth Crusade, before galloping into a nice early 90’s death metal meat.  Some nice bass guitar work and vocalist Chad Green really harnessing Bolt Thrower’s Karl Willetts pipes.  Close your eyes and listen – I swear it sounds as if Karl did the vocals on this album, I mean it’s scary how Chad emulates him.  Even down to the specific enunciation with stretching out words and holding out the S’s, just like Karl did so perfectly.  The riffs on this track and towards the end of this song are just damn heavy and very catchy.

“Twist the Knife” has a little intro of sorts, before the isolated guitar part spews forth and then the drum rolls and right into the thunderous double bass.  The song has a jumpy feel to start out and then around the 1.30 that slower riff and the music slowing down from the mid-paced rumbling is excellent and then the song slows down a little more. Then right into the tank tread rumbling heaviness and then slowing down again to ensure places from Ft. Worth Texas all the way to Tunisia are no longer left standing.  The song has a bit of a doom death Asphyx approach in certain parts.  The slower moments and then how the song goes right into the mid-paced rumbling heaviness are just some of the things Frozen Soul does so well and this song must be in their live set, once true live shows return.  The pits will cause tidal waves.  “Gravedigger” closes out this album in a very doom death way, before the mid-paced rumbling heaviness returns to wreck-havoc on your chest cavity. 

I have heard some rumblings in the music scene referring to Frozen Soul as generic and/or vanilla type of death metal, unworthy for the hype they have been receiving.  You know, while Crypt of Ice is definitely Bolt Thrower worship, beyond reproach, I love Crypt of Ice.  I mean while the similarities are evident with Bolt Thrower even with them having a female bass guitarist, Samantha Mobley, just as Bolt Thrower has Jo Bench as their bassist, it is quite funny to observe these comparisons.  Crypt of Ice is memorable and has a thick and heavy production – I find myself going back to this album quite a lot this year.  I love memorable songs where I can remember the riffs, song structures and vocal patterns and hot damn Frozen Soul delivers that to me.  I look forward to future music from Frozen Soul as well as their musical growth in the scene.