The production is as smooth as ice. The riffs and musicianship are chilly. Combined, this record is no doubt a stone-cold killer… Now with all the puns out of the way, let’s get to the meat and bones of the phenomenal record that is Glacial Domination (Century Media), the sophomore long-player from the Texas-based death metal act, Frozen Soul, who, to the uninitiated, has been deservedly lumped in with like-minded and acclaimed modern acts such as Undeath and 200 Stab Wounds. The eleven tracks are the culmination of blue-collared musicians laying down white-collared death metal. 

There are no frills or wasted space here, only a bevy of knee-jerkers and ferocious stampedes.

Vocalist Chad Green spews notes which spawn breaths of condensation and harshes which are coated with pellets of asphalt. ‘Death And Glory’ is, to put it bluntly, mired in detritus. There is even a brutal death metal hook as ‘Morbid Effigy’ devolves into down-tempo decimation.

Whether by accident or design, the title track is a sultry toe-tapper: crisp and tight, ‘Glacial Domination’ is chuggy and bombastic through and through. Chris Bonner and Michael-just-another-manic Munday are vicious and labored in their slashes on the strings. ‘Arsenal Of War’ is engaging tremolo soloing.

However, as previously touched on, Frozen Soul is not the grimy, maggot-infested death metal that cleans up about as nice as a Motel 6 off the beaten path. The five-piece collectively trim any extemporaneous stubble and make Glacial Domination a crystalline museum exhibit. Chalk it up to a resource-rich label like Century Media, but it’s obscenely apparent the band emphasizes deliberhttps://youtu.be/07wp-yDNzdcate, veteran-style musicianship. 

Through and through, the answer to 2021’s Crypt Of Ice expunges any notion that death metal by nature needs to be musty and blemished. Frozen Soul are as efficient as a meat locker, as serious as a Siberian winter.

Buy the album here:

https://frozensoul.lnk.to/GlacialDomination

8 / 10

MATT COOK