Album review: Frozen Soul – Glacial Domination

Frozen Soul are part of a wave of Texan bands proving there’s plenty of nastiness lurking in the Lone Star State. Fittingly, members of Creeping Death and Power Trip show up here to lend support, but the most significant assistance on Glacial Domination actually comes from a Florida-based musician: with Trivium’s Matt Heafy on co-production duties, this second album feels like a definite step up from 2021’s promising debut Crypt Of Ice.

The band certainly have a knack for delivering instantly effective tunes, splitting the difference between old school brutality and timeless accessibility. Invisible Tormentor cracks things open with a groovy stomp that could almost be described as fun, not a word you’d necessarily associate with a song about painful death. Glacial Domination’s title track, meanwhile, benefits from a big room thrash feel that wouldn’t seem out of place on a Metallica album. Even Morbid Effigy, a piece of work so gutturally heavy it had to include a guest spot from John Gallagher out of Dying Fetus, is in possession of a certain caveman catchiness.

The latter is just one of several tracks to feature an extended synth intro; there’s even a standalone piece called Annihilation that feels like it’s been surgically removed from an ’80s horror soundtrack. Fittingly, the songs Frozen Soul and Assimilator both take lyrical inspiration from John Carpenter’s masterpiece The Thing, though elsewhere subject matter comes from somewhere closer to home, with Arsenal Of War and Death And Glory fuelled by the tragic loss of vocalist Chad Green’s younger brother.

These songs of fire and ice are both a heartfelt tribute, and the sound of a band very much in their ascendancy.

Rating: 4/5

For fans of: Obituary, Bolt Thrower, Skeletal Remains

Glacial Domination is released on May 19 via Century Media