I reviewed the debut album, Crypt of Ice, in 2021, from newcomers Frozen Soul.  I really enjoyed their previous demo material and the debut album furthered their sound in terms of musical ability and the songs fleshed out more.  The comparisons to old-school bands like Obituary and mainly Bolt Thrower were some of the reasons for me enjoying the band quite a bit.

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!

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