I’ve reviewed a fair amount of Denmark’s, Crocell’s releases and have enjoyed all of their albums.  The band started out as a pretty hefty sounding melodic, but chunky, style of death metal.  Several years ago the influx of black metal began to permeate into their releases and with their sixth long-player Of Frost, of Flame, of Flesh, contains a huge portion of the black metal sounds in these 8 songs encompassing 35 minutes.

“Search of Solace” begins with a very strong Darkthrone A Blaze in the Northern Sky, guitar tone.  I love this since that is my favorite DT album, and the opening riff, just like on that DT album, has some Celtic Frost leanings.  The mid-pace portion gives way to intense blasting as vocalist, Asbjörn Steffensen, lets loose with his gruff style of blackened death metal vocals.  He enunciates quite well, in fact.  Mads Gath is the new guitarist and he pairs well with Tommy Christensen.  Andreas Posselt is back to punish us with the drums and this song takes on an atmospheric aspect midway through, slowing down in order for some of those melodic black metal riffs to breathe.

“Chanting Fire” is up next and blazing blasts erupt immediately for full-throttle impact.  Onkel Kusse’s bass guitar is somewhat audible, other times it does get buried in the mix.  This track has a multitude of tempo shifts with quite a lot of atmosphere.  At this point, with my review, it’s safe to say the band has made the shift to melodic black metal.  Now while there are some death metal influences with a variety of gruffer/deeper vocal tones and certain musical structures, they’re not enough to call Crocell a blackened death metal band.  Crocell is in the black metal category now, fine by me, since the band still brings it!!  But if you were to compare this and some of their more recent offerings to their earlier releases it’s apparent this is no longer a death metal band.

“Serpent’s Hunger” is a great song, with a little bass slide to open the track and monstrous blasts.  The isolated drums at the 1.20 mark, where it’s just drums and vocals for a short period of time, before the other instruments come into the picture, is a neat and clever idea.  These little moments, throughout the album, help with the creativity and Crocell has an interesting take on this style of metal, for sure.

“Fierce Desire” opens with a nifty drum roll as the mid-paced galloping has a very late 80’s metal vibe to it.  Very catchy.  This song actually has more death metal leanings, and the galloping pace is quite similar to certain moments on Celtic Frost’s To Mega Therion legendary 1985 album.  There’s some talented guitar solos happening which are played with much emotion and that galloping pace returns in full swing as the black metal riffing continues onward.  This is my favorite song on the album.

If you’re just coming back to the Crocell fold after knowing them, initially, as a death metal band, then be prepared for the genre shift.  Of Frost, of Flame, of Flesh is a black metal album with melodic moments, as well as atmosphere and brutal blasting moments throughout the album.  The band is quite proficient with their instruments and there are many interesting and captivating moments on this album.  Damn good music!!

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