I’ll admit to enjoying the Facedown debut, Ice Upon the Night from this relatively obscure Finnish melodic death metal act, but I’m still surprised they released a follow up on the growing Christian metal roster of Facedown, but here it is and it delivers exactly what you’d expect from their self proclaimed “Winter metal”.

11 tracks of typically Finnish, super melodic, dual guitar laden, early Children of Bodom, early Dark Tranquillity and Norther styled melodeath with energetic bouncy, upbeat tracks all glossed with various frosty themes. It’s all pretty solid and far more melodic than normal, but hardly groundbreaking, but I’ll admit Immortal Souls at times, do have a knack for penning some terrifically hooks.

The opening trio of “Nightfrost”, “Feareaper” and “Frozen Inside” deliver attention grabbing, high octane and infectiously catchy riffage, but there after, Wintereich starts to sound a bit recycled and blend into one similar sounding, albeit relatively enjoyable affair. The last 7 tracks are far from bad, per say, just a bit ‘meh’ even though they are polished and suitably upbeat within the realms of the genre. Only penultimate track “Black Water” stands out, but because of the slightly iffy clean vocals that make a sudden appearance in Immortal Souls’ repertoire (and they also grace the closing title track).

In all, a fair to middling album from a fair to middling act, that remains the literal black sheep on Facedown’s roster (who I have to give credit for still releasing this rather out of character album) but seem consistent if average in their delivery of chilly melodic death metal.

[Visit the band's website]

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