Published: August 8, 2013

Almost every time I stop by a German Metal band I never get disappointed and FRIGORIS is no exception, add to it that the integrality of the lyrics in this Pagan gloomy album are in German, a thing that accentuates the common fact that this language is most fit for Rock and Metal. Indeed, from the first glimpse into the artwork (where a wide field of cereals is yielding) can tell it all, alongside the album intro where wind sounds gently shaking the wheat spikes simultaneously with whisperings in German blended with an acoustic guitar magic fingering. But starting from the second track, the general scheme consists of an alternation of tremolo chords backed by Black Metal specific pedaling and acoustic guitar fingering.

Let me first hugely acclaim the growls, which echoed and varyingly pitched (forcing the tremolo backing guitar to go pianissimo), have incredibly flavored the atmosphere with a weird gloomy tension, and which hand in hand with the overdriven guitar effect, even though the melancholic scale (though it was almost kept the same in all tracks) have created some sort of confusion by shifting the general mood into Pagan Metal rather than the old school type. The exception here is “Ode an verlorene Seelen” where the vocals consist of spoken speeches sometimes dealing with irreligious issues, other times turning into horror screeches. Other times such in “Im Keim ertrunken” vocals convey such agony that they often fade into agony screams, but the most marking point is the “Folkish” female voice in “Frühlingsnacht” something which further ornaments the atmosphere.

A thumb up for the tempo variation which was pretty well edited, for instance in “Im Keim ertrunken” where electric guitar low tempo intro is hearable with bass string on first voice, before a second harmonic guitar with the same overdriven effect comes in. This intro last for 2’20” gets followed by a growl announcing the beginning of the headbang ,then playing the same intro but in tremolo mode with a super-fast tempo and loads of drum snares. The same acoustic guitar scheme is better heard in “Hauch” which is a simple but classy instrumental track, which starts with a tremendous acoustic guitar let ring fingering backed by a higher-pitched classic guitar solo with smooth 32th notes, magnificently depicting the song’s title (Height), then a third guitar gets is playing the highest pitch of them three, before ending with a fade out with the first two guitars. A pure pleasure for atmospheric Metal fans.

But for a technical fanatic like me, the lone short solo of this song -in fact the only one in the entire album- and mostly the lack of creativity concerning the guitar-bass bloc can mark a serious loophole. Nevertheless, the hailed drumming with loads of snares and pedals as well as the absence of any basic song structure can be one of the secrets why I had a blast listening to these forty-eight minutes of a genuinely rewarding musical effort.