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The Frost > Everlasting Damnation > Reviews
The Frost - Everlasting Damnation

The violin works fine with the music. - 80%

oneyoudontknow, June 6th, 2009

It is the year 2009 and this would be the fourth review I write on The Frost. The odyssey started back in 2006 with their Damned and Forgotten demo, of which I read a review at Myrrthronth and bought it from the band soon after; despite the rather average rating and perception. Since this incident I tried to cover the performance of the band in some respect and was therefore able to follow their progressions over the years. These are interesting, so much is certain, and they might come to one or another person as a surprise; especially to those merely familiar with their early works.

The origins of the band lay in some Darkthrone worshipping music, but evolved steadily away from this rather done to death approach, towards something with more dynamic, thrashy and maybe even punkish notes. Everlasting Damnation would be their latest release and comes with an instrument outside of the general routine of black metal concepts: a violin. A small excurse: The Norwegian band Morgul began to use it since their 2000 The Horror Grandeur full-length release, yet it might led to confusion to sort this particular one under the black metal genre, due to the overall style of this album. Nevertheless, the parts of the violin were able to enrich the music in a neat and proper way, to create a somehow unique kind of atmosphere. It became an essential part of their oeuvre and Morgul made excessive use of it; the songs became a special (gipsy?) touch and dynamic, something to give it an identity which made it stand aside from what is generally offered in the black metal scene.

Back to The Frost: when it comes to the way the violin was used on Everlasting Damnation, then the degree and impact appears on a much smaller scale, compared to the issue discussed in the preceding paragraph. This might come as a surprise as three (!) out of five compositions have motives of this instruments; I'm The Pain Of God, They'll Rape Your Soul and Cursed Brotherhood. Yet, these are generally short and work as a texture to support the music, to give it more volume and to present to the listener something out of the ordinary routine. Actually, some additional moments of this 'moaning' of the violin in the background would be really cool, as it works very fine with the thrashy/punkish black metal of The Frost.

Beyond this most certainly interesting aspect, some light on the black metal needs to be shed as well. The Frost have some thrashy/punkish note in their concept. Further is it necessary to point to the 'fucked up' attitude that is transported through the songs and it fits very well to the music. The compositions are dirty, have reverb and also the switches to the bass, while the guitars leave, are quite cool. It is astounding that this band is nearly able to keep the impression up until the end. Those five compositions are rather out of the common black metal. A high pace, a lot of variation of the motives, solo elements, a raw sound, often clearly distinguishable bass lines... actually, there is a lot going on here and the tracks are really good. Also the distorted and aggressive vocals, despite the occasionally strange lyrics, work fine with the music.

The repetition of motives and ideas might kill it a bit as The Frost tends to overdo it at times and sometimes less would be more; even a slight variation now and then could certainly help the cause. Yes, it is getting nit-picky, but the reviewer has to take what he gets. Another aspect cuts deeper and may be due to some personal preferences: even though The Frost did a good job by combining the violin with the black metal aspects, the whole concept is still wanting; especially when it comes to the track They'll Rape Your Soul. This would be the longest track and in terms of the song-writing, then it is not entirely convincing. In fact, the part which would have the above discussed combination of instruments stands is stark contrast to the general style of the band; atmospheric -- some might even tend to use the phrase 'depressive' -- without the harshness of the black metal, a break in the tension and dynamic. Not that it would be entirely bad, but it is somehow too long and fails to fit into the overall impression gained from this demo. One further point: why does the violin appear on Cursed Brotherhood only once at the beginning? The concept on how to use this instrument has not become full circle, yet. A final point on the issue of criticism would be the impression that the compositions sound just a little bit too alike.

So, purists ... black metal is able to evolve and does not necessarily have to rely on the old formula of vocals-guitar-bass-drums. Carpathian Forest once crafted a nice example on how a saxophone works together with their particular style of music and The Frost used a violin for their purposes. More of this experimentation would be a nice thing indeed, not only when it comes to he Croatian band, but without at the expense of loosing touch with their roots. Everlasting Damnation has some interesting moments and is a further step in the right direction for this band. To what further level their concept can be brought only time can tell, but to see the music constantly evolving and leaving the plainness and simplicity of the early days behind, the revamping and new interpreting of the concept, is certainly something worth to be noted and emphasized. I have no doubts that the tracks on this demo would work live quite well.

Rating: 75 for the music +5 bonus points for the violin.

Recommended tracks: Cursed Brotherhood

The release comes with a neat red inlay and a nice cover artwork.