FROSTBITTEN KINGDOM „Obscure Visions Of Chaotic Annihilation””

Music: Black/Death Metal
Website: http://www.myspace.com/frostbittenkingdomofficial
Country: Finland
Duration: 39:50 (8 songs)


Cool Songs: Towards The Battlefields, The Requiem, Demise of the Suns, Obscure Visions of Chaotic Annihilation

Frostbitten Kingdom is a Finnish extreme metal act who could be described through common definitions as an act which evokes a fusion of Black and Death Metal. Although Finland is known for acts who conjured up their own unique style of extreme metal such as Archgoat, Satanic Warmaster, October Falls, Thy Serpent, or more popular acts such as Children Of Bodom, Frostbitten Kingdom have managed to build up their own brand of extremity since they formed back in 2004, through means of fusing elements from both Black and Death metal genre’s, epic melody and chaotic brutality.

Their latest opus “Obscure Visions Of Chaotic Annihilation” which was released couple of months back, marks another cornerstone in Finnish Extreme Metal. The album opens with “…Of Genocide And Creation” which is a short introductory instrumental clocking at 1:05 minutes, which unobtrusively hints towards the Symphonic side of the genre, used by Frostbitten Kingdom to introduce and brace the listener to lay down expectations for the rest of the album. The chaos which the album title speaks of, kicks off with the second track of the album “Towards The Battlefields”. Belphegor-ish pinch harmonics glint throughout the song which is equilibrated by S.Vainio’s drumming and vocalist H.Kanervo. “Towards The Battlefields” is also quite a short anthem considering the durations of the rest of the songs.

Frostbitten Kingdom’s tendencies towards chaos fused with melody is quite evident through “The Requiem”, which could be named as one of my favorite tracks off the opus. The guitar and drum work is to be complimented here with its contributions to this song. Although his screeches are top notch, Kanervo’s evident potential of executing the low growl to a better standard which in turn would lead to his vocal style reaching a touchstone of perfection, show towards the end of the song. The mellow side of the band is unveiled for a brief moment through “Embrace The Frozen Oceans”, which is initially slow paced drumming complimented through lead guitar melodies, although they waste no time in getting back to the key definition of this album and band, Chaos. Most of the offset part of the song emits and displays influences off the early Dissection era through guitar melodies (not forgetting the commendable solo work by H.Kanervo at the latter part), drum work and vocal patterns. Which of course is not surprising as the band itself labels Dissection as one of their top influences. The mellow side of Frostbitten Kingdom is again revealed through “Origin, Birth and the Funeral Incest” as the slow paced drum work by Vainio and Kanervo’s screeches compliment the Hammett-Schuldiner influenced guitar solos performed by whom I presume to be, Kanervo and the additional guitar contributor to the album, Petri Salmio.

When I picked up this album, one of the first things I noticed were the similarities between Frostbitten Kingdom and Norway’s Immortal. This is of course was regarding the art work, track titles and the name of the band itself. I was later led to discover that Immortal’s influence over the band was not only through visual projection, but also through the music itself, the best example being the beginning of the title track “Obscure Visions Of Chaotic Annihilation” itself, which expresses a high standard of influence by Immortal over Frostbitten Kingdom’s music.
Variation occurs again through the longest running track from the album, “Demise of the Suns”. Clocking at 11:15 minutes, Kanervo’s clean guitar work and Krappala’s bass work, plays a prominent role between mid paced drum work and distorted guitar contributing again to the fact of the track being another one of my favorite compositions from the album. Which leads to the ending track “Serene Closure”, an ambient keyboard composition performed by Artturi Laukkamen who makes sure it’s up to perfect standard, qualifying to provide the perfect ending to the chaos.

Although innovation makes less of an appearance through out this well produced album, the bands work on it to make it interesting as possible through means of variation and the rejection towards innovation just for sake of being innovative (which is the path most bands attempt to take) should be complimented greatly here. The band have stuck to their original, honest theme of completely and successfully executing their own creation of bedlam fused melody without losing themselves in an domain alien to them and losing the sincerity towards their preferred genre of music. With “Obscure Visions Of Chaotic Annihilation”, I hereby predict bright future ahead for this project, hoping to hear fresh material soon and wishing the band nothing but the best.

note: 7.5/10

Tracklist

…Of Genocide & Creation
Towards the Battlefields
The Requiem
Embrace of the Frozen Oceans
Origin, Birth and the Funeral Incest
Obscure Visions of Chaotic Annihilation
Demise of the Suns
Serene Closure

Line-up

H. Kanervo – Vocals, Rhythm Guitar
O. Hurme – Lead Guitar
K. Krappala – Bass
S. Vainio – Drums