Winterbane

If you had played me this album and told me nothing had changed about the bands lineup, I'd have believed you. Maybe I'd have thought Alberto took a couple of jazz drum lessons here and there, but Frozen Crown very much still sounds like Frozen Crown without Alberto, Fillipo, or Thalia. On the later, much as I hate to ruin the magic, she had precisely one lead appearance, Kings. That's right on Crowned In Frost, she didn't couldn't be arsed to show up to record one lead. So out goes them, in comes Ikki, Nisso and Fabiola, who is called Sheena. Why is she called Sheena? Don't know.

When Ultraboris was active talked about an album condition called "Defenders of the Faith syndrome." This is a syndrome where the album starts off with a really strong run of songs, and then kind of peters out at the end. That's what we have here. Which isn't to say the second half is awful, just not as strong. Now don't be thinking the band has wimped out due to a lineup change. Because of a female-centricity most people want to call Frozen Crown a symphonic power metal band. I call them a power metal band with subtle thrash tendencies. Look no further than Neverending, which was an early Overkill scorcher with a Rust In Peace sound that just happened to have a female singer. Same story here, Embrace The Night starts the whole album off with a proper thrash riff. Off the top of my head none of these songs do that soft breakdown shit that a lot of these bands seem to do either.

The previous review complains that the vocal harmonies between Giada and Federico are gone, replaced by a multi-tracked Giada. After reading this I couldn't unhear it myself, but Federico claimed an online interview that this claim was preposterous and that their vocal harmonies are still intact. I don't know if this is a matter of the choruses being more memorable on previous albums or just the harmonies being mic'd wrong, but they aren't quite popping like they did on Lost In Time, In The Dark etc.,. The stupid death metal vocals are here too, although once again they are confined to two songs. In my opinion Federico should leave those to Voulturian, since that's the more "modern" project of his.

Highlights: The Lone Stranger is the Iron Maiden song we've been wanting them to write for over a decade. It comes in, smashes everything with devastating melody combined with a half gallap/half bounce and then leaves. Incidentally, it's also the final song of the opening run of tracks I was refering to earlier. First single Far Beyond takes a hard look at signature song Neverending and says "yeah we can go faster than that" and scorches through at such a speed that makes Matt Pike want to re-shroom. Then there's Angels In Disguise, the duet with Voulturian lass Federica Lanna, which is the catchiest song on the album, and the thing I love is that Federico remembers solos in every song or no metal at all, wimps and Disney princesses leave the hall.

Of the others, like I said, I don't like it when Federico's growls show up in Frozen Crown, but I have to admit that a song like Winterfall is so good I can look past it. Crown Eternal and Blood On The Snow are no Winterfall. Crown Eternal seems to take its cues from mid 00's metalcore/melodic death metal (Hey Patrick what am I? Stupid? No I'm Texas! What's the difference?). Now, I think this would have been a brilliant subversion of that riffing style if it was just Giada and Federico singing the whole time, but alas that's not what happens here. There's a Priest cover here too, which the purist in me appreciates, but Giada just doesn't sound menacing here. The whisper breakdown in particular, she sounds like she's telling a really naughty story rather than fortelling some poor shmuck's final moments.

Nonetheless, if you like Fallen King and Crowned in Frost, you'll love this. Get it anyway, if for no other reason to get a good laugh at who they thought was "the coolest guy in metal" in the liner notes.

The all important third album, just ask Slayer, Metallica, Anthrax etcetera. The third album quite often turns out a highlight of any bands career, be it financially or artistically. So the Italians Federico Mondelli (Guitars& vocals) and Giada Etro (lead vocals) are here with their third album. And the expectations are high. As they should be.

However first thing to notice is Frozen Crown now being an almost entirely different band now. 3/5 of its members were replaced. No idea why, maybe the COVID situation, or perhaps even for artistical reasons.

I own their first two albums and I must say I prefer their fast(er) more uptempo songs. The midpaced songs were okay but uptempo tracks like 'Fail No More' and 'Neverending' exceeded the common power metal average quality bar. And that was because, apart from being good songs, the lead vocals worked best. When Mondelli and Etro sing in harmony, it can really elevate a song.

So on the new album I immediately picked out the fast songs first. The lead single 'Far Beyond' being the obvious first choice. However it becomes apparent that altough the chorus is good the vocal harmonies, which made the earlier mentioned 'classics' like Neverending stand out, are missing exactly when the song needs them. You can hear Etro doubled het vocals but there's no dominating all powerful harmony, leaving me feeling actually dissatisfied. In all, it's a good song but not an outstanding one.

Another faster song 'Embrace the Night' sounds more like Unleash the Archers than the previous Frozen Crown albums. Even though I do like a few UTA songs (actually, mostly only 'Awakening' due to its perfect chorus) I prefer Frozen Crown to sound like.... Frozen Crown. And even though the vocals harmonies are there, in the chorus, it seems more like Mondelli is doubling the main chorus melody than actually adding a harmony. So, once again, it's a good song but not an outstanding one.

Songs like 'The Lone Stranger' and 'Towards the Sun ' are going firmly back to 1986 Iron Maiden and 'Crown Eternal' feels like a post-nineties scandinavian death metal song with added female vocals. I utterly dislike 'Crown Eternal' I must admit. Those harsh vocals on melodic albums are so tedious, uninspired and even dated. 'The Water Dancer' is more of a folk metal tune. Good song but more suited for people into bands like Delain or Epica. This also goes for the chorus 'Angels in Disguise' which is just middle of the road post-Y2k FFM. Mediocre at best.

So I must now say something about the "epic" song on the album, the almost-9 minute 'Blood on the Snow'. It takes almost 2 minutes before the song actually gets going and then.. death grunts. Thanks but no thanks! A band which has two vocalist which can make vocal hamonies work better than 50% of other metal bands doing this? This is just a waste of talent. But is the song any good? Well actually it is kind of boring. We even get blastbeats at the 4:24 mark. This is just pathetic really. I've listened to it about 5 times now but I know that after writing this review I'll probably never play it again willingly.

So all in all, their first two albums admittedly also had a decent amount of of filler but at least those albums had a few real standout tracks. This new album lacks those standouts. The best songs here are nowhere close to Fail Nor More, Neverending, The Shieldmaiden or Kings. Because the best songs here would've been 'just okay' on the previous albums.

It's not a bad album just a very mediocre one.
Frozen Crown have made a misstep here and I think it's time for them to choose which direction to go next and get more focussed.