Frozen Moments Between Life and Death

Loudblast have always taken a different stylistic direction with each new release. The desire to stay relevant hasn't always worked in Loudblast's favor, "Planet Pandemonium" was (and thankfully still is) the band's largest misstep. Six years later France's biggest metal band is opening for the Big 4 Tour in France and have very recently released "Frozen Moments Between Life and Death". Thankfully this time Loudblast have relaxed a bit, tossing away most of their aggro-rock influenced metal and embracing a more melodic style that is vaguely similar to their popular "Fragments" album. The overall style here is relaxed, mature, and fairly heavy.

Relaxed aggro-rock/melodic death metal? Yes, the careful restraint used when crafting these songs avoids all of the tired macho cliches that made "Planet Pandemonium" (and so many other melodic death metal albums) so insufferable. Stephane Buriez' vocals are a bit too "shouty" for my taste but he shuts up for most of the songs and lets the lead guitars direct the course of each track. Speaking of lead guitars, this is probably some of the slickest, most fluid guitar soloing I've heard on any Loudblast album. Some of the nicer guitar moments on the album resemble Rotting Christ at their finest, particularly brilliant are "To Bury an Empire" / "Never Ending Blast" using both cliche and refined technique to form a nice memorable tune. Production here is vibrant, spacious and clean with big booming double bass drumming.

Loublast have grown in leaps and bounds as musicians and songwriters over these last 6 years and "Frozen Moments Between Life and Death" shows talent and professionalism throughout. Much of the boneheaded traits that killed "Planet Pandemonium" are gone and the result is a solid listening experience. The melodic death metal of "Sublime Dementia" / "Cross the Threshold" is hinted at in small amounts, but a seasoned metal fan knows better than to go around expecting history to ever repeat itself. Enjoyable for what it is, a modern melodic death album from France's biggest metal band.