Style: Black/Viking metal
Primary Emotions/Themes: The title says it all, some of the coldest music ever to cross my ears
Thoughts: From the very first notes that come out of my speakers when the title track starts, I know that this album is going to be a trek through the frozen landscapes of Norway in the depths of winter. The all keyboard, dungeon synth-esque intro is filled with reverb, synths that feel like they are channeling the spirits of ice as it forms on every surface, and a deep reverence for the cold.
By the time Loke comes my speakers are already encapsulated in ice. It's a minor miracle that they are able to produce sound at all. The metal contained in the album is no less cold than the amazing introduction. The band pays close attention to not only the song structure, but the pacing. While much of the album is fast and blast beat driven, but not all of it.
A good portion of the album is slower than one would expect for black metal from 1994. The band really knows how to create music that pauses for dramatic effect, and this album is quite dramatic. Even the blast beats themselves have variance to them. Within even the aforementioned Loke, the band starts off slow before going into a moderate paced blasting section. After a few bars the band shifts gears again and really amps up the speed, all before slowing down to a near breakdown at the end of the song.
All of this is contained just in one song, but it is truly a microcosm of the whole album. Frost is Enslaved coming into their own. Their first demo and debut album had over-long songs that droned on forever with the same riffs. Loke has the same amount of riffs in it that the ten minute Veternott had from the debut, in half the time.
Enslaved would go on to further the sound found on Frost with their follow up Eld. Frost is where everything started though, and whereas Eld is warm and almost inviting, Frost is as cold as the depths of the northern fjord's in the middle of February.
Written September 9th 2024
No comments:
Post a Comment