Frost - Open the Portals to Darkness
This is the second release by “The True” Frost and musically, not a lot has changed since their last outing. The only real difference is that the sound has become rawer and dirtier. Invoking the Aeon of Satan, their first release, had a much clearer (though still a bit on the raw side) sound than this. Open the Portals to Darkness has a lot of similarities to Transylvanian Hunger in that it is very raw and aggressive, yet the sound levels for the various instruments were still balanced so that no one instrument drowns out everything. This is “grim” Black Metal in its better variation. A lot of bands forget to add some bass to their guitar sound, making the guitar thin and annoyingly high-pitched. Frost has pretty much followed the formula from their first release and kept the guitars thick and also kept them up in front. The only gripe I have with this CD is the fact that the drum tones need work. The songs are fairly straightforward Darkthrone/Burzum/Von inspired blasts of Black Metal that sticks to the mid-paced realms of speed. There are no guitar solos, no technical stuff and no frills. Frost isn’t going to win medals for originality, but I will give them credit for writing an album that has aggression, feeling and fairly memorable songs. I liked the production on their first album better, but at the same time, Open the Portals to Darkness doesn’t disappoint either.
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