Another aspect that must be considered is the circumstance under which the album was recorded: in concert at Dizzy's Club Coca Cola in New York. That includes a trio of charts by Owens ("Beardom X," "Red Chair," "Soul Conversations"), trumpeter Benny Benack III's sunny "London Towne," bassist Yasushi Nakamura's shapely ballad, "Language of Flowers," John Bettis/Steve Porcaro's multi-layered "Human Nature" (featuring guest vibraphonist Stefon Harris, as does "London Towne") and Neal Hefti's shopworn and patronizing "Girl Talk." Dependable as they are, one senses that the band is capable of more, but as Owens chose the material that must have been his purpose, and the outcome should be weighed on that basis. That's not to say that everything in between is less than pleasing, only more sedate. There’s something to be said for sticking to your strengths, and Frozen Soul seem fully aware of this.Drummer Ulysses Owens, Jr.'s Big Band comes out swinging on its debut recording, Soul Conversations, thundering through Michael Dease's incendiary arrangement of the Dizzy Gillespie/ John Lewis flame-thrower, "Two Bass Hit." For more such heat, however, the listener must move forward to Track 5, John Coltrane's impulsive "Giant Steps," thence to Track 9 for Charles Turner III's earnest homage to "Harlem Harlem Harlem," on which he doubles as vocalist. While not every song brings the same level of excitement that the aforementioned do, there’s at least not any full-on misfires here either, thankfully, and I’m happy to say that no wholly unnecessary sonic elements (specifically clean singing) have been thrown into the mix for the sake of commercial appeal. That being said, standout songs like the absolutely crushing title track and epic closer “Atomic Winter” stand as some of the best songs Frozen Soul has released to date, and are master class examples of modern death metal in both songwriting and execution.
Some of the songs feel somewhat indiscernible due to this and listener fatigue at times sets in by way of everything blending together. There was a hard hitting bite to that material that’s doesn’t feel nearly as present here, and it can sometimes take away from how hard the record hits in general. While there are plenty of moments on this record that sound absolutely HUGE thanks to this and it certainly helps highlight the shift towards more melodic guitarwork, I do find myself missing the more raw, stripped down production of the band’s previous releases.
While the general framework of sledgehammer heavy OSDM is still the backbone of Frozen Soul’s sound, there’s clearly a bigger emphasis on variety, both in an injection of vocal variation and the addition of many more melodic moments via a much bigger helping of guitar solos than previous releases from the band.Īlong with this shift towards more dynamics in their songs comes a much cleaner and polished overall sound for this record, which has both its advantages and drawbacks. That widespread appeal is made even broader with co-production from Matt Heafy of Trivum, whose presence can clearly be felt in some of the newer dynamics brought to the table here. With a driving urgency and anthemic nature on display on all of the album’s 10 main songs, it’s easy to see why they’ve had plenty of crossover appeal into other music scenes as well, and could fit just as well on a hardcore festival as they do a fully stacked metal bill. Pulling heavily from the mid-paced, chugging low-end brand of death metal from legendary bands such as Bolt Thrower and Obituary, Frozen Soul aren’t interested in offering something brand new as much as they are paying tribute to one of the heaviest forms of death metal there is - and they do a damn good job executing that here.
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