Grima – Frostbitten
Grima – Frostbitten
Naturmacht Productions
Release Date: 29/07/22
Running Time: 48:55
Review by Rick Eaglestone
10/10
The bleak and nightmarish duo return with new album “Frostbitten”.
I will be 100% transparent immediately, Grima’s last release “Rotten Garden” was phenomenal. And when it comes to this album, I have seen the cover, watched the first released video, and pre ordered the album, along with the repress of the previous album. So already I am expecting big things from this, so let’s go…
The first track ‘Gloomy Heart of the Coldest Land’ is an ambitious nine and half minutes, and I have to say it has already justified top marks – it is just a plethora of bleak, foreboding black metal and still carries the air of mystery that surrounds the Russian duo.
‘Giant’s Eternal Sleep’, the first released track from the album, starts off with sweeping melodies which engulf into absolute fury, the accompanying video is wonderfully cinematic and worth more than one viewing.
My highlight track of the album comes in the form ‘Into the Twilight’. The start has clean vocals and is full of atmospheric parts, and for me it just slots in so well with the overall aesthetic of the album. The heavier parts later effortlessly mould themselves in between swirling guitar parts. Heavy and rampart ‘Hunger God’ grips the listener for the entirety of the track, the melodic parts weave throughout only making the heavier parts feel even more unrelenting.
The howling winds of ‘Moonspell and Grief’ captivate and honestly, I would not have minded if this track has been completely instrumental, as it has some very well-structured elements, again the torment returns but this time it is slightly less harsh and does not entirely take over the track.
I am absolutely obsessed with the opening part of ‘Winter Morning Tower’ this maybe largely due to the introduction of the Bayan – I am a complete sucker for its inclusion, especially with black metal, and the gentler guitar laden throughout only justify why I cannot stop playing this track over and over, even at 10 minutes long.
Lastly, the album concludes with the short instrumental ‘Mana’ which is so well placed with the previous track that I had not realised it was a separate track after the first listen, but it is just a perfect way to end such a wonderfully prefect album.
A conceptual nightmare of human detachment.
‘Giant’s Eternal Sleep’ Official Video
TRACKLISTING:
01. Gloomy Heart of the Coldest Land
02. Giant’s Eternal Sleep
03. Into the Twilight
04. Hunger God
05. Moonspell and Grief
06. Winter Morning Tower
07. Mana
LINE-UP:
Vilhelm – Vocals, Guitar
Morbius – Guitar
Studio:
Serpentum – Bass
Vlad – Drums
Valentina Astashova – Keys
Sergey Pastukh – Bayan
LINKS:
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