Album Details

• Artist: Frost Giant
• EP:
When Myth And History Merged Into Mystery
• Label: Blasphemour Records
• Year of Release: 2012
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: mark_morton on 2012-08-31

Prepare for a throw-down in the mead hall! From out of the cold, dense woodlands of Pennsylvania roars Frost Giant, a blood-and-steel spewing metallic warbeast hellbent on spreading the gospel of what it calls "heathen hardcore."

The crux of the band's sound is the carnivorous clashing of two worlds - the rampaging aggression of inspired classic hardcore like Minor Threat, Black Flag, and Agnostic Front joining forces with the melodic, shamanistic metal-play of Scandinavian bands like Korpiklaani, Ensiferum, and Tyr.

And like any band that makes a marked attempt at something never heard before, the music takes a bit of getting used to, as its belligerent, left-hook riffing and percussive skull-bashing is interwoven with a refreshing spiritual stoicism almost never heard from an American band.

The conviction of the sing-along choruses matched with the steadfast nature of the lead vocals actually lifts your spirits and puts you into a positive frame of mind. And as Frost Giant is marked by genre blending, the vocal delivery ranges from trollish death growls to back-alley brawling yelps and Danzig-like moon-howls.

I wouldn't call what the band creates "songs" as much as I would refer to them as hymns for the mosh pit. As potent as the lyrics are, the music is performed with such dedicated passion that it naturally commands attention.

If Frost Giant takes off, it could very well be on the cusp of a new genre of metal, which, in this day and age of homogenized glop people call metal these days, is a pretty wild thought.

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