Maximum Metal Rating Legend

Frosthardr Varg Company: Momentum Scandinavia Release: 2007 Reviewer: Grim Gaijin Genre: Black

Rating 4

Positive thoughts via grim black metal instrumentation

According to www.dictionary.com, the term oxymoron is "a figure of speech by which a locution produces an incongruous, seemingly self-contradictory effect, as in cruel kindness" (or in this case - Christian Black Metal). After all, Black Metal is "loosely-based" on the opposition to Christianity and other organized religions. Being labeled a Christian Black Metal band, Frosthardr represents an even more controversial genre of metal as they subject the listener to positive thoughts via grim black metal instrumentation.

Fortunately for Frosthardr, that is not a bad thing, because on a musical level, they have what it takes to give a lot of black metal bands a run for their money. On their second EP, Varg, Frosthardr conjures up two previous never released recordings, as well as a new track to give us a sense of direction for their next release.

The album opener, Varg, starts off with a hollow acoustic passage then kicks it into high gear with a Cradle of Filth style opening riff. With standard black metal melodic riffs and grim vokills, the blast beats crush through making Frosthardr seemingly indestructible. With a sound similar to classic Marduk (and a touch of late 80's thrash metal), Varg is the perfect opening song for this album as well as a great introduction to the band - if never heard of before. The second song, the near 12 minute epic adventure called Tortured, opens up with a fury, in the veins of Clandestine Blaze and Judas Iscariot. Mixing mid-tempo and blast beat parts, Tortured is a crushing song that not only pays homage to black metal, but to classic thrash and death metal as well. The final song, Thrash against Sin, is an interesting song as it contains black metal style vokills on top of a punk-style, thrash metal fusion. It even includes some death metal style grunts to make it that much more interesting.

Being branded a particular label in the metal scene is highly overrated. It wouldn't matter if Frosthardr was labeled a Christian Black Metal band or a Heathenistic Black Metal band, the fact remains that they are a solid unit that produces top-notch Metal. For those of you that are not that open-minded, don't be discouraged by their genre label, Check Frosthardr out now!