FUNERAL FROST – queen of frost – GATEFOLD DOUBLE LP

Black Metal – Black version – Werewolf Records

Both triumphant and melancholic, violent and resigned, hysteric and finessed, Queen of Frost brazenly displayed the full swathe of FUNERAL FROST’s considerable arsenal. With a raw-yet-robust soundfield neither dampening nor exaggerating any of their dynamics, here did the Swedish trio spelunk in dungeons and raze battlefields alike, their screaming-into-the-nightsky sound surprisingly medieval and moody. Likewise, compared to so many of their blastbeating-all-the-time contemporaries, FUNERAL FROST shifted speeds often and never lingered too long in one, with the drums in particular ringing with authentically analog clarity. Add to this a subtle daubing of synths and Queen of Frost stands as a crucial tome for those into classic Arckanum, Kvist, Sorhin, and Norway’s Perished.