Review Summary: Breaking Some Barriers, Upholding Others
Power. Metal. Love it or hate it, it has been there since metal’s conception, carrying the vast spirit of the warriors of today as well as the hundreds of thousands of combatant souls from long ago. Millions continue to propagate this spirit, both as creators and many more as undiverted fans. Unfortunately some are much, much more talented than others, and as a result few Power Metal bands receive general approval from metal casuals as well as elitists. It takes a lot to blow the minds of the lactose intolerant, and many a peasant simply cannot handle the glory that comes with high tuned guitars and everpresent, gleeful melody.
So what do the Italian band Frozen Crown, with their indistinguishable-among-thousands-of –bands-generic-Power-Metal-name, bring to the table on
The Fallen King?
The truth is that, at least on this present album, you get largely what you expect. However the band does pull a few punches not so expectant, namely the lovely male-female duet of singers Federico Mondelli and Giada “Jade” Etro. They sing in harmony on nearly every track and sound wonderful paired together, with Etro occasionally going solo while Mondelli intercedes with rather poor ‘core-like harsh vocals. He really shouldn’t have bothered with those. Their voices are particularly magical on intro track
Fail No More and
The Shieldmaiden (the latter unfortunately also having some of the aforementioned bleh harsh vox but they are forgiveable given the loveliness of the track overall).
Further surprises include the genre-mixing track
Queen of Blades. Power Metal in scope, it takes a more Melodic Death Metal approach, with Etro singing solo and Mondelli offering his ‘core brand vocals. Normally I would hate something like this but the mix is actually quite nice and I recommend it for fans of any of those genres. Ending track
Netherstorm is the heaviest song, featuring Death Metal-style blast beat sections and slightly deeper, more believable harsh vox on Mondelli’s part.
Finally you have just straight up traditional Power Metal goodness like
Everwinter. It’s standard, it’s good, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
Overall not a bad debut by any means for a 2010s Power Metal band. The duo vox will probably be their mainstay and niche across the many vast kingdoms of the Power Metal empire, and they are certainly a band worth looking into if you care at all for your bone density.
