Frozen Ocean are a 1 man band from Russia that has been featured before in this zine and plays a mixture of atmospheric black metal and ambient on the album reviewed while the music on this compilation is more on the raw side of this genre and this is a review of their 2014 cassette compilation "Norse" which was released by Bylec-Tum and consists of his 2011 album "Likegyldig Raseri" and 2013 ep "Vanviddsanger" and another full length from the same year "Natt over Meg".
The first album on the compilation starts out with a very distorted and atmospheric black metal sound that also brings in a good amount of melody while some of the later tracks bring in the more raw and old school side of the genre along with a small amount of blast beats being utilized at times and on the 3rd track high pitched screams are finally added into the music and they add more of a grim feeling when they are used, after awhile there is a good mixture of both instrumental and vocal tracks while most of the tracks are very short in length while most of the music focuses on the rawer and old school style of black metal than what has been presented on the later recordings, and as the album progresses there is one track that displays elements of harsh noise and tortured voices while the following tracks go back to a normal style of black metal.
The second album on this compilation which is also an ep starts out with synths and a more atmospheric dark ambient sound than what was presented on the first recording while the following track sees the music returning to more of a fast and raw black metal sound along with some blast beats and high pitched screams, the music that is presented on the ep also continues the raw and old school tradition that was presented on the previous album reviewed while also bringing in a good mixture of slow, mid paced and fast parts and the last track brings in the sounds of oceans as well as having more synths and keys being utilized
The final album on the compilation starts out with a very powerful sounding bass line before going into a fast and raw black metal direction along with grim and evil high pitched screams and the songs on this recording go for more of an old school 90's style of black metal while also bringing in a good mixture of slow, mid paced and fast parts that bring back a primitive style of the genre that is very rarely utilized this days, after awhile the music starts adding in melody along with a small amount of chanting as well as bringing in a good mixture of vocals and instrumental tracks, after a few songs that are in a pure black metal vein there is a brief use of atmospheric and clean sounds which also mixes in with the heavier parts on later tracks briefly before going back to the style that is heard on most of the tracks while the softer parts also make a return at times.
On these 3 albums Frozen Ocean played a more fast and raw style of black metal than what was presented on the later recordings while you can still hear a small amount of melody and atmosphere in the music at times, the productions sounds very dark, raw and heavy while the lyrics cover winter, death and depression themes.
In my opinion this is a very great sounding compilation from Frozen Ocean and if you are a fan of raw and old school black metal, you should check out this cassette. 8 out of 10.
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