Frostfall – Dark Torments / Beyond The Dusk (2010)

Courtesy of Final Eartbeat productions we all the way from Italy we get Frostfall’s first two demos released on CD. We will be reviewing both demos separately in this space since they are huge differences between them. Hailing from France, Frostfall is a Black Metal band that is very raw and brutal in nature.

The first demo “Dark Torments” was originally released in 1999 and you can really notice that by the way it sounds. Having very bad clicking and popping noises due to the low quality of the recording we almost thought our Home Theater’s speakers got damaged. However, there are some hints of quality in this recording.

The clean atmospheric passages are very well structured and they provide a nice change of pace from what it is a very nihilistic Black Metal release. The music is very brutal in nature and switches back and forth between well crafted atmospheric sections, too bad it sounds very convoluted due to the production values.

The use of keyboards is very crafty, and on the track “The Gates Of Souls Are Opened” this one man band excels at creating a haunting atmosphere. Paired with deep vocals and shrieks, this song is by far the best on “Dark Torments” since it captures the title of the demo perfectly. The drumming is fast as hell and it makes the band sound very powerful.

Going over “Beyond The Dusk”, we not hear a much better recording quality and we are able to fully appreciate the band’s quality. With a very ethereal intro, Frostfall immediately immerses into a thick sounding Black Metal that is very brutal and melodic at the same time. The keyboard hints are brilliantly used in creating eerie atmospheres, just as we love our Black Metal to sound.

One thing about “Beyond The Dusk” is that the drumming sounds programmed and sometimes a bit fake (in our opinion). But this does not take much away from the release since we expected a blistering and brutal drum track to begin with. The riffing is very characteristic of a BM release, but sometimes in the mix the guitar drowns a bit, sounding very wobbly.

The vocals are as raw and brutal as we can ever expect, and they sound great paired with the highly raw and atmospheric music. The brilliant acoustic passages are present in this release as well and they sound as good as ever. It’s nice that Frostfall has this tempo changing sections in order to prepare us for the next brutal aural assault.

As a whole, this release packs a lot of punch for a small price. So if you are a fan of raw and yet atmospheric Black Metal, then you should definitely check this one out. We would have appreciated the CD better if the first demo had a better recording quality or at least some better mastering.

Release: March 29th, 2010

Country: France