Plastic Pop Rock - "Frost" Review (11%)
Enamoured with both Euronymous' dark and evil aura and that particularly odious imitation of death metal music the Gaythenburg tards were releasing at the time, poser cock rock band in denial Enslaved decide to soil black metal's legacy once more, this time with their sophomore turd Frost.
The concept of Enslaved's music is pretty simple. Black metal on the outside, boring post rock on the inside. The problem is that, while as instrumentally competent as their peers, contrary to some of the timeless masterpieces releases by the likes of Burzum and Darkthrone at the same time, Frost gets old really quick and leaves absolutely no mark.
Progressive rock for those who lack the subtlety for progressive rock. Black metal for those too soft and effeminate to listen to black metal. Frost is a long-winded pop rock abortion artificially styled to appear complex for insecure posers and people who hate black metal.
Under heavy layers of distortion and blast beats, the music presented here is grotesquely overhyped mainstream pop vomit, the type of derivative nonsense that would make even Antekhrist or Reinkaos appear sensible and profound.
Listen to Reiklos' Lifeless or anything from post-Thousand Swords Graveland if you want actually progressive black metal, not just pop rock with blast beats and distortion.
Plastic Pop Rock
What we find on Frost, in lieu of black metal's narrative riffs that converge into constructing an oppressive atmosphere of darkness, is indie whine rock melodies pretending to be black metal, but musical 'safe' as they are so generic. Their only apparent risk is that they will drone on and bore you to death.
No, just because you have unclean vocals, distortion, blast beats and lyrics about Vikings doesn't mean your hipster whine rock band is black metal. Enslaved need to listen to the first two Burzum albums, and eventually Bathory's The Return and Phantom's Divine Necromancy until they grasp what black metal actually is.
Enslaved is the inspiration for brainless emo pretending to be black metal. You know the bands... the Cradle of Filth, Dimmu Borgir, Wolves in the Turd Room, Liturgy, Dark Funeral, Drudkh, Summoning, Xasthur, Leviathan, Deafheaven, Antekhrist, etc... Black metal dumbed down into tv static and 'easy listening' video game ambient soundtracks for emo loser to trade their goth makeup kits for equally androgynous corpsepaint.
This is sonic wallpaper - harmless, unremarkable, bland - like that of a cheaply redecorated motel room, where black metal sought to be the musical equivalent of Baudelaire and De Vinci.
Frost had all sort of black metal 'techniques' that are liberally used to show how 'true' and 'dark' the music is. But it isn't, because Enslaved don't understand that black metal is more than mere 'technique', it's an atmosphere, a spirit, a doctrine.
This is distorted pop, not unlike the type of insignificant Nightwish worship emo bands like Dimmu Borgir and Cradle of Filth would produce a few years down the line.
Frost score: 11/100.
Support the Underground
