Memento Mori

Those of you who follow the site you may remember Roland Neubauer by his work with WitcheR, his other band. He seems to be quite busy or better said creative, lately as he returns with another collaboration to release the first full length album of Frozen Wreath. The other half of this duo is Zoltán Szele who has taken over all the instruments while Roland is responsible for the vocals. The album is called ‘Memento Mori’ and it was released the 14^th of April of 2021. It contains eight compositions of about forty-three minutes of overall duration. Here, Zoltán is the one responsible for the music, so, although you might find a few similarities, the two projects do not share a lot. That being said, the music that Frozen Wreath present here, is melodic Black Metal with various other elements which make them stand out.

The band has achieved to balance their music between melody and harshness, medium and fast speed, perfectly. The fast, melodic, tremolo riffs are the main body of Frozen Wreath music giving the time and space though, to the medium, sometimes groovy ones or to the slower, doomish ones to blossom and evolve. Most of the times, they express an epic feeling mixed with darkness, some hints of melancholy and in a few parts, hatred and violence. The keyboards also play an important role into their compositions, not as important as in WitcheR, but still the compositions would not be the same without their lines. Depending on the part, other times they add symphonic elements, other times folk and sometimes dark atmospheric. The approach of the song is very different from WitcheR, regarding the variety of the melodies and feeling expressed, as also the changes in rhythm inside the songs or the performance of solos. The songs last from five to seven minutes and they have a decent structure, in general, and they develop their ideas to a satisfactory level so, although there are some moments that they tend to repeat themselves, they are interesting and not tedious for the listener. The lyrics are written in Hungarian but you can find in the booklet, their English translations, and they refer to personal thoughts on life, death, wisdom, passing time under a more dark and melancholic tendency.

Each of the two members of Frozen Wreath, has its own role inside the band. Zoltán Szele has taken over the performance of the instruments and the composing of all the songs, while Roland Neubauer is responsible for the vocals and the lyrics. The guitars are combining a harsh and a rawer approach with the melody and epicness generated by the compositions and they achieve a very nice balance between the two different elements. Their performance is passionate, with no mistakes, delivering the images and the feelings expressed by the music, accurately. The keyboards are the second, after the guitars, most important instrument in the compositions as they set the atmosphere and they build up the feelings. The bass is almost inaudible but the compositions do not lack in that bassy sound that they need. I am not sure if the drums are real or programmed but their sound is acceptable. Their lines are simple with very few changes and even fewer interesting parts. The vocals are harsh Black Metal vocals in the majority of the compositions, they are raw, violent, full of passion and energy, while in some parts they become deeper and give more melancholic – depressive expression. There are also some parts where they become clean and in others narrative. The production is harsh and foggy covering the compositions with a very nice veil of mystery, while the mixture highlights the guitars and of course the keyboards, almost burring the bass, something not as bad as I would expect.

Generally, the first complete work of Frozen Wreath is a decent first effort. There are a lot of good ideas, developed completely and nicely, something which shows that there is a lot of potential in this band. Surely there are moments where the band becomes repetitive or some ideas could be left out of the album, but I believe that they will evolve and they will offer a much better future release. Also, the sound quality could be improved in the future. For those of you who like melodic but also harsh Black Metal with touches of melancholy and the epic element, give them a chance and I am sure you won’t be disappointed.