With all due respect to the late Mariusz Lewandowski and the art chosen to adorn the cover of Frozen Dawn’s fourth record, The Decline of the Enlightened Gods, it’s a mite off for this sound. Certainly styles require certain visuals, and just like we associate Repka Neon with countless thrash and death classics of the 80s, blue and purple images of wintry scenes are what we most commonly associate with this frozen style of melodic black metal. Like Storm of the Light’s Bane, Far Away from the Sun, and Darkside before it, The Decline of the Enlightened Gods needed such hues. Heck, Frozen Dawn went blue on their 2014 effort, Those of the Cursed Light, but maybe they didn’t want to burn out a key part of their visual spectrum by repeating this approach.
Tracks like “Spellbound” and the wicked good “Oath of Forgotten Past” provide great examples of the band’s approach: an almost constant cascade of infectious tremolo lines that weave and evolve alongside fiery and determined vocals, surprisingly rumbling/mobile bass, and drums that shift from bursts of thrash and double-kick drives to full blasting fury. Sometimes Frozen Dawn goes extra twitchy and intense (“Wanderer of Times”) and sometimes they go a touch more “arena.” The latter is best exemplified by “Frozen Kings,” which reduces the tempo a tad and really focuses on the catchiest elements; think early Amon Amarth, but with a much lower wind chill.
As shown on the seven-minute title track, however, the band can also add a bit of mood to the proceedings. Much of the tune uses a slower tempo, bits of clean guitar, and long sections of a forceful churn, like a glacier’s inexorable approach (but likely viewed over time lapse photography, because while the tune is a tad slower than most of the album, it isn’t glacial; don’t be silly). It all works to build suspense and the tiniest bit of dread, so that when things finally do go berserk, it feels earned.
The only knocks that can really be made against the album are that opener “Mystic Fires of Dark Allegiance” doesn’t exactly get stuff rolling on the hottest notes (the slower passage in the middle is a bit of a head-scratcher), and that the band relies on a closing Necrophobic cover for one of the record’s best songs (“Blinded by Light, Enlightened by Darkness”). But the former is only one song, and its flaws undoubtedly stick out a bit more due to it being the opener. As for the latter… well, Frozen Dawn does a more than admirable job redoing the work of a genre great, and much of the album really stands up, so that also isn’t remotely a dealbreaker.
In all, The Decline of the Enlightened Gods is an ever-so-slightly overstuffed collection of razor-sharp icicle riffs that ought to appeal to just about anyone that has ever made sure to keep a blue pen on hand for spontaneous notebook doodling. Frozen Dawn won’t replace your 90s favorites of the melodic blackened arts, but they’ll surely provide a good reminder of why you fell in love with the style in the first place.
