Here is the link to the review: http://www.jorzine.com/default.aspx?page=Jorzinereviews&id=388&year=2012
Welcome to Spain, where the extreme metal bands are twisting extremely inside the firm mixer of sledgehammer riffs and pounding extreme metal efforts to produce rival and delicious death and black metal releases, and where the metal musicians are giving their ultimate art to create deep memorable melodies that can stick into the ears of the listeners for years. Spain is granting us another great band that can crash all the thoughts inside your mind with their tracks, the black metal act Frozen Dawn is here to brainwash your mind with the exceptional debut album "The Old Prophecy of Winterland".
The elements that Frozen Dawn tried to add into this record are mixing the classic black metal influences with the modern black metal influences, and this is really clear when the album added the cover track "Fuel For Hatred" for the Norwegian black metal act Satyricon. The total mixture of the production is really admirable and crystal clear, though the vocals are dominating the whole sound most of the time, but the lead guitar sound is taking control of the tracks whenever the guitarist adds his fast tremplo lead-line to the tracks. The drummer added a huge amount of fury and toughness to the layers of the songwriting, and this gave the the total sound a blasting feeling and more darkened depth to the essence of the performance. Mighty Hordes Productions presented us a lot of great extreme releases in the last two years and this album is just a perfect example of the quality of this label.
Eleven tracks are floating here with a lot of melodies, a real active lead guitar work and a great forceful drumming work too, some of the lead guitar parts remind me of the Swedish black metal band Dark Funeral, especially when I listened to the tracks "Through the Gates of Hate" and "Calm Before the Storm". Many black metal bands focus on the melodies of the rhythm guitars and give a lot of attention to the progression of the rhythm chords, but the most interesting element in this record is focusing on the lead guitar parts more than the rhythm guitar progression, and this is so obvious while listening to the tracks "Winds from the North" and "Through the Gates of Hate". The vocals are so cold and loud enough to overcome the rage of the guitars, my favorite vocal-lines in this album are in the track "The Old Prophecy of Winterland" which I really adore.
This release is really grim and memorable, and what makes this album special (as I said before) is focusing on the lead guitars more than the riffing of the rhythm guitars though there are some tracks like "Dark Lady" shows some great rhythm guitar works, and some tracks like "Cold Souls" shows an adorable bass-line work too. The artwork of the album is really horrible and terrifying, it shows hands of mummies and a mummified being, the colors that have been given to the artwork also gave a huge depth to the whole art.
To be honest, this release is so special for me because it contains a lot of interesting extreme elements that don't exist in the other black metal releases. If you are into the European black metal movement then this release must take a deep sigh in the middle of your library, because this album is stably balanced and can fight against any other black metal album without showing a single flaw. If you are seeking for a solid black metal release that shows a perfect equation of atmospheric elements and melodic factors, then the result of this equation will be Frozen Dawn, and the rising smoke will be the record "The Old Prophecy of Winterland".
Composition: 10/10
Musicianship: 9/10
Production: 9/10
Artwork: 9/10
Level Of Originality : 9/10
Level Of Ferocity: 10/10
Rating: 9.25/10
