Having caught Frozen Soul before, I was looking forward to seeing them live again. First impression was that they had a slightly muddy sound, but that didn’t stop vocalist Chad Green from demanding crowd participation right from the start. They didn’t get a frosty reception, even when the opening track was “Encased In Ice”! By their third track, “Morbid Effigy”, Green stated, “This one’s for all you dumb motherfuckers like me, I wanna see your knuckles drag across that pit.” I didn’t see any knuckles drag, but the patter, the pits, and the music were great entertainment.
At the start of latest single “Absolute Zero”, Chad promised free stuff for any crowd surfers who came over the barrier. Another new track from their forthcoming album followed, “No Place for Warmth”, then “Arsenal of War” from 2023’s Glacial Domination album, featuring a great guitar solo. Frozen Soul play a sludgy, guttural, pummeling form of death metal that is great fun.
Between a couple of tracks, Chad referenced a personal tragedy regarding the loss of his brother and issued a plea for folk to look out for each other. Seriously, guys in bands, if you have a serious point to make, maybe get the rest of your band to shut up while you’re doing it, as he was speaking over feeding back guitar!
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It was clear that The Black Dahlia Murder were a significant pull in their own right, going by the balance of merch in the crowd. Right from the start, they had a clearer sound, which provided an immediate injection of energy. There is a distinction in style here, as they have a sharper, more lead-based approach to riffs as opposed to the low-end crunch heard previously. This was epitomised over the first trio of songs: “What A Horrible Night to Have a Curse”, “Kings of the Nightworld”, and “Aftermath”. The guitar solo in “Kings of the Nightworld” was a standout, while “Aftermath” was driven by some vicious blast beats.
By this point the pits were flying without needing any real encouragement from vocalist Brian Eschbach. “Mammoths Hand” and “Cursed Creator” featured from the 2024 album Servitude, showcasing exemplary lead guitar work. One twin-lead section in particular paid a massive nod to classic metal and was a personal highlight. By the time we reached set closer “Utopia Black”, The Black Dahlia Murder had absolutely stamped their mark all over this gig—precise, fast, and technically proficient.
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I’m going to state right from the beginning that by the end of their set, I had enjoyed Heaven Shall Burn far more than I thought I was going to. I’ve been at a few gigs lately where the second-last band basically lit a bonfire under the headliner. With a more pronounced emphasis on the “melodic” element of melodic death metal, I wasn’t sure how they were landing at first. The first couple of songs had elements of build-up and the crowd seemed slow to catch on, perhaps just catching a breath after the previous carnage.
About four or five songs in, they got the first “here we f*cking go” chants, and vocalist Marcus Bischoff seemed to have a moment of wondering if the crowd actually liked them or not! It’s clear they have a strong fanbase, however; at one point a wall of death was organised with zero input from the band, and the crowd chants during “Black Tears” and “Endzeit” couldn’t have been tighter. With curfew looming, they finished with “Tirpitz”, but managed to squeeze in “The Weapon They Fear” as an encore.
This was an arena-grade performance in a Garage-sized venue. One final note on their sense of humour: they picked out a guy in a Bolt Thrower shirt and dedicated a song to him because they had “ripped off Bolt Thrower for this song.” I went in curious and left a fan.
Pics by Watchmaker Studios
