Review: Frozen Soul – No Place of Warmth

May 14, 2026

Arrested development, trapped under ice

There was a trend you may have picked up on from the late 2010s and early 2020s (what do you mean it’s been 6 years since the pandemic?), formed within the OSDM revival: a number of bands with heavy hardcore influence whose sound closest resembles Bolt Thrower worship. Groups like Gatecreeper, Creeping Death, and Sanguisugabogg all aimed for this sound, HM-2 pedal in hand, leading to a small deluge of popular death metal acts that all closely resembled each other. Not to be too hard on the various Maggot Stomp-affiliated bands (and otherwise) that took up this sound, but the mid-tempo, groovy, tough-guy death metal only has so much mileage in most cases. Unlike the execution of NYDM bands like Internal Bleeding integrating the local hardcore flavor, this style-by-synthesis rarely made the most of either influence point, especially when compared to the main band(s) they’re invoking. (Looking back, there was definitely more going for the groups that took notes from the early brutal death metal of New York.)

While never being a favorite band of mine, I always had slightly more interest in Frozen Soul over Gatecreeper and the like. Crypt of Ice, specifically, stands out as a pretty solid LP and their other releases (Glacial Domination, Encased in Ice) I would say are at least above average. Maybe their theming made them stick out more in my mind, but, for whatever reason, I kept slight tabs on the group (even if I don’t really remember listening to Glacial Domination, even though I definitely did).

That said, when I saw the upcoming release of No Place of Warmth, the most eye-catching part was the short feature list. Robert Flynn of Machine Head, Devin Swank of the ‘bogg, and, for some reason, My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way. Not that I would ever complain about hearing Gerard Way, but it would be generous to say that this lineup made little sense to me (I did not realize Way has made a number of appearances on metal albums within the past few years). Either way, I listened to the album, so it did its job I suppose. I would argue, however, that it feels a little more like clickbait when the features really don’t particularly stand out (to be fair, this could be said for much of the featured vocalist trend going though death metal and not standing out is better than sucking).

What did stand out to me is how much No Place for Warmth feels like retreading water (re-skating ice?), with the main difference from the last LP being a production job that trades some of the clarity of Glacial for more low-end. From a writing perspective, this is maybe the most the band has sounded like BoltGateCreepingBogg and what new additions are found do not add to the experience. There’s maybe a bit more brutal death influence, in that there’s more slammy, later Devourment-style breakdowns; the back half of the album has a couple of tracks (“Eyes of Despair,” “Frost Forged”) that incorporate the artificial-sounding, heavily compressed bass drops favored by groups like Onchocerciasis Esophagogastroduodenoscopy.

If anything, Glacial Domination at least had its heavy synth incorporation and Crypt of Ice was at a time when this style wasn’t completely played out. The material on No Place for Warmth feels unambitious and ambiguous, with some portions sounding like a weaker version of what Undeath was going for with More Insane in 2024. When combined with lows like the tacky “Killin Time (Until it’s Time to Kill)” and snooze-worthy “Dreadnought,” it’s hard to discern what Frozen Soul were going for here. To my ears, this is unfocused, groove-first death metal that’s particularly repetitive.

I’m not really sure what to do with a record like No Place of Warmth, an album with unremarkable writing and a detrimental case of complacency (as well as a click-y, grating drum sound lifted from Baphomet‘s The Dead Shall Inherit). Regardless of whether or not they are signed to a bigger label like Century Media, no death metal band is in it just for the money; if they were interested in “selling out,” they’d be mimicking Sleep Token, not Bolt Thrower. Yet, at the same time, No Place of Warmth feels like a record made from obligation more than inspiration (even if I’m sure that’s not the case), with little to show in terms of growth or change. Not that I was expecting ultra-clean tech-death wankery or avant-garde-goregrind-gloop-metal, but I just don’t see why you’d go to this over Crypt of Ice or, hell, The IVth Crusade.

Maybe the HM-2 fucker in your life might get more out of this album, but No Place for Warmth sounds like it needs a live setting and a few shitty beers in my system to feel gratifying.