This is the fifth album from Russian black metal band Grima.
Containing members of Second to Sun, Frostbitten presents us with 49 minutes of atmospheric black metal, and it does so with singular skill, talent, and delivery.
Grima’s atmospheric take on black metal is emotive and lavishly adorned with affecting moods. The music is epic and majestic, and drowned in cold darkness and despondent emotions. To listen to Frostbitten is to step outside of everyday life for a while and be transported to another world, full of wonderous sights and sounds.
The band’s use of melody is well-developed and in many places exquisite. These melodies are infused with such feeling that they’re transportive. They don’t exist in isolation, of course, but are embedded into and wrapped around the rest of the music, creating immersive atmospheres that are undeniably potent.
The songs have a sorrowful grandeur to them that’s impressive. Their icy demeanour is rich and textured, and can sometimes drip with so much melancholic beauty as to almost become unbearable. Grima are clearly masters at worldbuilding, and the soundscapes that they craft are full of vibrant darkness and expressive frosted vistas.
Grima understand how to craft songs that have direction and purpose. Although all of the songs obviously share a theme and feel, each displays its own nature and character well. Across a range of different textures, feels, dynamics, paces, and expressive melodies the six songs unfold with individual grace and holistic flow. Grima have incorporated a lot of different elements, sounds, and ideas into Frostbitten, and the results are quite magnificent.
Frostbitten is very good indeed. It ticks all of the boxes for me when it comes to well-written and well-executed atmospheric black metal, and I urge any fan of the style to check Grima out. This is an essential listen for connoisseurs of this sort of blackened art.
Wonderbox Metal 