Frostmoon Eclipse are an Italian black metal band and this is their eighth album.
As Time Retreats is the 41-minute follow up to 2019’s Worse Weather to Come. Since their previous album Frostmoon Eclipse have refined their sound into something quite tasty. If you’re looking for black metal that embraces the core of the 90s second wave, while also simultaneously branching out from it, this is the one for you.
Across As Time Retreats the name of the game is music that has a firm underpinning of frosted old-school black metal, delivered with contemporary skill, but one that’s shot through with additional stylistic aspects that help define it as a record. These come in the form of a touch classic rock now and again, and an influence from melodic doom, both of which bring a feeling-rich, sensitive, and frequently despondent air to some of the material.
The music’s cold aggression is balanced by warmer mournful melodies that add colour to the blackened riffs. Frostmoon Eclipse have hit upon a winning formula here – icy black metal, heated up by emotive melody, and textured with lighter delicate introspection and fragile clean singing. This is a surprisingly effective recipe for success; the mix of second wave black metal and other rock/metal elements, (both old and new), makes for a compelling and enjoyable experience. Also, the singer of Fen guests on one track, which is never a bad thing.
As a really rough idea of where As Time Retreats is coming through, think a mix of Bizarrekult, Darkthrone, Katatonia, and Khold. It’s not a perfect description by any means, but it gets the basic idea across.
I really like As Time Retreats. It’s a record that has a character of its own, despite my attempts at genre labelling and band references above. Although you can see the various ingredients that have gone into its creation, Frostmoon Eclipse have the talent and skill to whip up something that does its own thing with them. As Time Retreats is very enjoyable, and I heartily recommend you spend some time with it.
Wonderbox Metal 