Frozen Soul‘s march towards death metal glory continues across the icy grooves and slams of No Place Of Warmth.
Release date: May 8, 2026 | Century Media Records | Bandcamp | Instagram
As far as contemporary death metal bands go, I think it’s fair to say that Frozen Soul are one of the biggest names in the scene. Since their formation in 2018, the Texans have toured relentlessly, catching spots on all sorts of big tours and making festival appearances, winning metalheads over with their ‘Bolt Thrower, but cold‘ style rather effectively. Album releases have been deliberately paced, but it feels like every new album has caught them a whole wave of new fans ready to feel the cold winds of old school death metal once again.
Myself? I’ve had some mixed opinions on Frozen Soul. Honestly, despite the praise it got, I’ve never managed to keep up the interest to make it all the way through their debut album Crypt of Ice. That unyielding, moshy, groovy mid-tempo roll just did not click for me at all. So it was a huge surprise to me when their sophomore album Glacial Domination, armed with more varied tempos and some delightful John Carpenter-esque synth interludes, won me over at first listen. Sure, the thin production bugged me, but Frozen Soul got better in every other way between their first two albums. The question became clear: is album three the one where I’m finally going to buy fully into the hype?
Well friends, No Place Of Warmth is here, and it’s safe to say I’m now fully on the bandwagon (or, uh, sleigh?) for Frozen Soul. The band hasn’t given up on any of their signature elements. The pace is still mostly mid-tempo, leaning into deliberate yet punishingly heavy riffing tailor made to fire off mosh pits. That commitment to cold, icy imagery remains present and is still charming. But Frozen Soul has made subtle expansions and tweaks that have left me stiff-necked across several commutes, lodging riffs into my brain that just don’t quit.
On the surface, it has to be said that No Place Of Warmth sounds outstanding for a modern, polished death metal album. They’ve remembered to plug in the bass this time around, and the band sounds like they’re thundering forcefully down from the mountaintops. The frigid synth intro of the opening title track is just chilling, and when the band kicks into their majestic intro, they sound positively massive.
It helps, too, that “No Place of Warmth” is a phenomenal opening track. Frozen Soul taps into a genuine majesty with their hauntingly melodic leads and tank-like grind that gets the album in motion perfectly, aided by a guest spot I’ll discuss later. “Invoke War” harkens back to their groove-forward origins pretty well, and the short scorcher “Absolute Zero” introduces my favorite element added for this album: a heaping helping of brutal death metal slam. In the course of a minute, “Absolute Zero” features some tasty high speed riffage bookending and absolute banger of a slam riff, of course announced by that lovely earth-shattering tom hit. Short, sweet, straight to the point!
Across the rest of No Place Of Warmth, Frozen Soul does a great job keeping tempos varied but never losing that headbang-demanding groove. “Dreadnought” leans into a slower place wonderfully, bolstered by an emotive guitar solo somewhere around its midpoint. “Chaos Will Reign” maintains that groove well, while “Eyes of Despair” stands out as a personal favorite for its speedy pace and a ripping Slayer-esque solo blazing the path for it which is followed up well by the lacerating tremolo riffs of “Ethereal Dreams”. Of course, both those tracks make time for some massive slam riffs that are an absolute blast every single time.
Further on, “Skinned by the Wind” also packs some great groove into its short runtime, giving way to while “DEATHWEAVER” which stands as a bit of an album highlight with its eerie melodic intro and punchy riffing. The anvil pounds worked into the percussion of “Frost Forged” just make me happy, and it’s clear that closer “Killin Time (Until it’s Time to Kill)” was composed to give their shows a moment for a big singalong chorus. And you know what? It absolutely works. I’d be shocked if the song doesn’t end up a crowd favorite when Frozen Soul tours No Place Of Warmth, and I’d put similar money on the song landing on an endless number of workout playlists. Maybe directly before Cannibal Corpse‘s “Time to Kill is Now”?
The only real addition to Frozen Soul‘s sound that proves to be a mixed bag here is the guest appearances. It feels like pulling in guests is the order of the day in death metal, and while Frozen Soul didn’t pack this album quite as heavily as, say, the upcoming Ingested album, not every appearance feels fully necessary. Honestly, I couldn’t even tell you where Sanguisugabogg‘s Devin Swank shows up on “Dreadnought”. Less baffling was Machine Head‘s Rob Flynn making for decent narration on “Invoke War”, which still sits at a ‘huh, that’s cool’ appearance. The real gem to me was My Chemical Romance‘s Gerard Way giving “No Place of Warmth” a snarling, black metallic bite to perfectly counterpoint Chad Green’s gruff death metal vocals. It also just made me very happy to see yet another member of one of my wife’s all-time favorite bands crossing over into my own musical home ground for the second time in less than a year (see Frank Iero’s backing vocals turn on the last Lamp of Murmuur album), just after we’d seen MCR‘s recent tour.
I’m pretty sure it was Gatecreeper who once commented that they wanted to craft something that could be described as ‘stadium death metal’. For my money, I think Frozen Soul would be just as worthy of that title. The sound across No Place Of Warmth feels like it would translate perfectly to major venues. It’s anthemic, the grooves are sublime, there’s mosh pit fuel aplenty, and most vitally, it’s just plain fun. I don’t know if No Place Of Warmth is going to get Frozen Soul invited onto late night TV the way hardcore luminaries Knocked Loose have semi-recently managed, but the album damn well has a shot of making the band plenty of new fans, potentially drawing in people who never caught the death metal bug before, and winning over jaded old former naysayers like myself. That would be an ice age I would welcome, so here’s hoping Frozen Soul just keeps growing stronger.
