Album Review: Frozen Crown – The Legend of the Six Kings
Reviewed by Matthew Caldwell
Italian power metal has a history of churning out some big names. Rhapsody of Fire, Elven King and Ancient Bards quickly spring to mind, but it’s time to start including Frozen Crown as one of the genre’s most vibrant and exciting modern metal bands.
With an impressive six albums in just eight years, you’d be forgiven for thinking the quality may have ebbed… but you’d be mistaken. The Legend of the Six Kings sees Frozen Crown not only dabbling in slightly darker spheres, but also taking a more narrative-driven approach.
The album opener ‘Lightning in the Sky’ shows exactly what Frozen Crown are about: power, speed, and melody. It’s as infectious as ‘Steel and Gold’ from their previous album and is surely going to become a live staple. ‘Who Wants to Burn in Heaven’ and ‘Reborn’ give off Maiden vibes with plenty of galloping and twin guitar harmonies. On the former, Giada ‘Jade’ Etro invites you to “raise your bastard swords!”. With her soaring vocals sounding better than ever, we don’t need telling twice!
After the Lord of the Rings-inspired track ‘The One’ comes the biggest surprise of the album: a power metal cover of ‘Iris’ by American alternative rock band Goo Goo Dolls. The 1998 superhit appears out of absolutely nowhere. Jade’s soft vocals are disarming. Placing this song in the middle of the album is a brave choice. Would it have been better to put it at the end as a bonus track? Possibly. But having it here serves as both an intermission to the melodic bombast, and a moment to stop the listener in their tracks as it is just so unexpected. It may be a stroke of genius.
How do you follow that? ‘Winter Hearts’ answers the call. Thunderous double bass drumming drives the track before some harsh growls help solidify this as one of the album’s best songs. And the chorus is catchy as hell with a key change midway through. Epic stuff. As the album draws to a close, they mix it up with some waltzing time signatures, slightly slower chugging riffs, and three lead guitarists competing for the top prize as the band’s best shredder. The title track brings the saga to a close and includes another appearance of the growled vocals. Power metal needs more of these clean and harsh vocal combinations. They inject fresh life into the genre.
Frozen Crown have raised the bar for modern melodic power metal bands with this release. It’s a fist-in-the-air, lean-back, scream-at-the-top-of-your-lungs kind of album, reminiscent of late 90s and early 2000s power metal. They have consistently put out great albums, and if they continue on this trajectory, the genre is in safe hands indeed.
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