Hellfrost - Dark Ages - Song Review - Thrash Metal from Bonita Springs, Florida, USA

Today we are featuring a promising old-school thrash metal band, Hellfrost, from Bonita Springs, Florida, USA, with, "Dark Ages", the opening track from their latest album.

Hellfrost has a respected history of 10 years, started their careers with an EP called; "Phrixus" back in 2011, and three studio albums since that time, "Pagan Son" (2016), "Extinction" (2019), and "Dark Ages" (2021). And I had the chance to discover them with their new studio album, Dark Ages, which was released on October 9, 2021. After listening to a few songs from their previous albums, the first thing that came to my mind was that Hellfrost has traditional heavy/thrash metal influences in their DNA, in other words, both in their musicality and technicality. I've had a good experience cause I grew up listening to music like this with a similar sound, and I am sure I won't be the only one who thinks that way after publishing this review.

Hellfrost is one of those few bands who has always been faithful to their fans with their approach, even though some might find it overly done. The album Dark Ages simply doesn't have any connection with our modern world in terms of recording and mixing standards. I am convinced that this decision wasn't just a coincidence, that's what Hellfrost was after. But let me start with their musicality first.

Dark Ages is a well-constructed song with influences from the American thrash metal legends such as Exodus, Metallica, Megadeth, and Slayer. They have the origins and approach in their music as well, and this isn't a criticism but a compliment. I know so many people who still love listening to the nostalgia of the 80s thrash metal, those albums are still considered to be the golden metal years even today. I came to the conclusion after listening to their previous records, and my realization of the lack of development in their sound was quite surprising at first. I haven't seen or heard of any other band who has been this conservative when it comes to their sound and musicality, yet I am not the one who can be the judge of that.

As I have also mentioned earlier, Dark Ages (song) has the necessary technical standards from the beginning to the end. The song is full of old-school riffs, supported by dirty vocals which immediately reminded me of Exodus, and of Death from time to time. The song is progressive, yet has a good balance that we used to hear from the thrash metal scene back in the 80s. Hellfrost, in this case, doesn't bother with any innovation in terms of musicality and technicality, just doing what they love in their own way. And I must admit that they earned my respect for it.

Although Dark Ages doesn't have the necessary industry standards of our modern age, nor the standards of the 80s, it flawlessly transmits the energy to the listener as a fact. Honestly, I've found it a little bit difficult to get used to this specific sound, mainly because we are too fuckin' obsessed with perfection. People nowadays expect nothing but flawless standards from anybody, doesn't matter underground or established, ready to ignore everything that doesn't meet the criteria.

In my book, Hellfrost was right with their approach from the beginning. These American gentlemen have got what it takes to execute the idea. However, I would prefer to listen to this last album with better technical standards while keeping their solid sound personality. As you can also understand, these are two separate things. The fact is that the mix is way below the musicality level. Drums sound like software, hard to feel, has not enough contribution to the overall energy and dynamics of the music. On the other hand, the overall mix is quite poorly done, this album could have sounded like Exodus' last album Persona Non-Grata, and made the same impact. In this case, I am afraid Dark Ages has missed the chance to offer Hellfrost's actual potential and make the necessary impact on their listeners.

When I take all these into account, I'd like to say that I've had a good time listening to Hellfrost. Everything I've seen and heard about Hellfrost gave me the feeling that these American gentlemen are more than ready to take their careers to the next level, and we are all aware of the only missing piece.

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In conclusion, Metalhead Community Team congratulates Hellfrost for their new album "Dark Ages", and wishes them the very best in their future careers. Thank you for reading.

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