Authors in 1999 of one of the rare records (Dans les Bras des Immortels) that they came closest to In the Nightside Eclipse over the years – without reaching the same level, but it is now well established that it is impossible – the Canadians Frozen Shadows they understood that continuing to try to imitate the unrepeatable made no sense, and that it would be better to dedicate themselves to finding something new. The result was Hantisesa record that seems to have been played by aliens who came from a world at least twenty years ahead, because now that we have reached 2024, it is precisely this record that has never been equalised, as well as being, in my opinion, better than what Emperor themselves did starting from from Anthems to the Welkins at Dusk on. Why? On a compositional level it is intricate as never heard before in black metal, it has a variety of solutions in the scores, in the breaks, in the bridges, in the moderate keyboard inserts that support the riffing and do not overwhelm it, but above all it is dark, intimidating and glacial to a level that not even Emperor reached when they turned to technical black metal.
Played by musicians in possession of an amazing technique (listen carefully to the drummer Melkor, the tricks he invents and the ease with which he prepares and performs each break: I’ll mention one and all Battered Soulsbut it rings All the album this way; I have always considered him superior to Trym and second only to Alsvid dei Seth), capable of executing the textures of the almost atonal guitars with absolute precision, painting riffs with arcane, non-immediate melodies, very far from the catchyfrom the disposable that doesn’t commit until the next album. Hantises it’s as complicated as, just to make a comparison with something extreme metal known to most people, Time Does Not Heal of the DarkAngel: you lose count trying to identify how many riffs there are in these 50 minutes, except that this is a black metal record, and a tough one at that.
The impression of violence hidden in the most inaccessible meanders, although ready to spread to wipe out every form of life on the planet, is priceless; however this is proposed in a different format from what had been heard previously, a format perhaps never replicated because four musicians capable of playing their instruments in this way, cohesive and harmonized with the aim of composing something that would go down in history , are not found frequently. You never find any, that’s the point. Hantises it never had a sequel. I think even they themselves felt that it would be impossible to improve further, as a result Frozen Shadows ceased to exist after a short time, and perhaps it’s for the best. You can’t climb Everest with your bare hands and then die on a hill while picking mushrooms. The various members have worked with other high-level projects, but the peak of Frozen Shadows has remained untouched, especially the singer Myrkhaal has dedicated himself solely to his label Sepulchral Productions, the products of which, on the famous and much reviled scale from one to ten , all rank above 8. Canadians have always been one step ahead in black metal. Listen Hantises carefully, it will make you review some of your certainties. (Griffar)
