Apoch's Metal Review - Thulcandra: Under a Frozen Sun CD Review

Discography	Discography covers all information available up to day of review and is updated if future albums are reviewed.
Full-Length(s):	Fallen Angel's Dominion (2010) • Fallen Angels Dominion (2011)
Demo(s):	Demo (2004)

Review

After a well received debut offering just over a year ago, Thulcandra returned to the studio to record their second full-length offering. Under a Frozen Sun may not have taken long to record, but one can only wonder if this German-based Black and Death Metal act may have acted a bit too hastily to put together a new album. Of course, considering the band formed back in 2003, one can assume the band probably had a lot more material ready to go outside what appeared on Fallen Angel's Dominion, which may very well explain why this album is gracing the fans so quickly. But, does this speed to and while inside the studio necessarily mean a quality release?

Unlike many of today's modern Black Metal entries, with or without the Death Metal influence, Under a Frozen Sun sounds strong and rich with a slightly muddy sound to the modern, crisp-sounding production that gives it an early to mid career Black Metal cold, melancholic atmosphere similar to Dissection and even Emperor without the symphonic elements. Of course the previous offering, and even the artwork to this release will show the inspiration from the first of those two acts you could expect here. The guitars sound sharp with a strong bass presence that really helps in setting the atmosphere to the release against powerful, well suiting rhaspier vocals traditional to the Black Metal style. The drumming sounds fantastic too with the bass kicks having a nice click to them that isn't overpowering, though still loud, matching the thick, echoing snares and not-too-dominating cymbol crashes that sound like they are at just the right level. While the material here is often much faster, all of this really sounds fantastic to the slower tracks of the release, such as the title track "Under a Frozen Sun" which has a period of softer, more majestic sounding music with whispered vocals instead of the aforementioned rhaspy approach, and it really just gives off the sensation of a cold desolation that works perfectly with the more melancholic track's slower music outside that specific passage.

Many of the songs to this album are around or below the five minute mark, which is common for today, but there are a few longer tracks to the recording. "In Blood and Fire" is one of these tracks, and the opening song of the album. It starts out the release with a slow, colder instrumental introduction similar to the atmosphere of the slower passage in the aforementioned title track. The song does pick up really quick without much of a transition right into a superbly cold and menacing main verse without removing some of the catchier melodic elements of the band's sound. This is one of the longer offerings of this release, clocking in at a length of over eight and a half minutes, and while it may be a longer track, it does it's job well. The band put enough changes into the music, as well as give off a solid performance that is serious, but clearly shows a band that enjoys what they are playing. This offers up a sinister sounding track that has the same kind of energetic kick to the skull that faster, shorter songs such as "Black Flags of Hate" and "Aeon of Darkness" offer up. The latter of those two tracks, however, do show off more of a melodic side to the band's composition, whereas much of the album finds a strong Black Metal preference, but isn't too scared to dabble in some additional Death Metal concepts. This seems to show more through some of the drumming to the epic sounding "Ritual of Sight," another fantastic offering that is strong in atmosphere, performance, and quality, leaving you spellbound with it's enchanting frostbitten sound during both faster and slower moments that are transitioned well throughout the track.

As mentioned, "Aeon of Darkness" is a lot more melodic compared to the other songs on here, and it's really just a completely different beast entirely. This track still has a darker atmosphere to it, and feels a lot richer, though not quite as sinister or melancholic as others. The vocals even seem different during this song, having more of an energetic rhaspier shout to them. The more you listen to the track, you can't help but feel an influence of At the Gates finding it's way into the music along the lines of the track "Cold." And just like that, the band goes right back into that more traditional Black Metal influenced material then the out of nowhere Melodic Death Metal dominated foundation. Granted "Aeon of Darkness" is far from a bad song, but it just comes out of nowhere and feels awkward with the way the rest of Under a Frozen Sun sounds. This really becomes the only gripe, but the thing is that it's not a negative one necessarily, more like an issue that the band threw this energetic, fantastic melodic track in the middle of the album without any real segway, and it would have been better suited to a random single release or even an EP given how strong the track ends up being, or even the closing song to the release instead of the Unanimated cover track "Life Demise" if the band felt ending on a note different then "Gates of Eden" was truly that necessary a move.

This doesn't hurt the rest of the album, though a few of the later tracks may need to you listen to them a second time around after you bounce back from the out-of-nowhere melodic assault of "Aeon of Darkness." The conclusion to Under a Frozen Sun is pretty strong and typically maintains the same sound as how it started and continued from "In Blood and Fire," but the most interesting of the songs is "Gates of Eden." The song itself is not the strongest track on the recording, but again finds Thulcandra moving at a slower pace and utilizing the overall heavy sound of the audio to their advantage. The music feels a bit creepy and desolate, but the track doesn't necessarily offer too much to stand out, other then a good amount of variety to the song that will keep the listener attentive throughout much of it, if not all despite it's not being too jaw-droppingly impressive. It's actually sad that the band didn't just leave the album to end with this track and instead threw a cover in at the end, as "Gates of Eden" just sounds and feels much more like a suitable conclusion in comparison.

Under a Frozen Sun is a fantastic effort from Thulcandra. This comes both as a shock given the time the band had between albums to really record some quality material for this release, but at the same time isn't that shocking given that the line-up of this three piece includes Steffen Kummerer of Obscura, as well as the strong debut offering from this band the year prior that showed their potential. This band's obvious Dissection worship shines through nicely, and seems to pick up where the band unfortunately left off, paying a great deal of respect in writing new material while just working with their sound and not necessarily stealing material to capitalize on their hard work. If you enjoy the works of Dissection, or just want to hear a solid Metal recording despite it's roots, influences, genre, or anything of that sort, Thulcandra do present a worthwhile album that, even though it has a few moments that don't quite fit the grand scheme of the release's major atmosphere, is well worth taking the time to experience.

Digital review copy of this release provided by:
Napalm Records.

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