In any circumstance, early January is a good time for death metal. When there’s a cabal of right-wing shitbrains out there storming the Capitol and attempting to hijack an election, then early January is a great time for death metal. The all-pervading feeling of bleakness and destruction just feels right. So Crypt Of Ice, the debut album from the Dallas death metal band Frozen Soul, has arrived right on time.

Frozen Soul have only been around for a few years. (They released an EP called Encased In Ice in 2019. It would seem that they’re really into wintry imagery.) But Crypt Of Ice doesn’t sound like the work of a new band. It’s a huge, slavering, hungry beast of an album. Frozen Soul’s version of death metal is hard and simple and intense — death metal of the Bolt Thrower school. There’s no theory-heavy music-class fucking around, and they play slow enough that you can feel those riffs in your bones.

There’s at least some hardcore influence in the mosh-stomp tempos of Crypt Of Ice. But Crypt Of Ice aren’t a hardcore band playing death metal, like Xibalba or Fuming Mouth. Instead, it’s more of a Gatecreeper situation where they’re making straight-up metal, but you can tell that they listen to a lot of hardcore, too. This is good shit, and you can hear it below.

Crypt Of Ice is out now on Century Media.