ALBUM REVIEW: Frozen Crown - War Hearts

Italy's Frozen Crown return with their fifth album War Hearts, the first to feature virtuoso guitarist Alessia Lanzone, bringing us their unique style of power/speed metal. 

Opening with the title track, it is immediately obvious that this band can really play, the guitars are fast, but never out of control, the kick drums are bludgeoning throughout the song, and the lyrical themes of self-improvement, personal growth, inner struggles and fighting for your dreams, even in the darkest times that run through most of the album, are quite inspirational. 

It’s the vocals of Giada “Jade” Etro accompanied by Federico Mondelli, soaring without going down the overblown operatic style of symphonic metal, which really stands out, and ensure that the messages within the lyrics are not swamped by the backing music. The trio of guitarists, the aforementioned Alessia Lanzone, Federico Mondelli and Fabiola Bellomo, have riffs for days, and some beautiful multi guitar solos, which are super crisp, with notes flying everywhere, whilst the bass of Francesco Zof is very tight and helps give a firm foundation to the guitarists. Finally, there are the drums of Niso Tomasini which are almost feral in their speed but do lack a lot of change in tempo. They seem to be full speed almost all the time, until the mid-point song On Silver Wings. This I found led to one track blurring into another, to the extent that it almost became one long song, I found this a bit disappointing, as the rest of the musicianship within War Hearts is top notch.

Bloodlines brings a welcome change of pace, slower, but still reasonably fast paced. It’s a more defined song, giving the other instruments a chance to shine, with the lyrical subject, The Vampire: The Masquerade range of board and video games new to me. However, that didn’t detract as I really enjoyed this song, which also starts the change of pace for the rest of the album. This is where I felt it all started to breath and become more cohesive. King of the Sky sees Frozen Crown really change tempo. An instrumental interlude to the final song, it’s quite epic and beautiful, and is followed by the Highlander themed Ice Dragon, which is in a similar vein. The longest song on the album by quite some way, it really showcases the vocals and guitars, even having a medieval feel to parts. Here the drums are much more sensitively played and really work with the other instruments, and this was the standout for me. Overall, an album that isn’t my usual choice of genre, but there is plenty to enjoy.

War Hearts is out via Napalm Records on 18th October

Review by Andrew Matthews