Frozen Soul proves no hell can stop them at Bottleneck Saturday night

Frozen Soul. // photo by Nick Spacek

Frozen soul with Creeping Death, Gates of Hell and Death Penalties
The bottleneck
Saturday July 13

Arriving a little after 6 p.m., with opening band Enforced already halfway through their opening song, my first thoughts Saturday night were simultaneous. Oh, they have a busy schedule tonight. And, Damn, there are a lot of people.

It seems like an all-ages morning show on Saturday is a great way to draw a crowd.

It’s rare to see a concert packed from start to finish, but that’s exactly what metal fans did this weekend. A steady crew filled the front of the stage, refusing to give up their favorite seats, and the only movement between bands was to head to the merch stands or grab a water. During the shows, the smoking terrace was nearly empty, which is pretty rare no matter who was playing.

Frozen Soul’s lead singer uses a microphone stand that looks like it’s made of a piece of steel chain. That’s how metallic they are. And honestly, this review could end with that information and you’d know just how heavy this Texas band is.

The band stormed the stage to Van Halen’s “Running with the Devil.” They have a song about a circle pit in which a pit of the same name ran nonstop the entire time. It was insane. The pit was a whirlwind of physical roars for the duration of Frozen Soul’s set, and it was well-deserved. The band’s no-nonsense death metal feels like it came out of a mid-90s Florida time machine, in the best possible way. It’s sludgy, dirty, nasty metal that could break your nose without a sideways glance.

On tour in support of last year’s album Glacial dominationThe band had a hell of a time getting their tour off to a flying start, which was their second date. On their way to Oklahoma City for the start of the tour, their van broke down, they had to rent a new one and spent about $6,000 on rentals and repairs.

Despite all this chaos in the middle of a heat wave, Frozen Soul played like they were trying to prove that nothing could stop them, and damn, it was good.

Creeping Death. // Photo by Nick Spacek

Texas’ Creeping Death is much more brutal live than on their last album Domain without limits. This record is a riff attack and a rhythmic assault, but live, the band assault your senses in a way that makes you feel like they’re going to leap off the stage and pierce you through the floor. Maybe it was the ever-increasing humidity and heat from the sheer number of bodies packed into the club, moving as one. Maybe it was the volume coming from the massive amplification on stage. Either way, Creeping Death became a kind of potential homicide the moment they left the stage.

The Gates of Hell. // Photo by Nick Spacek

Louisville’s Gates to Hell played clean, crisp death metalcore. The number of breakdowns they had should be illegal, and the band’s energy was unsurprising given the youthful appearance of all five members. The crowd enjoyed it, hanging on from the first blast of Gates to Hell’s sound, but it still felt like no one was quite ready to let loose. Repeated requests from the stage for a circle pit never quite generated the energy one might have expected in response to what was coming from the stage, but the band never wavered, pumping out song after song, filled with deep grooves beneath all the aggression.

Applied. // photo by Nick Spacek

Opening band Enforced plays a heavy version of thrash with just a hint of hardcore, familiar to anyone who’s listened to a single song by Anthrax or Power Trip. Municipal Waste, however, is a better reference point: party songs to let off steam to. Anger sounds more like they’re looking forward to drinking beers, not killing your parents. A tight-knit band, though, with sick riffs and a dynamic frontman who knows how to get the crowd moving without sounding like an angry gym trainer.

All photos by Nick Spacek:

Frozen Soul

Terrifying death

The gates of hell

Forced