Item: Frigore Inferni
Rating: 8
Author: Nic Howells

Frigore Inferni

Artist: To Obey A Tyrant

Genre: black metal, Deathcore, Metal

Record Label: Seek & Strike

Release Date: 21 February 2025

Every year at Bloodstock there is one band that rocks the whole weekend from over on the New Blood Stage. From the 2023 installment of the festival, it was absolutely To Obey A Tyrant. These were personally amongst the top 5 bands of the weekend at that time, when they had just released previous effort Omnimalevolent. The group have hit the Millions Club in the streaming world, as well as toured with some of the most established names in the deathcore and extreme metal world. Now, via Seek and Stike, they have bestowed, or unleashed depending on your perspective, their new EP, Frigore Inferni, which is available for listening now. Here?s what you can expect:

First things first, the name translates to ?The Cold of Hell?/?Freezing Hell?, which given Tyrant?s black metal influence instantly calls to mind legends in the genre like Mayhem and the similarly named ?Freezing Moon? single. Also, Latin in your metal is just my favourite flavour. The EP itself is layered in immense lore, which is apparent from the opening instrumentals of ?I, Apollyon?. It starts with a deep and brooding string arrangement but immediately drops into a cacophony of tinny Black Metal drumming and some heavily phlegmy deathcore vocals. Lyrically the trac is absolutely bursting with story, as the EP focuses on a war of two spirits during the apocalypse. As the title of the EP would suggest, hell has frozen over, and this is the soundtrack to it. This feels like the benchmark for a lot of black metal leaning tracks, where they start with some earache, and then season in the backstory to taste, and its beautifully heavy. The sophomore track ?Obsidian Sol?, continues in this vein, but with some especially excellent wailing on guitar from Jamie Stephens and Josh Rushton, before some might riff work over what we would in this instance consider the chorus. Particular note has to be made of Brandon Singleton on this track though. Spoiler, he?s a powerhouse throughout the EP, but the vocal display during this song would potentially even have Lorna Shore?s Will Ramos? eyes watering.

?Dawnbreaker? is one of only so songs on the EP that is less than 5 minutes. That aid, it packs just as big a punch. It feels intentionally foreboding, and almost horrifying with the way the strings linger behind Singleton and Co. There?s a valiant, fighting score on guitar around the two minute mark, which is promptly cut off but some life ending vocals as well as drumming from Bruno Clay. It feels like something horrific should be laid over it as a music video, like that bit in Game of Thrones where Pedro Pascal gets his head squashed. The final, much more deathcore-based minute suits perfectly for the log zoom out after a tragedy, all is lost and the music just intensifies the dread. In case that whole theory of conflict and death wasn?t enough, the final lyrics of the track are ?There will be no dawn, there will be no sunrise. A final testament to hell?, which I think makes the point quite nicely. The title tack that follows, ?Frigore Iferni? is incredibly badass in its own right, outwardly saying ?You call out to god, I rebuke his fucking name?. Black metal honestly gets tarred with the noise tag too much. As with this track you can argue the EP is its own form of cinema with the level of imagery and dense lyricism.

Now for everything I?ve just said about black metal, ?Prince ov Death? is personally the most Deathcore leaning track on the EP. There are some huge guttural utterances from Singleton that would measure up quite well against some of the best in the genre, and one particular lyric of ?From this ashen tome, I invoke these words? that feels very Travis Ryan-y from Cattle Decap, which the final two minutes of riff from Rushton, Stephen?s and bassist Harvey Hockey is just chunky excellence of the highest sort. Final track honours go to ?Winters Rite? and it such a groovy catastrophe to play us out on. Between the very obvious deathcore stints you would expect, it has an almost Behemoth like edge to it in the operatics and the guitar work. This may well be the personal favourite of the whole record and curtails things with a delicate piano piece to lead us out and nicely strikes the balance of the EP between beautiful and devastating.

Frigore Inferni is an abomination of sorts, solely on the basis that To Obey a Tyrant have so many strings to their bow. This EP for a band that?s still comparatively early in their run massively overachieved. The Black Metal/Deathcore balance may not be for everyone, nor is it always for me, but Frigore Inferni is personally perfectly in that sweet spot. It has story, tracks that are absolutely brimming with lyrical talent, as well as being musically crushing and developed. It?s pretty easy to imagine it in a sort of cinematic adaptation given what the band have gone for throughout the record. There?s just a very high chance that some of that cinema would not be acceptable to screen with how brutal this EP gets

This EP is a must for any fans of brutal genre work or that love a developed world inside their music. Frigore Inferni is available to stream on all major platforms and you can see it live at the upcoming TOAT show at Bournemouth?s Bear Cave venue in March

Personnel:

Brandon Singleton Vocals

Josh Rushton Guitar

Bruno Clay Drums

Harvey Hockey Bass

Jamie Stevens Guitar