FROZEN CROWN — War Hearts (review)

Album · 2024 · Power Metal

4.5/5 · 2024-10-15
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For my money Italy's Frozen Crown number among the best power metal bands to have made their debut within the last ten years. They do not necessarily break the mould but then, it's power metal. There are certain expectations that need to be delivered if a band is going to be considered a really good power metal act: speed, melody, great vocals and infectious songs. Frozen Crown has that in spades and this time with their fifth studio album War Hearts (2024) they're following suit with the modern Iron Maiden line-up and coming at us with a triple guitarist attack.

That probably means more in the live environment than it does in the studio, but the addition of Alessia Lanzone is another skilled and talented musician in the Frozen Crown family and we've already seen the trio in action in the music videos made to promote War Hearts (Steel and Gold was the first released song, followed by the title track) and that's enough to show that a three guitarist line-up is not overkill.

The rest of the band's line-up remains unchanged from that of Call of the North (2023): Giada "Jade" Etro (vocals), Federico Mondelli (guitars, vocals), Fabiola Bellomo (guitars), Francesco Zof (bass) and Niso Tomasini (drums).

Opening with the two singles, Frozen Crown more or less sticks to a formula aside from a shorter penultimate instrumental leading into the album's sole longer and closing track Ice Dragon. I cannot say that the ten track album throws much in the way of surprise if one is familiar with Frozen Crown already, or even just with power metal music. In the past the band has experimented a bit with using some extremer elements but those are absent on War Hearts and in fact secondary vocalist Federico Mondelli doesn't really sing all that much at all but that's perhaps hardly surprising when they have Giada Etro as their main vocalist. Frozen Crown's musicianship is superb, but for me Etro is the band's biggest draw. It is the singer that can make or break a power metal band. You can hear that Frozen Crown knows how good of a singer they have in Giada.

Frozen Crown's discography so far has been a solidly consistent one and War Hearts is not going to be the album that bucks that trend, which is actually a double-edged sword because while it's another excellent power metal album featuring all those hallmark elements I mentioned earlier, I also can't fairly say that it's the Frozen Crown album that really takes their music to the next level – although perhaps the most outright disappointing thing about it is that it's their shortest studio album to date, being over ten minutes shorter than Call of the North despite having the same amount of tracks. But I meant what I said about them being among the best modern power metal bands – they are. They just haven't, for me at least, yet released an album I'd feel comfortable giving a 5 star score to.

But a fifth 4.5 in a row is hardly anything to be sniffed at. And they're going to get there to the top tier sooner rather than later, I think. They have the musicianship, the excellent singer and they have the power metal sound down to a tee. If anything what's held me back with how I score their work is that they may actually be too polished even for a power metal band. It's taken the edge off the raw energy that this kind of music is capable of having. It's the difference, I think, between a power metal album that power metal fans like me are going to lap up and a power metal album that can make those less enthusiastic about the genre pay attention.