Messiah Force - White Night
The Derek Riggs-esque cover art made me interested in this album when I first learned of it, as did promise of Maiden-y songs, but they never stuck with me. This is better than I remember, liking the loud bass and tense melodies, fits the theme reasonably well, but still just decent overall. 6/10.
Dissection - In the Cold Winds of Nowhere
Decent. The first half sounds like a meloxtreem version of Exodus which is cool, maybe gets a little too sappy in the second half. 5/10.
Rage - Don't Fear the Winter
Amazing song, speed metal at its most passionate and evocative, but this more anti-cold than anything. I can just imagine snuggling up into Peavy’s arms in a wool sweater in front of a fireplace during the holidays when that chorus comes in. 5/10.
Pestilence - Suspended Animation
Clinical, dispassionate, hopeless, and full of fucking awesome riffs. The bridge section was the first time Pestilence ever gave me chills. 10/10.
Oblivion - Frosted Avowals
9/10.
Thin Lizzy - Cold Sweat
Has ‘cold’ in the title but doesn’t really feel thematic to me, would have been great for a nervousness mixtape. Not really a favorite song or album for me anyways. 3/10.
Antidote - 3rd Time in Greenland
Album I wish I could love but it doesn’t do it. Tight but for a tech-thrash band they play a lot of chuggy basic riffs in between the more showy ones, and a kind of goofy Stone-esque tempo without the ability to write the latter’s hooks. Lyrics don’t seem available, but the leads are pretty cold I suppose. 5/10.
Sorcier des Glaces – North
Intro had its moments, once the vocalist came in it became a sapfest. 3/10.
Voïvod – Fall
I considered submitting Forgotten in Space to this playlist for a less literal pick. First time hearing this song, really good and surprisingly different for them, but doesn’t feel cold to me. The first couple minutes barely even sound like Voivod to me, more like some kind of post-hardcore, the chords are actually fairly warm and the personal theme is different. Sounds more like the Voivod I know after that, but not quite cold, just increasingly dissociated, which is pretty cool actually, especially those leads 5 minutes in, like a gradual descent into giving up on life. Really need to hear this EP, between this and the other song no wainds or whoever asked me about a few months ago, seems like they’re at a new creative peak. In an introspection or depression theme I’d give this a 10/10, but for this one just a 6/10.
Messiah - Extreme Cold Weather
Quintessential frostbitten first-wave black metal. That guitar tone is amazing. 9/10.
Judas Priest - Winter/Deep Freeze/Winter Retreat/Cheater
From another band I might not like it as much, but still a neat bit of Priest history with one of their meanest songs, Cheater. 7/10.
Immortal - Frozen by Icewinds
Boring. 4/10.
