NEGATIVE FRAME ‘BREAK THE ICE’
Break the Ice is London’s Negative Frame’s debut LP, an aptly-named record given the sometimes-icy atmosphere, and certainly with the fire and ice nature of the band’s sound. Indeed, as a case-in-point regarding the latter, the second track on the record, “9 Circles,” serves as a microcosm of Negative Frame: an onslaught of pit parts undergirded and contrasted with the band’s abundant and tasteful melodicism. I couldn’t help but connect the dots with the reference to Dante’s Inferno here, coupled with the demonic being—possibly Satan—on the album cover; though readers of the Inferno will recall that Satan had three mouths for chewing on the worst betrayers of all time rather than just the one furnace-mouth depicted on the cover above, he was frozen in a lake of ice at the waist, and perhaps what we’re hearing here is the auditory equivalent of the fallen choirmaster struggling to break free from his icy confines.
Gustave Doré’s depiction of Satan frozen in the Ninth Circle of Hell, Inferno, Canto 34.
Album opener “Samsara” sets the tone as a kind of tribal war dance meets Kurtz’s compound in Apocalypse Now. This is followed by the aforementioned “9 Circles,” which is in turn followed by “New Lows,” a sprawling track that well-clears the five minute-mark in a fashion reminiscent of fellow Londoners TRC; with pinched harmonics and plenty for moshers to sink their teeth into, there’s also the welcome contrast of the band’s melodicism, complete with the kind of bellowed singing one encounters with Malevolence. I don’t know if the song title “Samsara” put me in this headspace, but I get some Deep Blue by Parkway Drive vibes from the next track, “Sorrow & Solitude,” though that auditory association is stronger on the later “Part of Me,” albeit with Parkway going to Sheffield to pick up a little extra grit and more of that bellowed singing from Malevolence. “Sorrow & Solitude” has similar DNA but is more indebted to 2000s Western Massachusetts metalcore. “Another Way” closes the album out on a high note, with the best breakdown on the album and some showy guitarwork, and continues to find the band deep in their Malevolence-meets-2000s Western Mass metalcore bag.
Though these tracks are kissing cousins, this isn’t to say that Negative Frame are one-trick ponies. As guitarist Olly Coyne told me in our March interview, “Our sound has always been a mix of our favourite parts of heavy music,” and that is readily apparent here in Negative Frame’s Venn diagram of metal. “Cut Throat” starts out with some deathcore before moving into a double-mosh part that would’ve been right at home at Hellfest NJ; indeed, pretty much the whole song is about the pit, though I do think at around 1:47 it starts to lose momentum and could’ve been cut there to keep it short and sweet. Ending there would’ve also been a great segue into “Cold Nights,” which reminded me a bit of post-George Noble Your Demise. “Pay to Play” is an interesting song, particularly to come after “Cold Nights,” with its Bad Company-Judas Priest- Motorhead-core sound; I will say, though, that the song did feel like it needed a more coherent focus, which would’ve made this mixture more potent. “Heavens Blue” starts out with a cold wind blowing over acoustic guitar as it forms into a dead ringer for Alice in Chains on Unplugged, building into a fully electric crescendo about halfway through, the band pushing into some Five Finger Death Punch territory.
With the space to flex their musical muscles and a willingness to pull from a wide base of metal, hardcore, and beyond, Negative Frame’s produced a strong and organically heavy yet melodic offering, one that I fully expect will win the band many new fans.
PHOTO CREDIT: RICHARD MUKUZA