Label: CPZ Records
Release: 2007
FrozenchilD, a trio (by some sensational findings even a foursome) of music fanatics, after years of wearing out local and often foreign stages, in 2007 launches its first assault on the ears of the sub-Alpine populace with a batch of eleven cookie-cutter screams of rage and untamed rebellion from the average spoiled Slovenian teenager. They only confirm that the birth of their long-awaited debut, meaningfully titled Birth, is just one of the last nails hammered into the coffin of apathy and quasi-intellectual pathos of the Ljubljana rock scene.
It’s awful that FrozenchilD, with the utterly predictable guitar droning of the otherwise more than solid Peter Hudnik, carelessly pin their hopes on the not-even-slightly-impressive vocals of a guy who obviously likes to go by the pseudonym Cerebus in public! A bold move which, for all the vocalist’s undeniable self-confidence, ranks among the bigger strategic blunders since the Catholic front of the Polish nationalist guard picked none other than Joseph Stalin as its savior and patron saint for the great Warsaw Uprising in 1944. The young gentleman’s vocal delivery is a downright sloppy heap of mindlessly forged riffs on Layne Staley or, even worse, in certain stretches on Jim Morrison himself. Beyond deathly tiresome and ailing growling, our little “genius” offers no pop pleasures worth mentioning, which, given the limited range of cultural and musical comprehension of the potential FrozenchilD enthusiast, isn’t much of a problem anyway. Surrendering to the monotonous pounding of grotesquely amplified guitar riffs, that listener will probably soon lose track of the typical high-school lyrics of utopia and suicidal madness on which the entire FrozenchilD message seems, at first glance, to be built. Cerebus’ “rich” gloomy vocabulary, as if by some evil premonition, remains the most standout FrozenchilD element throughout the whole album, since musical highlights are hardly abundant here, if there are any at all.
Birth is first pushed out into the light by Daemon Song, an endless vocal impersonation of Beelzebub himself, quickly followed by a more listenable, vocally relieving intermezzo in the form of Desire. An otherwise totally average track, it’s the first more convincing proof of the consistency of the band’s rhythm section, which admittedly lacks a bit more creativity, a fact whose role stays negligible this time around. Tracks like Pretence, the interestingly conceived The Wake (void?), Dream or the promising melodic symbiosis of Sub clearly show the outlines of their well-camouflaged potential, but with the pointless vocal turns, topped off with a dash of naive rhythmic hopping around, they always end up far from expectations. Wedged between Cerebus’ babyish fiction and the reality of everyday Ljubljana life, we find Broken, an experiment with ambient touches that we’ve heard countless times before, in the style of that infamously defunct society of Seattle abstainers from antidepressants of all kinds and colors. Nemesis is anything but the enigma it pretends to be: it’s an above-average bit of circling around a finally somewhat decent vocal, which, thanks to more substantial support from the rest of the trio, together with its sister track Phoenix, quietly gives away the band’s current ceiling. With Never/Forever, the band also hints that its problem lies not so much in the musical concept as in the desperately fake and faceless vocals, which of course drag down the whole image and concept of FrozenchilD.
So FrozenchilD are here. With a “slight” delay, sure, but still armed with a hefty dose of untamed roaring, to which we’ll surely be pining in the coming months for the golden days of serenity, from the carefree “child less” days of harmony and mutual understanding. Oh well, the situation gets a little more bearable once you make the unexpected discovery of this disc’s alternative purpose. Modern science won’t have a more effective stimulant for the bladder and similar excretory organs to offer for a long time yet!
Lineup
Peter Hudnik (pherius): guitar
Marko Preželj (cerebus): vocals
Katrine: drums
Mitja Kavec: bass
Production
Matej Grginič
Tracklist
1.Daemon Song
2.Desire
3.Broken
4.Pretence
5.Nemesis
6.Dream
7.The Wake (void)
8.Sub
9.Phoenix
10.Never/Forever
11.Night Vision
Album length: 56.30
