Shield Breaker – Frost and Shadow (2018) – Glacial viking heavy metal made in America

Shield Breaker is a Viking / Black Metal band surprisingly from the United States. Despite the thousands of miles away from any Scandinavian country, the band had enough insipiration to release the second album, "Frost and Shadow", less than a year after the premiere "A Warrior's Death Song".

"Frost and Shadow" initially prizes more for the ambiance and atmosphere than for the heavy metal essence. The first two songs - Where Frost and Shadow Dwell and The Long Journey Home are full of atmosphere, set on a typical erudite vibe with a sharp glacial distant vocal, sounding sometimes like Moonsorrow. The metal part is heard only at the beginning of the third song The Coming of War, with well-crafted riffs and pungent solos resounding in accelerated cadence. From that point on the album evolves to a viking-goes-to-war heavy metal sound, especially the decent Sword Song. On Frozen Ground even resembles Manowar with its typical cadence guided by chorals full of epic appeal. Storm of Tides seals the album in more a straightforward way, contrasting to the early erudition.

Shield Breaker has been inspired to release 2 albums in less than 1 year and, despite being an american band, they rests the battle-ax in deep nordic roots. Bands like these have enough professionalism (and money) to make any folk music sound almost as good as the original source of inspiration, regardless of distance.

Tracklist
1.Where Frost and Shadow Dwell 06:09
2.The Long Journey Home 07:30
3.The Coming of War 06:46
4.Sword Song 04:25
5.Ironheart 07:36
6.On Frozen Ground 04:31
7.Storm of Tides 04:37

Final Conclusion:

Marcelo Hissa