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The Iceman Cometh to the Land beyond Dreams - 87%

Werewolf, April 14th, 2007

Tondra / Cracking the Hoarfrost:

From a collaboration of NUNSLAUGHTER's vocalist and 8 mm Overdose bassist I could expect only for kick ass oldschool Thrash/Death stuff and definately not a gloomy Doom/Death release...

Lyrically, this album is written very well and got even me into a journey to the cold and mighty mountains of Tondra. Good philosophic stuff which none of the Scandinavian Black Metal acts which I've heard (and I heard many) deserve to be compared to!

Musically - these songs sound disappointing for me. It's not that Rob made a bad job with all the instruments here and not that the atmosphere that was created here doesn't fit the words (it definately does!), but it's the fact that the very low and heavy tuned guitar and bass are to slow paced, monotonous and simply boring in my opinion. But I'm sure that those who are into Death/Doom Metal would definately enjoy and appreciate it more than I do. Nevertheless, I did like the cover of Hellhammer's "Reaper", which is well executed and sounds still great despite the great differences between Hellhammer's and Tondra's sound and Don's and Warrior's voices.

75/100 for Tondra, for the great lyrics and the well done cover!

Nordic Mist / Into the Psyche Deluge:

This band is the main reason why I decided to buy this CD. I was sure that a band with such a logo and cover art will sound almost as great as the original... But I didn't know that it sounds THAT great and dedicated to CF's stuff! If WARHAMMER (Ger) and Apokalyptic Raids' material in my opinion play stuff that HELLHAMMER didn't exist long enough to release, then NORDIC MIST is just the ultimate revenge for "Cold Lake"!

"To the Land Beyond Dreams" is an intro, which consists of a female's voice with some Frostish riffs on the background. I've got nothing to say except the fact thet it's simply well done!

The other 3 songs are heavyly inspired by Frost's lyrics from "Morbid Tales". The vocalist succeeded to imitate Warrior's voice and other singing characteristics (such as his famous "UGH!") very well, while the rest of the musicians made a nearly perfect work musicwise.

"The Conquest of the Undead King" is a perfect analogy of "Visions of Mortality", both musically and lyrically. The only difference between it and VOM is that this one is much shorter, but the riffs sound almost exactly the same, while still being a bit different.

"Into the Psyche Delve" has nothing to do with "Into Crypys of Rays"... Because from the musical point of view it sound exactly like "Circle of the Tyrants"!!! Posers - beware! This song definately doesn't sound like any "Cold Lake" oriented crap! Lyrically they remind me of "Return to the Eve"...

Last but not least, "Planet Six" is both an ode to Saturn and an answer to CF's "Nocturnal Fear". The music here somehow reminds me "Deathroned Emperor" in the beginning, but later there's a female's monolog, similar to the one in "Return to the Eve", with electronic effects on the background, which sound so much better than "Danse Macabre", which I really hate...

Overall, Nordic Mist did a really great work on this CD in my opinion, because they succeeded to ressurect the long time gone spirit of Frost's best era, by playing riffs inspired by some of Frost's best songs, which nevertheless don't sound recycled. If WARHAMMER (Ger) for me is the ultimate Hellhammer worship band (I like Apokalyptic Raids more, but Warhammer still has a more similar sound to Hellhammer), than Nordic Mist is their perfect parallel. Those who would like to listen to some new Celtic Frost's stuff released in 2006 but written and played really well, better avoid buying the "true" Frost's "Homosexist" or whatever and order this CD instead!

'll give it 99/100, only because the songs could be a bit (or even much) longer, so the average rate for the whole CD is 87.