Review: Frostbitt – Machine Destroy

Style: Progressive Nu-metal (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Car Bomb, Deftones, Korn
Review by: Zach
Country: Norway
Release date: 08 January, 2023

I saw Car Bomb open for Between the Buried and Me last year, and there was not a single mosh pit to be found. In fact, the crowd mostly stood still the whole time with the same exact look on their face I had. A combination of sheer awe at the talent of these guys and thinking, “how the fuck are they doing that?”. No click tracks, no time signature, and not a single person out of time for the whole 40 minutes they were on stage. I wanted to ask their bass player afterward, “hey, how much crack do you guys smoke before composing?”, but I don’t think he’d give away a trade secret like that. Either way, I left the show with a renewed appreciation for the band, and a hunger for more music like them.

So, enter Frostbitt. A relatively young band from Norway who are on their third album (fourth if you count the 2020 version of their self-titled). A band that clearly seeks to lure in all those who crave chugs and polyrhythms. Their core sound isn’t exactly original, but neither is Loathe’s and I love their music. In fact, the thread between these guys and the aforementioned is their clear Deftones-influenced spacey atmosphere. These atmospheric sections are what (should) set Frostibitt apart from their ever-growing competition, so to say I was excited to sink my teeth into Machine Destroy is selling it short.

This was the most mixed first listen I’ve had in quite a while. Every turn of the way, I thought “ah, ok, here we go. Nice riff, it’s about to get good”, only for my ears to remain fairly unexcited for pretty much all of Machine Destroy’s runtime. The Car Bomb riff with the vocalist repeating something over and over again that matches the drum syncopated beat got old really fast. It was fun the first time, but its all over the album, and it never really works.

‘Cyber Walk’ starts with a riff that sounds more like Vildhjarta than anything else on the album, catching my attention immediately after a nice clean guitar intro. Then in comes a riff that I feel like I’ve heard twelve different times on the album. I’d be more forgiving of the variation they put on that THALL-icious riff in the beginning if they didn’t ruin it by inserting a breakdown after the vocalist just screams “WALK!” a few times. It bored me, and I was really trying my hardest to like what it had to offer. But this album feels like a bunch of sections of songs I’ve heard better bands perform all mashed together.

A band like Loathe know they aren’t doing anything extraordinary with the genre they’re playing. They still have most of the same elements that Frosbitt have, but there are enough switch-ups throughout their albums to keep things interesting for fifty minutes. The latter are lost in their vision of desperately trying to become the Car Bomb and Korn mashup the world needs, and can’t focus on finding anything that sounds like Frosbitt. My biggest issue with this album is that nothing sounds or feels original. These guys are all clearly talented musicians playing songs that have the structure of your average radio metalcore song. I think that’s what makes me angriest about this album, the sheer amount of talent these guys have and their refusal to use it in an interesting way.

‘106’, the album’s very last song, very nearly saves this album from being a completely negative review. It combines everything I love about chuggy-chuggy nu-metal, and for once, doesn’t sound like a complete rip off. Even the vocals don’t just sound like a Norwegian Jonathan Davis here. It’s not fantastic by any means, but it saves the album from a lower score.

When a band like Periphery can continuously improve and hone their craft to a T despite playing a genre that’s essentially a chugfest, I don’t see any excuse for a djent-adjacent band to create something this bland. If Frosbitt were a young band, I’d be a little more forgiving of this album. But this is their third effort, and quite frankly, a band should’ve found their sound by this time. This album feels like every day they came to rehearsal practicing their favorite Car Bomb riffs, and then switched them up ever so slightly. There are certainly enjoyable pieces on the album, but they are fleeting and far between.

Recommended tracks: 106
You may also like: Loathe
Final verdict: 3/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube | Facebook | Instagram |

Label: Braak Records – Official Website

Frostbitt is:
– Ivan Hanson (vocals)
– Steffan Amandus Nielsen (drums)
– Kevin Rene Solheim (bass)
– Emil Reitan (guitar)