I suppose that if your band is focused on making bone-chillingly cold black/death metal, you can do no better than to name yourselves I.C.E. Just so they aren’t confused with the Vanilla-man, what I.C.E. really stands for is “Imperial Crystalline Entombment”. What they deliver is riffy black metal that pays homage to the mighty Immortal - a sound not usually heard in the American black metal scene.

If there’s one thing they certainly have in common with Immortal is the shared sense of coherence while blazing along at hyperspeed. The drumming is like an unceasing blast-beat that the guitarists manage to keep right up with. They also avoid the pitfall of never knowing when to end a song. Most of the songs here fit comfortably in the 3-4 minute range, which seems to hit right about when the constant blasting starts to get very repetitive. The production fits this band well. Not to say that it’s a great mix on an absolute scale, but the guitars have a very frigid and buzzing tone, and while the drums get garbled when too much is happening, it hides more than it overwhelms.

Apocalyptic End in White wastes no time in pounding and abusing the listener with “Astral Frost Invocation”, a song which features malicious chord progressions and dissonant death metal riffage. “Hypothermic Possession” improves on this formula by briefly including demonic roars to offset the very standard, mid-range, raspy delivery that comprises the bulk of the vocals. Parts of other tracks, such as “Convulsing Frigid Death”, suggest a minor Vader influence. This could easily be passed off as a pure death metal album with a different singer, guitar tone, and image/ideology.

As the album progresses, all of the frosty, blast-driven mayhem can get tiresome, but there are certainly promising songs to be heard. The cloaked members of I.C.E. set out to tell a story of mythical battles on the tundra and they do so at maximum speed. While this style of blasting black metal is not my usual cup of tea, it’s well-written and contains plenty of enjoyably grim moments.