{"id":59283,"date":"2017-07-24T00:00:50","date_gmt":"2017-07-24T00:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=59283"},"modified":"2017-07-27T14:01:09","modified_gmt":"2017-07-27T14:01:09","slug":"feature-frosthelm-07-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/feature-frosthelm-07-17\/","title":{"rendered":"FROSTHELM – Eternal Winter And Darkness (July 2017) | Features \/ Interviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

FROSTHELM – Eternal Winter And Darkness<\/strong><\/span>
\nTheron Moore<\/span>
\nJuly 2017<\/span><\/p>\n

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Frosthelm (l-r): Billy Zahn, Brian Helm, Jimmy Cherry, Dakota L. Irwin and Bernard Pfliger<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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\nYeah I know. What comes to mind when I say North Dakota? Fargo<\/em>, right? The Cohen Brothers movie. It\u2019s a tough state to live in, especially during the winter months, but what doesn\u2019t kill you makes you stronger, right? And in the case of Frosthelm, that\u2019s literally the truth.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s taken the United States a while to figure out black metal, but in the last few years bands like Bereft (Madison, Wisconsin), Black Devotion (Chicago, Illinois) and Manticore (Euclid, Ohio) have been waving the banner and pummeling audiences with their blackened sound, and so too have Bismarck, North Dakota-based Frosthelm.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started playing together in the spring of 2008 when I was offered a vacant spot in a death \/ grind band called Servium,\u201d says guitarist Dakota L. Irwin. \u201cAt the time it had been almost five years since I had played with a band so I was eager to start playing again. I spent the next year developing a sound that I was satisfied with and that we could build off of. By the time we were ready to start playing out the band had changed so much we felt that a new name was needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we first started, we had two guys who were into black metal, a death metal guy, a grind guy and I was the thrash guy. So those elements were always present at rehearsals and just hanging out afterwards, drinking beers and listening to records. We never said \u2018let\u2019s be a black metal band\u2019, but speed and melody were at the forefront of those early rehearsals. I\u2019m not saying that speed plus melody equals black metal, but the intensity and the feeling you get when the drums are blasting and the guitars are loud really left an impression on me. I would say that black metal dictated us to a degree.\u201d <\/p>\n

Like most extreme metal bands, Frosthelm\u2019s roots go deep. \u201cSlayer<\/a>\u2019s Hell Awaits<\/em> [1985] is the one album that turned me on to the more extreme metal styles,\u201d reveals Irwin. \u201cThis is one of the few records to me that\u2019s perfect start to finish, and I still listen to it all the time. It\u2019s all there \u2013 speed, cool riffs, melody, hooks, lyrics, big grooves \u2013 everything and more. <\/p>\n

\u201cI remember getting this album in the mail back in early 1997. Back then there used to be cards in magazines for CD clubs. You fill out the card and send it off with a penny and get something like seven CDs. Anyway, this was one of the seven I picked and to me it was on another level. I had Show No Mercy<\/em><\/a> [1983] on cassette, but Hell Awaits<\/em> just stepped it up for me big time. I liked Slayer before I heard that album but I became a fan after it. I used to sit in detention and write the lyrics from Hell Awaits<\/em> on my desk. The influence from this album is still obvious in tons of black, death, thrash, speed, whatever bands directly or indirectly.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no surprise that death metal has an influence on Frosthelm\u2019s music as well. \u201cMy first introduction to death metal was from a cousin of mine,\u201d reflects the guitarist. \u201cHe showed me the first Six Feet Under album Haunted<\/em> [1995]. This would have been around 1998. That opened a lot of musical doors for me. Some of the bands I was into back then would be Cannibal Corpse, Napalm Death and Carcass.<\/p>\n

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Frosthelm 2015 (l-r): Brian Helm, Bernard Pfliger, Dakota L. Irwin and
Jimmy Cherry<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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\u201cThe first black metal album I bought was A Haunting Curse<\/em> [2006] by Goatwhore. Back then I bought albums based on how much money was in my pocket and how cool the name and artwork were. And since getting new music to listen to was a rare treat for me, anything new would be on endless repeat for weeks. Such a good record. My friend Scott got me into Immortal and Emperor, and my friend Ji introduced me to Dissection, which is one of the greatest bands of all time and left a big impression on me.\u201d<\/p>\n

And as such, the foundation for what would later become the shredding guitar sound for Frosthelm assumes form, grows fangs, and evolves. <\/p>\n

Frosthelm. The name alone brings forth visions of cold, snowy, bleakness; denied by the sun, fostered by darkness. In a way that\u2019s kind of an apt description of North Dakota in the winter, which makes it all the more surprising that such a place would have any kind of music scene. \u201cThere isn\u2019t a real metal scene here in Bismarck,\u201d admits Irwin. \u201cThere are a handful of metal bands here and there, but metal is a broad term and the bands that are here reflect that. <\/p>\n

\u201cTen years ago there was a much more active punk \/ grind scene with a few death metal acts attached to it. But I\u2019m not from here originally so I can\u2019t really comment on what it was or what it\u2019s become. I do know there are a lot of acoustic \/ fedora \/ beard bands here now. But if you book metal bands here people will show up\u2026 there just isn\u2019t enough of it to be a scene.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs far as local extreme metal bands go, the only one that comes to mind is Grizzly Horse. But on the state level there is Gorgatron, Rotting Thought, Untold Fog, Tagus and Antlers. If there are more, I\u2019m sure they are still in the basement. In the larger communities there are venues to play. I know Minot and Fargo are still pretty active with punk and metal. <\/p>\n

\u201cUsually the bills are mixed with all kinds of different bands and that\u2019s the way it\u2019s been here since I started playing live. I always thought that was cool. Mostly VFW [Veterans of Foreign Wars] halls and smaller rental venues. There isn\u2019t much to do around here so when bands are playing people appreciate live music, especially the more extreme stuff.\u201d <\/p>\n

Irwin pauses for a moment. \u201cWe don\u2019t play here that often because two of our members live out of state, so the majority of our performances have been on tour. In the past we were more active on the local level. Who knows, though? I mean, that could change soon. I\u2019d personally like to play more in our home state. The majority of the band lives here in Bismarck which is the capital. I\u2019ve only been living here for a few years. I\u2019m from a small \u2018rez\u2019 town, which has a population of around 1000. Three of the four directions where I lived was open prairie, so yes very remote. Since we hail from the middle of nowhere, our exposure to other scenes, such as what\u2019s happening in Chicago, Illinois or Portland, Oregon, for example, is limited to when we tour.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the band has been around nine years, its discography is still growing. \u201cWe have released a demo, an EP called The Northwinds Rend Flesh<\/em> [2012] and a full-length titled The Endless Winter<\/em> [2015],\u201d states the guitarist. \u201cThere are a few cassettes with the EP on one side and a live session from a KFAI radio programme called Root Of All Evil in Minneapolis and CDs of The Endless Winter<\/em> available on Bandcamp. There are also shirts, patches and some other things available there too. We have also had a lot of demand for more tapes and vinyl, so those will be coming as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

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But the band isn\u2019t sitting idle. \u201cWe just finished headlining the Stygian Rites Fest 2017 pre-show [in Rapid City, South Dakota], which was our only obligation for the year,\u201d says Irwin. \u201cNow we are actively writing and demoing our next release. We also added another guitar player [Billy Zahn] who is a very talented shredder and song writer. So other than that we have just been laying low and working on new material. A lot of our inspiration comes from personal experience, dark arts, loss, self-doubt, the cold and lonely North Dakota winters. There have been songs, musically, I\u2019ve written with a subject or feeling in mind. I\u2019d show Bernard [Pfliger, vocals] the song and tell him what it was about, and he\u2019d write the lyrics to it.<\/p>\n

\u201cA good example would be \u2018The Dragon\u2019 which is loosely based on the plot of Castlevania: Lords Of Shadow . Bernard was able to take what I had in mind and personalise it. I thought that was cool. \u2018Silent And Dark, The Everlasting Sky\u2019 is a song Bernard and I co-wrote lyrics for. The song is based on Tibetan sky burial, but in the sense of existing one day and then not existing at all, my perspective on death \/ decay and his side being more of a metaphor for questioning existence itself. I wrote the first half and he wrote the second. It turned out well. <\/p>\n

\u201cI am very influenced by European black metal, particularly the 90s Swedish bands. I didn\u2019t know that until after I was into them. The bands I like the most are able to blend the dark and heavy and melodic and they do it seamlessly. When I hear that kind of music I get that same feeling Hell Awaits<\/em> gave me when I was kid.\u201d <\/p>\n

But is there a difference between U.S. and European styles of metal, specifically black metal? \u201cI don\u2019t know these days?\u201d muses the guitarist. \u201cI think on a global level the lines have been blurred so much that it doesn\u2019t really matter. Everyone seems to toss everything back and forth, which is cool. You can ask ten different people what metal is and you\u2019ll get ten different answers. To me it doesn\u2019t matter all that much as long as it\u2019s just good music. I\u2019m not from a black metal scene or even a metal scene. And what I mean by that is that I can\u2019t tell where a band is from just by listening to them. Can anyone these days? I don’t know. I just know what I like and what I don\u2019t like.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs long as I’m able to express myself with my instrument and my band then I am content. That being said, our sound has changed from those first practices in the basement to the demos we\u2019re working on now. I don\u2019t really notice it until its side by side. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf the music is honest then I don\u2019t think any change in direction might be too much, if it happens. And as far as the music is concerned, for me it has always dictated itself. I\u2019m looking forward to what\u2019s next for us as a band, now that we have a new member with a very different style and approach than mine. Some of the new material we are working on has some very interesting detours. Our main focus is getting a new album out. If it\u2019s released via a label or independently, makes no difference to us. As long as it\u2019s honest, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

Frosthelm has a Facebook page<\/a>. Like it. You can also find their music on Bandcamp here<\/a>. U.S. black metal is becoming a force to be reckoned with, and Frosthelm is leading that charge. Now, bow at the altar of metal, for the gods of steel are calling you!<\/p>\n

The Endless Winter<\/em> was released on March 22nd, 2015 via Alkemy Brothers.<\/p>\n

Interview published in July 2017<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FROSTHELM – Eternal Winter And Darkness Theron Moore July 2017 Frosthelm (l-r): Billy Zahn, Brian Helm, Jimmy Cherry, Dakota L. Irwin and Bernard Pfliger Yeah I know. What comes to mind when I say North Dakota? Fargo, right? The Cohen Brothers movie. It\u2019s a tough state to live in, especially during the winter months, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3587],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-frosthelm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59283"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59298,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59283\/revisions\/59298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}