2005
Baltane Records
By: Naberius
This is a very short (4 tracks clocking in at about 12 minutes) demo from California's one man band, Endless Blizzard. This is also one of those demos that got better as it went on. The demo starts out with a very Darkthrone sounding track, "Rotten Forest." It's a pretty standard track, as far as black metal goes and didn't really catch my attention. The next song, "Blood of the Elders," reminds me of Carpathian Forest, mainly due to the sudden boost in the volume of the bass with some added distortion. The title track, "Beyond the Frozen Gates," is definitely the stand out track. The opening is perfect, wind followed by a hypnotic guitar riff fading in with somoe shrieked vocals. The middle of the song, to me, anyway, sounds very Celtic Frost inspired, actually. But there is always that Darkthrone sound to it. I even noticed in his lyrics, whether it is coincidental or intentional, I don't know, some Darkthrone references. In "Beyond the Frozen Gates," there is the lines "Eternal Northern Blaze" (A Blaze in the Northern Sky) and "Eternal Sleep of Darkness" (Natassja in Eternal Sleep.) I'm probably overanalyzing, but it's just something I noticed. The demo closes with "Last Frost," and instrumental track. A very beautiful song with a really eerie keyboard sound throughout, before fading into some more wind. A little above average, in my book, and if Roskva Strmaglio ever released anything else I'd probably check it out.