THE FROZEN – Blue Virtue

Blue Virtue is the first full-length studio album from The Frozen; prior to this release, the Austrian band had recorded several demos, and an “unplugged” disc since their formation in 1998. Blue Virtue is 12 tracks in length (including brief intro and outro tracks) and has a playing time of just over 45 minutes.

The Frozen play their own brand of Hard Rock, bordering on Metal at times. It’s not extremely heavy stuff, but it has some good hard-hitting riffs throughout and a fair amount of power. The band does a good job providing a solid atmosphere and decent vocal melodies across the entire length of the disc, even tossing in a catchy “Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!” refrain within the song “Violet.”

The musicianship the foursome displays on this album is good, and the lyrics of singer/guitarist Dennis Panholzer are well-done and fairly humorous at times, most notably on the song “Adore.” Catchy guitar lines and good riffs liven up a handful of songs, like “Reason To Feast” and “Violet,” two of the better songs to be found on Blue Virtue.

Most of the songs on Blue Virtue are pretty good -– although the opening and closing tracks come across more as filler than anything else –- but none of them strike you as being really amazing, falling squarely on the “Good But Not Great” side of the ledger. While the tunes are enjoyable and melodic, this is a fairly laid back album (at least by the standards of the Hard Rock genre) that probably could have used a bit more bite and aggression, although “Whore” is a bit nastier than the other tracks, and “Night Of The Vampire” has a nicely ominous tone to it.

And the less said about “Frozen” and “Still Frozen,” Blue Virtue‘s opening and closing tracks, the better, although “Frozen” is mildly catchy in its own way. “Still Frozen” seems more like the ending for the song that preceded it (“Night Of The Vampire”), but it’s listed as a separate track. These two tunes could have been left off the album and no one would have noticed.

Despite the little bits of padding sticking out around the edges, Blue Virtue is still a pretty respectable Hard Rock album from The Frozen, although it might be a bit too mellow for fans of the heavier stuff. It’s worth a listen or two though.