The six-piece Italian Metal veterans Frozen Crown return with their sixth album, and the clue is in the title, The Legend Of The Six Kings. That’s six band members, sixth album, and ‘six’ in the title. Six six six, and we all know what that means. Who says Heavy Metal is not deep?
Frozen Crown – The Legend Of The Six Kings
Release Date: 2 October 2026
Words: Rick Brindle
The album kicks off with Lightning In The Sky, and a turbocharged symphony of drums and guitars announces the album’s start, accompanied by Giada Etro’s insistent vocal attack. This song is fast and relentless, not stopping for a microsecond, with super-shred guitaring and perpetual drumming overlaid with orchestral-like singing. This is Metal with a definite European slant, and is all the better because of it.
Variety then kicks in with Who Wants To Burn In Heaven, which is a much deeper, doomier song than the first. It has slower, chugging riffs. Giada’s voice soars above the chanting backing vocals, and the rhythm section keeps everything galloping along.
If you imagine Nightwish without any of the symphonic accompaniment and with a darker, more sinister feel, you are there with Frozen Crown. Three guitarists in this band really adds something, giving everything a really full, addictive sound.
Reborn has a softer, more melodic feel to it, with full-throated chorusing and a relentless, unstoppable energy. It confirms a conversation I was having earlier this week, that Heavy Metal does not need to be heavy to still be, well, heavy. This song absolutely is not the loudest, fastest or heaviest on the album, but it still pushes all of the right buttons. It it just good, addictive, foot-tapping Heavy Metal.
Hard on the heels of Reborn is The One, a definite chest beating anthem, turning the speed right up and all about tub-thumping loyalty to the kings of darkness. It is in no way an original theme, either in Heavy Metal or storytelling, but Frozen Crown make it work through their sheer energy and slick production. You have heard this before, but it still feels like you are tuning in for the first time.
And within Frozen Crown’s tightly controlled mission statement, Iris is probably as close you will ever get to a ballad. Well, it is not even a power ballad, but definitely a Power Metal ballad. The lyrics are heart-breakingly tragic, the soul crying out for understanding. You will never hear a love song sung with drums like this anywhere else.
The band take an absolutely different and individual take on a musical form within Metal that, for me, has never really sat too well with the rest of it. But yeah, Frozen Crown’s take on the ballad really works.
It does not take long at all, less than four minutes actually, for things to speed up with Winter Hearts, treble-laced gallop riffs and supersonic drumming, anthemic singing, and for the first time on the album, some growling backing vocals.
As with all of the songs on this album, there just is not time to breathe when you are listening to Frozen Crown. It is full throttle all the way, and then some more again. You simply cannot imagine this band taking it easy for a single second. Everything is done at warp speed.
The dilithium crystal warp speed continues with River Of Time, complete with melodic Speed Metal and Himalayan vocals. Strip away the nitro drumming and chugging guitars, and you are left with a soulful love song, screaming out its words of profound discovery. Nothing replaces that one single moment of chemistry, a moment celebrated in this three and a half minutes of urgent, insistent Heavy Metal.
Next up is Through The Fire, a song that is only just three minutes long. The last time you had songs that were in and out this quickly, there were mop-top scousers topping the charts, but a lot has changed since then, namely Italian Power Metal. There are more mystical lyrics and afterburning guitaring that simply leaves you unable to pause for frightened breath.
Melodic Metal makes a return with To The Stars, a slower, or maybe less fast song occupying much more traditional Metal territory. This song lends a more diverse tone to the album, or maybe the band are simply utterly exhausted by this point from the shattering pace of the earlier songs.
Either way, this is a great song, sedate and ambitious. The production throughout this album is slick and polished, which makes it a lot more accessible than you might otherwise think. And in terms of spreading the Metal word among the masses, that is definitely a good thing.
The Legend Of The Six Kings ends with the title track, and the only one that goes beyond four minutes. This one mixes Giada’s chiming vocals with Frederico’s growling, threatening presence, and all mixed in with lots of melodic metal chorusing. This song has also got a nice, sedate verse-type guitar solo, with lots of tempo changes throughout. This is a roiling, mystical, anthemic song.
Listening to this album makes you feel like you have done a forty-minute workout with an Olympic sprinter. The pace is so frenetic throughout. With the exception of the final, title track, none of these songs goes beyond four minutes.
This band do not mess around. They get in fast, deliver their message, then leave your mind frazzled and then storm on to the next. The Legend Of The Six Kings comes at you like a V8 interceptor on nitrous oxide, rampages over your senses and then leaves you stunned and breathless on the dust-track tarmac.
And if you like your Power Metal, then you will love Frozen Crown.
The Legend Of The Six Kings is due for release on 2 October 2026 via Napalm Records. For more details and pre-orders, visit lnk.to/FC-TheLegendoftheSixKings/napalmrecords. Catch the band with Beast In Black at O2 Forum Kentish Town on26 October 2026.
