Cold, forlorn landscapes make the ideal breeding grounds for black metal bands. Maybe that’s why North Dakota is rapidly becoming the U.S. black metal (USBM) scene’s answer to Scandinavia. Earlier this year we were gifted with the release of ND natives Ghost Bath’s awe-inspiring masterpiece Moonlover. Now comes another stunning slab of USBM from their fellow Dakota residents Frosthelm.

After a couple of highly acclaimed independent releases Frosthelm has taken their blackened thrash attack to legendary metal producer Matt Hyde’s new label Black Work (Alkemy Brothers) and delivered the brilliant and pummeling album The Endless Winter. Skeletonwitch singer Chance Garnett may have summed these guys up best with this quote: “A definite Euro/cold guitar tone but with an American ‘something’ added. I hear Immortal meets The Black Dahlia Murder, and that’s something I’ve not yet heard.”

North Dakota’s Ghost Bath is one of the most exciting bands to emerge from the New Wave of U.S. Black Metal (NWOUSBM). They are also one of the most mysterious; The band initially presented themselves as a Chinese band in advance of their awe-inspiring debut album Funeral. No one is quite sure why they did this, but everyone was talking about it so I guess there’s that. Anyway, publicity stunts aside, Ghost Bath is highly secretive and there are no photos of the members to be found anywhere. They are a band that chooses to let the music speak for itself and speak it does. In volumes.