Lord Mist is an Egyptian musician who, for the past few years, has taken the “painful path” of depressive black metal with his solo project FrostAgratH. As I have already had occasion to say several times, those who play this particular subgenre of metal aim above all to emotionally stimulate the listener, and often, in doing so, purely technical aspects are overlooked: hence the need to select with some care the material we are offered, choosing to speak only of those releases that present, albeit in varying percentages, good songwriting and sufficient sonic performance. Extinguishing The Flame Of Life is an album, the second for FrostAgratH, that more than satisfactorily responds to the aforementioned characteristics proving to be, indeed, one of the best works in the field that I have had the opportunity to hear recently. Lord Mist’s dsbm possesses very atmospheric traits, moving on medium rhythms and mottled by the classic scream, as per script rather reverberated and in the background compared to the instrumentation; an element of relative distinctiveness that emerges from listening to the work is the contribution of several and apt lead guitar passages, which go to increase that melancholic mood often prevailing over the desperate tones characteristic of the genre. This makes for a more enjoyable listening experience, and I will not hide the fact that, personally, I prefer such a solution, which makes it easier to get in tune with the evil of living expressed by the authors through lyrics and sounds. The distorted thoughts of an agonized mind, annihilated by pessimism and misanthropy, are exhibited with the accompaniment of music that is more enveloping than disturbing, perhaps not entirely in the chords of dsbm purists, but which in my opinion suits these themes perfectly, finding its exaltation in splendid tracks such as Existence and the long (and already published in the split with Viragha) And Finally, The Death Caverns Will Carry Out My Soul. Lord Mist’s geographic origin may be, initially, a cause for curiosity, but by now we have come to know and appreciate, in recent times, a vibrant Middle Eastern extreme scene, capable of offering bands and albums of great depth despite the fact that metal is inevitably opposed by political and religious authorities in certain nations. FrostAgratH is, therefore, another name to note among those to keep a close eye on, especially since Lord Mist, beyond the two full lengths he has released, has already proven himself to be a rather prolific musician and it is likely, therefore, that we will hear from him again very soon.

2013 – Rigorism Production 2014 – From the Dark Past