Frantic Amber: Bellatrix (GMR, 2019)

Swedish melodic death metal band Frantic Amber released their second full-length album this Summer. Titled Bellatrix, it’s a concept album of sorts, with each song focusing on warrior women from throughout history. That’s fitting, given Frantic Amber’s status as an all-female extreme metal band.

I suppose it’s cliché that an all-female melodic death metal band would sound so much like Arch Enemy, but I tend to believe that if you have the chops to pull off a credible Arch Enemy sound, you should absolutely do that. Frantic Amber definitely has the chops. The guitars are crushing yet melodic, and Elizabeth Andrews’s growls are perfect for the genre. She even drops the occasional clean vocal to keep things interesting.

The band hails from Stockholm, but there’s way more Gothenburg in their sound. Arch Enemy and At The Gates in particular. Bits of Entombed and Dismember do creep in here and there though. “Scorched Earth” and “Joshitai” are the singles from Bellatrix, and they’re the obvious highlights, but “Lagertha” and “Crimson Seas” are just as crushing.

This is melodic death metal done right. You can’t hear an album like Bellatrix and then write Frantic Amber off as some kind of gimmick or novelty. This is absolutely an album for fans of At The Gates, Arch Enemy, Nightrage and Hypocrisy.