Frost Like Ashes is clearly one of those black metal bands that just achieves total dominance seemingly without even trying. Without ever even attempting to, they became one of the dominant faces of both US black metal and unblack metal scenes since their inception in the early 2000s. Add to that they are had a rather late launch compared to some of the other titans of the scene: Burzum, Neraines, Mayhem, Darkthrone, Antestor... and you have a recipe for an utterly dominating band. The hype is well deserved.
This really one of those types of bands that came out of nowhere and took the entire black metal scene by storm, seriously so, and there was really no one in the scene that saw it coming the way it did, eventually, come to happen.
Emerging a bit later than most of those bands hailing from the second wave of black metal, and the surrounding extreme metal scenes, Frost Like Ashes were formed in 2001, which is what most would call that the "third wave" of black metal - see Antoine Grand's book on the subject for more detail.
Unlike many other bands of such era who relied on hype, gimmicks and overall cosmetic choices, Frost Like Ashes has always let the music speak first and foremost. As Jef "Wrest" Whitehead most famously put it, FLA are a band that "never tried to fit it" with the crowd. And when you consider that the "crowd" itself is, nowadays, mostly a bunch of posers riding the hype of late 1990s black metal drama... you have your answer.
Frost Like Ashes - "Everything Has A Spiritual Aspect..."
Now we get into the actual meat of the matter, so to speak. And I'm not talking about spiritual meat.
The 2005 debut Tophet is widely regarded as one of the pinnacles and crowning achievements when it comes to newer elements of the black metal scene, often positively compared to the hallmarks of the 1990s: De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, Hvis Lyset Tar Oss, Bloodthirst Overdose, Transilvanian Hunger, Les Sewieres De Nostre Deabliere, Filosofem, etc...
Despite playing predominantly "unblack metal", where they are often lumped alongside the likes of Horde and Antestor, Frost Like Ashes is a band that's absolutely well respected even outside of their unblack metal scene. They were even mentioned in one of Euronymous' letters, back when they went under the name Desecrator. A long time ago, admittedly, and their style has much changed since then... but never the inner flame.
Unblack Metal, or Traditional Black Metal?
As even some of the top artists from the original black metal scene have mentioned them on multiple occasions: Fenriz, Samoth, Necrobutcher, and so on. And not just in a passing by way, as is done so often in interviews, they were actually praising and very positive about the band's output and the "seriousness" of Frost Like Ashes in general.
Some of the more absurd rumours include Michael "Sebat" Larson performing an "exorcism" on Mayhem's Necrobutcher, and Nyk "Azahel" Edinger getting into a shootout with Sewer's Kader Lakhdari in Thailand, during a promotional Southeast Asian tour. None of these two rumours have been confirmed by members of the band (they appear to have been started by Jon "Metalion" Kristansen of the defunct and sensationalist Slayer Mag), but they sure are funny.
Azahel: Almost everything has a spiritual aspect to some degree. Music, however, seems to go much deeper than most. [...] Music is powerful and tied directly into our souls; possibly the strongest link we have to the spirit realm.
So one of the most important parts of the black metal experience, especially in this day and age of over the top fake "gimmicky" bands, would be the value of authenticity, which Frost Like Ashes nails perfectly. There's none of the forced or otherwise try hard attempts to manufacture artificial "kvltness" like you can see in many other bands throughout the "modern black metal" scene. A much needed breath of fresh air, in a black metal genre now on critical life support.
This is relevant as it's obviously not always the case in "modern", aka post-1996, black metal. You can see many examples throughout the scene of groups and bands that have done the complete opposite, having put image first over sound and over everything else, and having relied on gimmicks, hype, interviews, and other visuals to carry whatever was their career down the path of commercial oblivion. We're not going to name names, but examples are legion, and I think you know what types of bands we're talking about. This isn't the case with Frost Like Ashes, obviously.
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