HB was formed in Forssa, Finland in 2002. HB (cronym for Holy Bible) says their mission is to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ, and bring hope into this dark world, through their music. Their music is very similar to the one of Nightwish, with almost the same sound and vocals. At first they were singing in Finnish, but in 2008 the first album with English lyrics was released.

FROZEN INSIDE (2008) BULLROSER

The Christian metal movement has been notorious for nurturing bands that are almost carbon copies of the well known secular bands. Mind you, this is a stereotype I disagree with. There are just too many great, and even original bands within this large and broad "scene", but I digress. HB is easily the kind of band that gives fuel to the stereotype fire though. Both the sound and the look is so much alike that of Nightwish, it's not even funny. I don't understand this mentality, and almost wrote them off before even listening to them. But being the huge fan of metal with Christian lyrics that I am, I couldn't help but to check this album out nonetheless. HB is in all purposes intended a worship and praise band, using heavy metal as their musical approach. The similarities to Nightwish are there, but they are of course in a different league altogether. HB are not writing songs with complex structures. But they are still heavily orchestrated, and of course they have the operatic female vocals. 'Frozen Inside' starts off strong with "God Has All The Glory". This is a bombastic worship tune that works well, in my opinion. "It Is Time" continues much in the same manner, even adding a slight touch of a folk music vibe. The songs is so straight forward, but it is also quite heavily orchestrated, and with grand choir arrangements, making it sound way more epic than it really is. I also love the blistering guitar-solo. 'Frozen Inside' doesn't deliver any surprises, but throttles on and on with 10 songs of listening pleasure. It's not the strongest album I've heard, and it does leave me a little unaffected. But I'll give the band credit for coming up with some memorable tunes. And the stellar production might also be worth a mention. I also like the lyrics here, of course. Not since Sardonyx last EP have I heard such uplifting worship tunes put to metal music. Let's hope that these Fins are not afraid to take it up a notch on forthcoming ventures, and creating music that is more their own.

Killer tracks: God Has All The Glory, It Is Time, Love Song