| CD REVIEW Domain |
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Band: Domain I should be unnecessary for me to give the reader a detailed history of this German Sympho-Prog Power Metal act (besides, if the need for info get ahold of you, either look up my review of the band’s previous studio album Stardawn –posted Oct. 7, 2006 – or check out what’s available on Wikipedia, or perhaps even rather Rockdetector.com). Active since the mid-eighties (first as Kingdom, and with a period of inactivity between 1992 and 2001) they’ve given us albums with regular intervals (this is their 9th full-length studio album, and the 6th in the last decenium alone), the last ones settling the band in the cosy style they’re appreciated for most (on their two first comeback albums, the band’s style was their old, being Melodic Hard Rock)! A month after the release of their previous album the band celebrated its 20th anniversary, releasing a huge re-issue of Stardawn (including the Stardawn album, a DVD of the band’s Busan Rock festival appearance, aKoreantelevisiondocumentary, and a 16-track compilation) of which only 4,000 copies were made! That same month the line-up evolved considerably with the introduction of bassist Steven Wussow (formerly of Shylock, Misfit, and Iridium), drummer Jens Baar (of Illectronic Rock) and singer Chitral “Chitty” Somapala (has sang for Firewind, Avalon, Red Circuit, Civilization One, Moonlight Agony, Court Jester, and Faro)…the latter being ousted little more than six months later! In his stead came Nicolaj Ruhnow (of Irony and Nick Hellfort repute). The new vocalist immediately showed himself a huge asset to the band, bringing to the table a 10-chapter drama based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s legendary book The Sorrows Of Young Werther. The band set about making songs of these ten episodes, songs which reveal themselves to be between the driven-hard and hymn-like Metal, with a classical undertone. In comparison to previous material by Domain, this Metal Opera certainly is quite a bit heavier overall. Just like on the previous album, the guys have made use of a boys choir on a couple of songs (“Angel Above” and “Digging Their Graves”). They also cunningly stole a couple of very known tunes (in the latter part of “Sweeping Scars” a small bit of classic music is molded professionally to make it their own – and you’ll have to excuse me, but I cannot for the life of me remember at this very moment the piece concerned, nor its original composer…and the same is done with the opening tune of The Eagles’ “Hotel California” in actual album closer “Twelve O’Clock”), thus introducing/ enhancing the recognition factor of said tracks…which is much-needed, because one needs to listen to the album a couple of times before its multi-layered facets sink in, and the album grows on one with each session. The album will have a limited first edition featuring bonus track “Two Brothers & The Sinners”, which has nothing to do with the conceptual story of the album, but follows in its musical vein. To get a whiff of the band’s new album, surf to myspace.com/band, where the guys posted “Sweeping Scars” (alongside 4 tracks off other albums). Not a lot to go by perhaps, but enough to tell you that for Domain many things still remain the same! If you need to hear mmore, I’m sure you’ll soon find samples available for most of the album’s tracks at amazon.com! 95/100 Tony. |