Review Dominance “XX The Rising Vengeance” (by Bart Tomaszewski)

Dominance “XX The Rising Vengeance”
Sliptrick records

Once I said that Death Metal has different faces and all are beautiful! Here’s another proof which support this thesis. DOMINANCE is very experienced band. In the same time it’s also very unlucky band. Line-up changed often and there was even quite long period when the band hadn’t any guitarist. The reason is probably that DOMINANCE comes from really small city called Rolo. As I know it’s, as on Italian conditions, quite young city. Of course it doesn’t mean that there’s anything interesting! There’s numerous monuments worth to see – in Italy “quite young city” means that it has less than 2.000 years… aahhahahahahaha…

Anyway, the band was found in 1992, but coz of mentioned above problems with line-up released only demo, promo and three albums. Well, let’s hope that since now fortune will be with them (mostly with Davide who’s the only original member here)! They really deserve for that and there’re at least two reasons which I can notice. Firstly, fate, if there’s something like that and it works in this way, should make amends them for all these years of stubbornness in activity. I’m sure that a lot of people would give up after few weeks or months if they’d meet such huge problems as Davide met (You rule Bro!!!). Second reason is music created by this band. To be honest it’s not something what we could call “typical Death Metal” – at least not for nowadays. So called Goteborg’s school of Death Metal belongs rather to the past, even if there’re still bands which are faithful to this tradition. But the fact is that there’s not as many of them as in times when SEPTIC BROILER changed the name for the very well-known one to every Metalhead on this world and then released “Tranquility”, “Skydancer” or “The Gallery”. DOMINANCE plays just in vein of these Gods – melodic, but in the same time brutal as well. And we all know very well that brutality means not the same (at least very often in my opinion) as speed, so this middle tempo doesn’t matter and change anything!

Especially in this kind of Death Metal two guitars are just a duty. One of them (sometimes both) play more brutal, short and often sharp riffs. In the same time second one can create the melody or play some thin thistles and so on. Sometimes we hear this, let’s call it, brutal guitar on the first place, sometimes this melodic one. But there’s always a balance between them and any dominate too much Thank to it music has as character as I said before. Drums as drums – sometimes play a little faster, sometimes slower. But always in the way which says us that it’s not music for some fuckin’ squishes! To tell you truth it’s here very important instrument which’s responsible for brutal side of this music the same or maybe even a little more as this “brutal guitar”. But it can’t be otherwise if it’s Davide who plays it. Since these almost 25 years he got to know how to do it in the best possible way, don’t you?!?

As almost always on the end I left a vocal. Well, I don’t do it especially, but somehow… However, Massimiliano’s growling is very interesting. We can tell the same about it as about guitars’ play – it’s in the same time melodic and brutal. He’s using several types of it. That happens of course sometimes, but really rarely that he sings with almost clean vocal. But even that in some way sounds brutal. So as you can see we have here broad spectrum of vocals. It makes the music only more interesting, by the way!

So if somebody wants to have melody and brutality in one than this album is just ideal!!! I like it very much and you can be sure that I’ll molest it often!

(с) Bart Tomaszewski (SEPULCROS PROD)