Myself and some other writers were sharing our views of press releases recently, what we look for and what we like, and I made a point of highlighting this one from Imperative PR (take a bow guys) for this album, as they often send pieces out like this and I love them. “Down a road no longer travelled, where the sun no longer shines, stands the shattered ruin of a place once thought glorious; a house where the beautiful would gather and celebrate the endless fortune that life had brought them. Now rain falls through shattered ceilings and collects in cold, silent pools where bejewelled feet danced on polished marble floors. Forgotten halls dream of their former glories, when a thousand candles brought warmth and magic to rooms now the broken haunts of ravens. Echoes of laughter flicker on the edge of hearing and the memories of passion and obsession flit through the shadows; spirits who can never leave this place, once their one perfect moment of happiness, now their eternal night of despair. Withered roses, shrouded in cobwebs, a last glimpse of the past, spiders feeding in their hearts…” It tells you nothing about the band or the album itself, but boy is it evocative and allows a reader to understand the emotional attachment.
This is the fifth album by the quartet from St. Petersburg and is full on Gothic metal (with some sludge and death influences). Now when I said quartet, I can pretty much guarantee your mind when straight to the standard set-up, but not in this case, and here the line-up is Daniel (guitars), Anton Rosa (vocals, bass), Oleg “Papa” Filistovich (drums) and Mikhail Morozkin (violin). Also, they have some important session musicians, most notably female singer Morticia who was also involved with their 2018 EP ‘Melancholy’. It is incredibly emotional, dark and full of the night, and it is the use of violin which really makes this stand out for me. There are times when musically they seem to lose their way, and become quite basic and almost stagnant, but the violin adds a much higher register to the overall sound and there is no doubt that when it and the female vocals are involved it takes the band into a different area altogether.
What with a guest musician who provides lead guitar on four songs, another guest who provides additional violin plus keyboards on many of the tracks, and even a saxophonist on another, one has to wonder just what this material sounds like when it is just the four of them playing. The production favours the violin over everything else, with the metal often becoming a wall of sound, and I am now sure how well that works, plus the piano is often buried and could do with being higher up in the mix. The overall result is something which is interesting, with some compelling pieces here and there, but although the introduction to “Suprema” with acoustic guitar and electric violin is fully of beauty, with the songs itself being a standout highlight with a totally different approach, there are too few tracks like this and too many when it feels just too basic and repetitive to have major merit. Certainly worth hearing if you are a fan of the genre, one does feel that this is a promising outfit, but also one which needs more focus.
Rating: 6/10
Links:
https://www.facebook.com/dominiaband
https://www.mshmusicgroup.com/
