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Dominion is the 3rd album of Benedictum, but only Veronica Freeman and Pete Wells are left. If they changed? We'll see.... At least on thing changed, they worked with a different producer, this time Ryan Greene (e.g. Megadeth, MXPX, NOFX) took care about it.
The open up with the title track Dominion, a typical heavy metal tune even if they spiced it up with some growls and aggressive deep vocals. The track shows referenced to Judas Priest with a dash of Cage... Seer they begin slowly and Veronica Freeman shows more of her vocal range at the mid-paced rocker. With Grind It they partly revive the 80's, but add some growls to make it differ. At some songs you hear reminiscences to Dio while The Shadowlands make me think of Ratt during the refrain and only vocally. Beautiful Pain is all atmospheric guitar leads and keyboard, the instrumental shows a different facet. It's followed by Dark Heart, a balladesque opening leads over to a heavy, riff-based track. Loud Silence reminds me a bit of HolyHell, even if Maria Breon and her mates have a more bombastic, symphonic sound. Epsilon is a fast, guitar-driven metal track which is peppered up with the Oriental sounds. Sanctuary is a bonus track, a slow and quite atmospheric tune with acoustic guitar. I find it a bit too repetitive. The closer - the second bonus track - is called Overture / The Temples Of Syrinx is another long track, after an intro part with a progressive edge it becomes a riff-based heavy metal song. But it takes long to develop, Veronica joins in after almost 4 minutes! Only with some whispered words first, then she adds some aggressive powerful vocals. Even if the vocal line has a catchy edge, it can't make this a winner.
Benedictum try to expand their sound which is a positive thing, but still they can't convince me. The technical skills are nothing to criticize, but at every song they remind me of another band... They aren't the only band who has this 'problem', but here I always feel the urge to pick up the 'original' - and that's not a good sign. But if you liked the first albums of Benedictum and you like the idea of a more diverse sound, then Dominion will suit you!
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