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Dark Domination was founded in 1997 as a Death Metal project named Domination. After a year the name was changed into Dark Domination and the style into Black Metal. The debut album "Blasphemy" was released in 2001, but it has nothing to do with the albums that followed, when comparing the songwriting and the sound. The tapes they send all over the world brought them a first deal with Ketzer Records, other small deals followed. “Let Satan speak through our Lips”, the second full lenght album, was first released in 2005 by the French Label I.N.R.I. Records, limited to 200 copies only, which were sold out very quickly. This re-issue comes with a different cover artwork and is limited to 1000 copies. I don’t know why they chose another artwork, I really like the strange paintings Antonin Delas did for this album but I suppose it isn’t considered “evil” enough anymore. The music Dark Domination play is old school Black Metal in the main, but there’s a strange thing about this album: every other track is an about three minutes long ambient interlude. Macabre keyboard melodies mixed with distorted sounds (reminds me of vermin), whispers, chants in slow motion and stuff like this... These 8 tracks (including the intro) result in an own 23 minutes long one, if put together. A somehow great idea, maybe a little too long, many a person will push the “next” button, but I think it looses the atmosphere and fit very well with the contrasting raw Black Metal. The production fits to the rest, not over-produced but fortunately a little more polished than the “primitive” BM bands. The compositions are pure - hardly any experiments or compromises but as far as I know they don’t strive for that and don’t call their music outstanding, so I won’t mock about lapse of originality here. I especially like the monotone/minimalist drums and the recurring guitar lines. The song I like most is the 7 minutes long eerie instrumental “Gloria tibi, Lucifer!” with it’s dramatic acoustic guitars a la Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” or “The final Cut”, subtle keyboards and church organs which leads into the epic, atmospheric and varied (bonus track) “Isanda Teenistuses” with Lambetu of Loits as guest vocalist, who does all kind of screams on this one, from classic and brutal to sick and mournful… I really like his voice. This is a very strong album, highly recommended, even for “commercial BM” fans. Be sure to order your copy at www.witchcraft666.com, I think this time it will also be sold out very soon! 8/10
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