BENEDICTUM
DOMINIUM

Frontiers Records

FEBRUARY 2011

1. Dominion
2. At The Gates
3. Seer
4. Grind It
5. Prodigal Son
6. The Shadowlands
7. Beautiful Pain
8. Dark Heart
9. Bang
10. Loud Silence
11. Epsilon
12. Sanctuary (Bonus Track)
13. Overture/The Temples of Syrinx (Bonus Track)

Metal meets Goth, without the Goth and with the feel of early eighties metal brought sonically up to date… Now this just might work for you but strangely it seems to fall between two stools for me at the moment. It is a bit of a paradox though as I love so many elements of what we have here…

Stylistically Benedictum has a lot of the stylings of Goth, the music has that dark and heavy feel to it, but it’s more Metal. I love the vocals too which are a little different. Somehow though it doesn’t quite work for me at the moment, but I’m persevering.

On the positive side there are some great songs and musicianship throughout is top-notch as is production which is crisp and really brings out all of the elements here.

Taking a step back ‘Seasons of Tragedy’ Benedictum’s 2008 release (and second album) was immense and got some great reviews along the way, featuring memorable guest appearances by Jeff Pilson, Craig Goldy and George Lynch who played on the track 'Bare Bones' and Accept’s 'Balls To The Wall'.

On ‘Dominion’ if you are already a fan then you’ll find a lot to love here. If you are new to Benedictum and want to find out what they are all about then you can start in no better place than with either the rampaging opener and title track ‘Dominium’ or my favourite ‘The Seer’ which ticks the mid-paced epic box for me!

For me the real gems are songs like the driving ‘Bang’ which is just a little different and very cool. The take on the only Rush song I really ever liked ‘Overture/The Temples of Syrinx’ is also very nice indeed.

Despite the rating I could easily see this making the BEST of 2011 in some of our reviewer’s polls, maybe even mine given a few more listens.

Mark