DOMINANCE – XX: The Rising Vengeance Review

DOMINANCE – XX: The Rising Vengeance

Sliptrick Records

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Most people recognize Italy as the country whose metal bands are mainly focused on neoclassical, progressive and power metal paths; however, the truth is that there is a really strong and thriving extreme underground scene. I’ve been involved for a long time, but I still get the chance to discover hidden gems and DOMINANCE is such an example. Having formed in 1992, “XX: The Rising Vengeance” is their third studio release that came out after a seven year gap from their sophomore work “Echoes of Human Decay”. Now, let’s move to what’s really important here and the main point of this presentation which is the music itself and more particularly the one featured here. 

DOMINANCE is a five piece power combo that unleashes upon us high quality and high voltage death metal which is mainly founded and structured in the traditional and more brutal death metal genre, something to be expected since we are dealing here with veterans. Still, this is just one side of their music which they make sure to enrich with a great deal of more modern, melodic death metal touches in the vein of IN FLAMES and SOILWORK. So, we could say that “XX: The Rising Vengeance” is an album that perfectly balances between the American death metal scene in the likes of the colossal DEATH and its more melodic Scandinavian equivalent. I can’t fail to notice some elements and guitar parts that brought to my mind ANNIHILATOR as well. So, to wrap it all up we are dealing here with a tight album with great guitar work, beautiful melodies only displayed in certain guitar parts, a voluminous and heavy as hell rhythm section and vocals that spew animosity and hatred thus underlining the intensity and ferocity of the songs. No clean vocals here, only old school stuff where singing is involved. The production is another plus, since it’s clear and has the necessary volume and so is the artwork which clearly depicts the band’s objective… to unleash hell and vengeance!

Christine  Parastatidou