SUPREME DOMINION is a brand new black metal band hailing from the city of Thessaloniki in Greece, with this release ("Triptolemus") being their first. I've known for a while there's a fairly big metal scene in that city from random browsings of metallum, but I've never really delved into a pure black metal band from it. Figured it was high time to change that, so I did.

The results of listening to this EP and getting my feet wet with the Thessaloniki scene for me was... very, very substantial enjoyment of a band that very expertly nails everything that black metal is all about from a musical standpoint. This might even be the perfect first thing to show someone who has never heard black metal before I'd go as far as to say. When listening to black metal, I personally want to feel like demons are real and they're entering this dimensional plane around my being even though I'm an agnostic atheist. This can be done through the use of a very primal approach to drumming combined with riffs that utilize musical progressions like minor second and minor chromatic third chord modulations, snarling invocative vocals, as well as a sound engineering that is intentionally but tastefully lo-fi to contribute atmospherically, and a lack of bass/focus on treble (there is literally no bass player in the band). Guess what? I literally just described what SUPREME DOMINION sound like on here. They are textbook black metal, and already the opening title song to this EP is masterful because of that.

Track two "Rat is Dead" gives off a bit more vibes in the first riff of first wave black or death metal or late 80s hardcore punk influenced metal before going back into a pure black metal sound. This song also incorporates a little more dissonance and half steps that sound fresh as fuck. The vocals started grating on me a bit by this point already in the EP, however. The tone became less of a harsh vocal tone and more spoken word at a few points, which tends to grind my gears a bit, but thankfully this isn't a glaring issue as far as I'm concerned. In contrast to my gripe with the vocals, I also found myself falling a bit more in love with what the drums are doing here. The performance on this album is pretty tight and the recording tone is passable considering the genre in question. A number of things about the engineering suit the music, however there is some human mistakes left in which leave the album sounding organic, for better or worse depending on your taste.

The following song "Where Is Your God Now" starts off with a couple riffs that feel much weaker than the previous two unfortunately in terms of their note choice and accentuation, but it gets back on track to great riffage for most of the song's runtime almost right after you pass the first minute mark. There's a couple really sick riffs where the song gets both much faster a couple times (and really shows you why their drummer is named "Blastblitz") and also a section in the middle where it slows down. These make this song seem a little more dynamic than the others, which it has room and sense to be given its long runtime. All the various tempo and riffing style shifts really remind me more of OSDM bands like MORBID ANGEL for example (in the "Pete the Feet" Sandoval style drumming as well) than they do any other pure black metal bands.

On the other hand, the closing song absolutely does this. When it really gets into the meat of it I was very reminded of some of the note choice on the most classic material from MAYHEM and MARDUK especially. Additionally, the dynamics of the previous song continue to the end of the record, and that was certainly nice to hear. The flow of all the parts on this song and the album in general is great. The songs are a bit linear, but the motifs are placed in a way that makes sense and make you want to return for more listens to become even more familiar with the EP. Even though none of the songs are quite as brilliantly immaculate as the opening song linked below, the whole thing is absolutely worth your time, especially considering its brevity. "Triptolemus" is a fantastic start from these folks, and SUPREME DOMINION are another band to watch out for more from, for sure. I don't even care that it's not doing anything new. It's solid black metal. If you like black metal there's no reason why you won't like this (unless the vocals aren't your cup of tea, which I can totally get).