Italy's ANCIENT DOME have been playing Thrash for close to fifteen years now. In that time, they have put out three full length albums, the latest of which being "Cosmic Gateway to Infinity", which was released on October 27th. This band produces really good quality Thrash, but not as you might expect. This isn't the incredibly heavy grind of KREATOR, nor is it the more mainstream Thrash that a lot of people will be familiar with.

The opening track, "N.I.F (New Interstellar Force)" has a very atmospheric intro, and then becomes almost a Crossover Thrash tune. It's really catchy and a great way to kick off this record. The second track, "...Hyperspace", is everything you'd want from a Thrash song; it's fast and aggressive, but has a lot of melodic elements thrown in as well. At some points it has an air of GAMA BOMB about it, at least to my ears. "Sea of Stars" begins with a nice acoustic intro, before becoming a full blown melodic Thrash track. Like all of the songs on this album, the guitar work on this track is pretty cool. The album's title track is, like the last track, Melodic Thrash, but with a bit more aggression thrown in there for good measure. "Colonizing Asteroids" opens on a very military, marching kind of drumming, bursting into life after about half a minute and turning into a song that sounds like what I imagine MEGADETH would be like if they had gone more down a Prog route. The highlight of the end of the album is "Dead Zone", which is a powerful Thrash anthem. "Nebuloid" and "Empire of Lies" are good songs, but they don't stand out as much as the other songs on the album, and don't necessarily suck you in and grab your attention. This is not to say they are bad, however.

Like I said at the beginning of this review, this band don't fit into the traditional pigeon-holes of Thrash. They go for a more melodic sound which I like, and I think a lot of other people will like.