The history of DOMINANCE begins in Italy in 1992, although the band did not release their first album until 1999. Due some label problems and lineup shifts, the band did not release their follow-up until our current year, 2009.  They seem energized with this new lineup and plans to tour Europe are forthcoming.

Usually when one thinks of Metal from Italy, they think of the hordes of cheesy, mostly bad, Power Metal bands (that all sound suspiciously like RHAPSODY) that seem to be everywhere. Despite each of the members having stereotypical Italian names (each of their names, including the names of their former members, all end in the letter I), this is far from your typical Italian Metal. The band claims both Florida Death Metal and Swedish 'melo-deth' bands as their influences, although thankfully for the most part they tend to lean toward the heavier side of the spectrum, rather than the almost Metalcore that has been emanating from Sweden for the past ten years.

When this band is good, they are really good, as evidenced by tracks The Last Witness and the awesomely-titled Gilgamesh. A lot of modern Death Metal bores me because it's the same lousy riffs played over the same monotonous growling for nearly every new band that I listen to. DOMINANCE hearkens back to the days when Death Metal was exciting with numerous riff and tempo changes and, surprisingly, furious guitar solos! I cannot believe how many Death Metal bands do not even solo anymore! I mean, when Death Metal started, that was one of its drawing points. Oh, and the solos are exciting too, not just some meedley-meedley crap meant to impress anyone who cannot play guitars at all.

The downside is that after the first few songs, the band seems to run out of steam. The riffs become more generic, the solos are more sparse and less impressive, and the vocalist sounds the same throughout. Really, even after about five or six listens, I cannot tell tracks 5-9 apart. The final song shows more of the 'melo-deth' influence with its simplistic melodic riff, but really it's nothing special.

This band shows some great promise in the beginning, and they definitely have the chops to improve. Maybe now that they have a more stable lineup and with some touring they can return to the studio in a year or two and create a follow-up worthy of what was demonstrated on the first two songs.