Ancient Spirit Rising

One of the most successful Italian power metal bands, Domine, have returned after 3 years to bring us their 5th studio album, entitled ‘Ancient Spirit Rising’. After a somewhat average debut back in 1997, called ‘Champion Eternal’, Domine struck back with their 2nd CD, ‘Dragonlord - Tales of the Noble Steel’. But where Domine really took off, was with their 3rd CD entitled ‘Stormbringer Ruler - The Legend of the Power Supreme’. Domine really hit their strides with that release and it is still probably their most successful CD to date. 2003’s ‘Emperor of the Black Runes’ was very much in the same vein as ‘Stormbringer Ruler’, but just down a notch on it overall.

All of Domine’s releases have been based on British author, Michael Moorcock’s fantasy novels about the “Eternal Champion”, and in particular, the character called “Elric”. Elric is an albino sorcerer who’s fate is to always keep the balance between law and chaos, 2 opposing and equally powerful forces which are neither good nor evil. All throughout Domine’s releases, their song titles and lyrics are based upon Elric’s adventures within those novels.

However, ‘Ancient Spirit Rising’ is not about Elric and swords, dragons, steel and sorcery. It seems Elric has been given an extended holiday by these lads from Italy. Instead, main songwriter and guitarist, Enrico Paoli has decided on a more “personal” lyrical detail. ‘Ancient Spirit Rising’ lyrics cover such things as life, death, freedom, misery and personal journey’s. I must say that this new change of theme is surprising, but it is also welcomed. And after listening to the CD a few times, I also feel that it is a breath of fresh air. A band can write only so much about the same topic before it becomes stale. Take Iron Savior for example. From their debut until ‘Condition Red’, the theme and lyrics were based around the same thing (the warship named the Iron Savior). Finally with ‘Battering Ram’, the lyrics were all not purely based on the above-mentioned theme, and that CD too was a breath of fresh air and possibly Iron Savior’s best release to date. Anywho, back to Domine...

Domine’s sound is still primarily epic (hey, which Italian metal band isn’t?), but the main change that I've noticed, was that it feels more laid-back. I feel that it's softer than their previous releases, but still maintains an epic heavy feel. There is a lot of acoustic guitar and a lot of piano throughout the CD. And as always with Domine’s releases, the track length is still around and well over the 6 minute mark. Tracks being that long in length, particularly with Domine, are all basically mid-paced. But there are about 3 songs on the CD where they really kick up the tempo.

Going by the band’s website, they state that with ‘Ancient Spirit Rising’, they wanted it to be metal, with hints of hard rock, progressive rock, celtic and acoustic music, classic music with a general 70s feel. And going by their influences, such as Queen, Led Zeppelin, Rush, Kansas, Thin Lizzy, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Boston, Judas Priest, Uriah Heep and Rainbow; you can certainly hear these influences come out with this CD, more so than with their previous releases.

So with this new change of theme, how does it sound? Well, after listening to it a few times, I must say that it is a bit up and down, but mostly up. Some tracks are brilliant and graceful, while others don’t quite seem to fit, or that the song’s structure doesn’t feel right. But that was always going to be the case when a band is writing songs from a more personal perspective, than from a particular theme which they have done right from the beginning.

My favourite tracks on the CD would have to be the 2 longest tracks, the 9+ minute “The Lady of Shallot” and “Ancient Spirit Rising”. “The Lady of Shallot” is inspired by the evocative paintings by John William Waterhouse and by the Alfred Tennyson poem by the same name, plus the band’s personal thoughts. The song is a masterpiece, containing a ballad start, which changes to an epic, emotional and graceful mid-paced killer. “Ancient Spirit Rising” is another fantastic epic track full of emotion, containing soft acoustic parts and heavy bombastic sections. Vocalist, Adolfo "Morby" Morbiducci, gives us one of his best vocal performances I’ve ever heard. Soaring and emotional, you can really feel what he is singing about. And to complete the song, it contains a wonderful and catchy choir chorus, plus a timely soulful solo. Other tracks which I think are very good, include “Tempest Calling”, “Stand Alone (After The Fall)” and “Another Time, Another Place, Another Space”.

I really enjoy this different side of Domine and I am glad that they made the decision to move away from the theme of the Eternal Champion and Elric and created something more personal, something from their hearts and minds. You still get the same epic and emotional sound from past CDs, but with this CD there is a more creative and relaxing feel, which really hits home. Fans of this band and of the epic power metal genre will enjoy ‘Ancient Spirit Rising’ and I urge you to track this one down.

Originally written for www.metalcdratings.com

After being really knocked flat by 2004s Emperor Of The Black Runes I was stoked to get a hold of a new Domine album, but anticipation goeth before a fall. Domine's 5th studio album, while having some good moments, is overall disappointing.

Last time out, Domine laid off the keyboard crap and cranked up some killer guitars to produce smoking cuts of pure steel like "True Believer" and "Battle Gods". Even when they did get pompous, they produced the awesome "Aquilonia Suite", so I was prepared to cut them some slack. After all, this is Domine, who produced the awesome Champion Eternal and such great songs as "Hurricane Master" and "True Leader Of Men", how can they fuck up? Well, they could trade in their hard-edged metal for a bunch of happy, pop-sounding melodies, and then they could always avoid their usual Elric-focused lyrics for a bunch of psychobabble nonsense that sounds like it was clipped out of a book of inspirational postcards, like they did here.

Make no mistake, performance-wise this is excellent, and some of the riffs are very good. Even the melodies I don't like are well-done, but they are syrupy and over-cheesy to the extreme. I'm talking about happy-poppy melodies and cues that would make Micheal Bolton blush. Even the cool riff from "Another Time, Another Place, Another Space" can't overpower the drippy, sickly-sweet vocal lines and lyrics which harp on in the vein of "I will fly to the stars because I'm a true soul of freedom and I will find my real place in the golden pillared halls of wonder and everything will be so pretty I will just explode." I mean, pardon me while I get an insulin shot.

The first couple of songs on here are okay, but after that it just becomes a mess of sappy power-pop goo that is all the more frustrating because it is such well-done goo. But I'm not going to settle for this from Domine. Guys, whatever happy-pills you are on, you need to knock it off, because it's making your music suck royally. Sad to say, but this is a Domine album you can skip.

Originally written for www.metalcrypt.com

Domine is one of the bigger melodic power metal bands from Italy. I'm emphasizing melodic, 'cause this band will only appeal to fans of the melodic genre. Though it might not be completely Rhapsody-alike, it really is requiered that you're into stuff like late Helloween and late Stratovarius to fully appreciate this music. Ultra high vocals, typical power metal riffs and happy keyboard sounds make it obvious that this album isn't a high-flier within the genre...

Without any doubt this cd has its moments, but unfortunately it couldn't keep me interested, that's why it took me a pretty long time to get this (eventually short) review over with. While I really liked the more speedish and epic albums "Champion Eternal" and "Dragonlord", this one lacked something. I never was a huge fan of Morby's vocals (although they actually were better on the first albums, meaning: a lot more epic), but the fantastic music they made in the late nineties compensated that. This album though has this 'been there, done that' vibe coming of it. Combined with a very happy-poppy atmosphere it just can't get to the level where their earlier work went. They drown in the overload of melodic power metal bands these days, and while they had a more own sound when they began, now it's the same stuff you've heard over and over again.

This album is recommended if you still liked later Stratovarius work and are into the typical European melodic power metal sound, but otherwise I wouldn't advise to spend money on it. Italy has better power metal bands coming up, Battle Ram and Wotan being two of them. Anyway, I still think this is a lot better then Rhapsody's latest albums, but I wouldn't get all too euphoric either.

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