Damnanus - Dominum

Well, if you can find this, it is definitely worth buying. I got lucky after searching for three years for this album, and got it in mint condition off of eBay. Needless to say, I ripped it to the computer, then put it away, and never even touched the booklet.

What I don't understand is how nobody has heard of this band. They're just so amazing, and it's sad that the last two full-length albums never got released.

On to the review. Let's start with the musicianship. It's tight, and dead on accurate. The entire band plays their instruments well. On top of them individually playing well, they play well together. The vocals are very harsh, and very powerful. You can really hear the emotion behind them too. The production on this album is great. Everything is clear, and mixed well. You can even hear the bass! The overall tone of everything kind of has a warmth to it that I've never heard on any other album, kind of like it was recorded live, in a room with natural reverb.

This album is also amazing musically, and quite different than your standard black metal. As a matter of fact, this album should be the model for basic, plain old black metal. For starters, the music is very fast and aggressive, and very heavy, possibly aided by the great tone of the guitars and the clear production quality. Another thing I really love about this album is how it progresses through each song. Some of them can be quite capricious, with odd changes that are unexpected, yet still flow.

No matter what style of black metal that you like, you will probably like this band. I recommend this album to anyone who is even a minor fan of black metal.