Domination

A few years ago I wrote reviews of Morbid Angel's first three albums, which I'm ashamed of for the most part, they were part of my first reviews and I was still trying to find my style and I didn't know how to express many things I intended to say, maybe one day I'll rewrite them. But while my writing has changed, my opinion on their discography as a whole has not, it's still clear which are my favourite albums of the band and which are the ones I despise. The only studio work by the band that has never made sense to me and that I have difficulty appreciating is this one. Domination is a puzzling piece because it is an album riddled with contradictions and the end result feels hard to explain.

At this point in their history the band felt tired, the prolific momentum and novelty of death metal was fading away and this can be felt in some aspects of this work, some external ones that we know about afterwards, like David Vincent writing the lyrics at the last moment (a sign of a clear lack of interest) and others that are reflected in the album itself, many of them mainly focused on the production. The drums sound extremely compressed, even more so than on Covenant although it seems impossible, the vocals are full of effects, reverb and in general a mechanical production that seems to pull in an industrial vein, which seems to indicate more control on Erache's part forcing the band to go down a path that was successful at the time but didn't interest the band, Trey has been quite vocal about what he thinks of the sound of this album and how there were certain forced elements with which he was dissatisfied, and the truth is that I can only agree with him, the sound is completely pressed and the razor sharp guitars of the band's beginnings are missing, while the growls have devolved to be more and more simple and monotonous. All of these are problems that, I maintain, started with Covenant and ended up showing their worst side on this album, creating a sound that is too uniform and sterile.

Of these first four Morbid Angel albums, this is the most insipid and the least inventive as well as being the simplest and the most monotonous. It has very little room to show the creativity and rampant chaos that the first two records displayed, and what saddens me most about this record is that, unfortunately, I think this is Trey's best album in terms of performance, maybe it's the fact that he turns simplistic songs into real delights thanks to his face melting solos, but really songs like "Where the Slime Live" or "Dawn of the Angry" are some of the songs I keep coming back to from this album because of how incredible everything is regarding the guitar solos on those songs. It's a shame that Trey didn't have that musical zenith on "Formulas..." which is an album that seems in every way an answer to this one, with its raspy, tight guitar tone, unleashed drumming and trashy and unhinged vocals, representing the complete opposite of what this one stands out for.

I know I gave them a lot of flak already when I reviewed them, but I'm going to allow myself to do it again because they're not a band I appreciate for their sound, because the fact that Gojira was mostly inspired by the sound of this album to further part of the sound of their career is already indicative of their mediocrity. Because, if this or Covenant is really your favourite Morbid Angel album, let me tell you that you don't like Morbid Angel, or at least you don't like how the band meant to sound like and that's something I find very hard to understand when everything they represented with Altars and Blessed is just early perfection of the genre, but well, tastes are tastes I guess, even if they suck.

The artistic element that has always characterized Morbid Angel is totally missing, by this I mean that Morbid Angel has always been a band with a music that serves as a reflection of the artists and their creativity, because this band has always had the mentality and the aim to push boundaries and think outside the box, here there is none of that, Domination is the only album of the band that doesn't say anything to me, it doesn't seem to want to reflect or explore anything, it seems more like a product than a musical project (or well, it was the only one until the arrival of Kingdoms, and we already know how bad that turned out). Domination, in this case, is an atypical album, because despite its many inconveniences it ends up being better than one could expect, it's far from being a great death metal album, but it's a functional one despite having everything against it, still manages to get the best out of the worst and to be more than the sum of its parts.

I will open with the statement that I love this album. I have never understood the disdain this album received over the years, and I personally have a huge soft spot for it.

For a bit of personal history: When I was first getting into death metal, I started with debut albums of most of the big bands-Death, Morbid Angel, Nocturnus, Bolt Thrower, Gorguts, Obituary, Deicide, Entombed and the like. Of these, Death's Scream Bloody Gore and Morbid Angel's Altars of Madness were the immediate standouts (although all of those releases are fantastic).

I did not listen to any Morbid Angel past Altars of Madness for about 4 years. I was getting into CD collecting around that time, and found a copy of Morbid Angel's Covenant. Immediately, the production and change in David Vincent's voice threw me for a loop. Gone were the demonic rasps heard on Altars, replaced by what can only be described as a bark. It took me a month to listen to the album past Rapture, but once I did, I found it was still the same band from Altars (minus a guitarist), but their musicianship had improved. Obviously Angel of Disease was an exception, but the habit of including older songs on newer Morbid Angel albums was a tradition that would continue on to Formulas. But where Covenant comes into this conversation is its closing track God of Emptiness. This track saw Morbid Angel delving into a doomy, almost dirge-like sound. God of Emptiness was clearly on the band's mind when they wrote the album in question today. Blessed are the Sick was a medley of the sound the band had on Altars and a foreshadowing of the sound they would soon pursue further on Covenant.

Onto the album itself: Domination was a step forward for the band's work on Covenant. The electronic interlude on Covenant and doomy sound found on God of Emptiness, as well as the more technical blast-heavy fast sections are all fleshed out further on this album.

The album starts with its (almost) title track "Dominate," which is a quick 2 minute blast of heaviness, before fading into the massive "Where the Slime Live." Where the Slime Live is one of the greatest Morbid Angel songs ever. Make sure to listen to the album version, not the music video version which is about a minute shorter. Where the Slime Live establishes the groovier approach this album uses to great effect. It also features what I believe to be Erik Rutan's first solo on this album. After the band's short time as a 3 piece band on Covenant, they have once again become a 4 piece band with the addition of Erik Rutan, formerly of Ripping Corpse (listen to Dreaming with the Dead ASAP). Him and Trey Azagthoth take turns at shredding eldritch solos throughout this album, and their twisted riffing and soloing can best be heard in songs like Inquisition (Burn With Me), which has a fantastic example of the dual guitar approach taken on this album in its intro. Dawn of the Angry is another notable example of this riffing (the opening riff in particular is a standout example).

This album and Covenant take similar approaches in their songwriting approaches. Songs often have blast-heavy sections, before transitioning to either a slow or mid-tempo groove. The mid-tempo approach seen in many songs on this album is a change in pace from the faster overall Covenant, but lets Pete Sandoval's drumming shine. Pete Sandoval is one of the greatest drummers in metal, and this album showcases why. These mid-paced sections often have off-kilter drumming that serves as a counterpoint to the riffing. The drums are in lockstep with the guitars on this album to a degree that you could easily identify songs just by their drum track in isolation.

Now, I want to discuss some elements of this album that seem to draw some scorn from fans. The first is the electronic songs on this album (Dreaming and Hatework respectively). Having an electronic closer to a Morbid Angel album is something the band continued to do on Formulas (which had 3 electric songs straight to close off the album). Dreaming is a bit of an interlude that fades into Inquisition (Burn With Me), while Hatework is a standalone song. Hatework is the closer to this album, and sees a mix of electronic effects and synthesizers, vocal effects on David Vincent's voice, guitar effects and more. Hatework doesn't really go anywhere, which is my biggest complaint on this album, but given that it is placed at the close of the album, it doesn't really hurt the pacing of the album much overall. While I'm not a huge fan of this track, it is notable as it melds the metal and the industrial/electronic sounds the band was experimenting with earlier as separate entities into one cohesive piece. While I think bands like Fear Factory accomplished this better than Domination did, I think this still deserves credit for attempting something new.

The second element that seems to attract criticism is the use of vocal effects placed on David Vincent's voice. These pop up occasionally throughout the album. I don't find them particularly annoying, as it seems to fit the atmosphere of the album (it sounds like what the album art looks like). As great as David Vincent's voice is, these effects add a bit of an almost-alien like sound to some of these songs that makes them stand out and give the whole album a unique atmosphere.

In closing, this is one of the best Morbid Angel albums. While David Vincent wasn't long for Morbid Angel, and was replaced by the (fantastic) Steve Tucker a while later, this sound was never properly furthered and followed up on by the band. Worth listening as not only an oddity, but as a great and cohesive album.

With Domination, Morbid Angel wrote their most coherent and twisted album up to date. The performances on this album are stellar throughout. Like an abstract, pulsating organism, this album spans some of the most inventive riffs of the genre, paired with a relative "less is more" attitude compared to earlier Morbid Angel releases. This is the album where Morbid Angel reigned in their horses and emerged from their chaotic past in an organized parade of Satanic supremacy. The inclusion of Erik Rutan would prove to be a fortunate move, since he contributes some of the strongest material on the album.

Stylistically, Domination lies closest to Covenant when looking at the Morbid Angel oeuvre. One of the most significant differences in sound from earlier (and later) releases is Pete Sandoval's greater reliance on footwork and mid-tempo sections. Sure, there are blast beat heavy songs as well, like opener "Dominate", "Dawn of the Angry" and "This Means War" (on which you can hear hints of what Rutan would go on to release under the Hate Eternal moniker), but the overall spastic over the top performance that signifies Sandoval's style has been tamed here, and it works in Morbid Angel's favor.

But even if there is a greater reliance on grooves, this is far from a groove metal album. When the band slows down, on tracks like "Where the Slime Lives" and "Eyes to See, Ears to Hear", the riffs are rather crawling, twisted permutations rich with details, like two-headed serpents finding cracks and crevices to slither in and out from. This opens up for unexpected melodic simplicity like the dual guitars at 2:30 into "Nothing but Fear", but never sugar coated Gothenburg style melody, but always with a Morbid Angel-ian twist.

And speaking of the guitar work, the solos...! Trey (and Erik I take it) contribute some unimaginable shredding here, very often to a quite simple underlying rhythm guitar motive. The overall slower pace of the album gives Trey a chance to fully deliver to the listener his intuitively perverted solos in their most prominent incarnation. David Vincent delivers among the best growls to ever be recorded. There are few, if any, death metal vocalists out there who can recite texts in such a transparent and graphic manner without losing any of their profound brutality and depth of voice.

Unfortunately, drawing down the score from being one of those perfect albums are the three tracks "Caesar's Palace", "Dreaming" and "Inquisition". "Dreaming" is another one of those meaningless instrumental keyboard songs that Trey just can't let go of, and the other two are slow, monotonous and rather boring songs, spiced up only by some really nice guitar solos. If Erik Rutan would have contributed to these songs as well, perhaps they would have made more sense. In their final shape, they unfortunately hint at Azagthoth slightly running out of steam. He may be forgiven, though, being the creative mastermind behind three consecutive death metal all time classics...! It's not easy to keep the bar one has set oneself time and again...

The other instrumental, "Melting", actually does work since it paves the way for the most fascinating song of the album, "Hatework". "Hatework" sounds like the soundtrack to all horror movies ever made! This song lacks any equivalent in the realm of metal. It is more of an orchestral piece composed in the depth of the furnaces of middle Earth, which spews up with incredible, unstoppable force, with David Vincent at the absolute top of his vocal game. "Hatework" stands as one of the most impressive and original songs ever crafted.

All in all, a nearly perfect death metal album will all players on top, with great variation and inimitable personality. Morbid Angel streamlined without betraying their sound or giving in to trends and produced, in my opinion, their magnum opus with this one.

At this point in time, Morbid Angel has pretty much become one of, if not the biggest death metal bands in the scene. And with the help of their previous 1993 album "Covenant", the band's legacy was growing very strong. Two years later in 1995, the band decided to release yet another album titled "Domination". This album does kind of have a same feel as the previous release, but it's still amazing nonetheless.

Beginning with the opening track "Dominate", the instrumentals still have Covenant written all over it. The guitar riffs have a similar technical composition that has a deep and groovy sound that makes it sound intense. The drumming is also pretty much the same, as it continues its technical blastbeats, though it does sound a bit more programmed and robotic, giving off an uneasy vibe in the atmosphere. Even the bass is virtually the same, as there doesn't seem to be much change from the last album. While the sound is generally the same as in Covenant, things do feel a bit more slower and more devastating, and nowhere is this more apparent than in "Where the Slime Live". The guitar riffs are more simple, but play a doom-like riff that feels very eerie, and the constant beating of the drums only further enhance this slow and disastrous atmosphere. The first two tracks on this album are no doubt great, but other amazing instrumentals include "Eyes to See, Ears to Hear", "Dawn of the Angry", and "Caesar's Palace". Domination continues to do what Covenant did, but this time, taking on a slower and more catastrophic atmosphere that makes the riffs feel more deadly and intense.

As for the vocals, not much has changed much either. David Vincent is still doing the iconic deep growls his did in Covenant, but he also adds in more screams into it, which sounds pretty good. A great example of this is in the track "Hatework", which is more mysterious and epic than the other tracks, which is great for closing the album off. Vincent's growls further adds in the intensity of the epic atmosphere, and flows well to the slow riffs and sinister keyboards. In more intense tracks like "This Means War", David's growls and screams continue to further enhance the chaotic atmosphere, and his raging personality makes the riffs sound more wicked and intense. David Vincent's vocal performance still remains as great as ever, despite a minor change in delivery.

Continuing off from Covenant seemed like it would be a difficult challenge, but I personally think they've done a good job with this album. The instrumentals still sound as haunting as ever, especially with a slower delivery, and the vocals still sound creepy and disturbing. Sadly, this was the last album David Vincent was involved in before he left the band to join Genitorturers. Still, this is yet another hit in Morbid Angel's discography that I recommend checking out.

The high form of Morbid Angel is a continuation, and at the same time a gentle departure from the previous formula. New quality at the Angels A.D. 1995 (although it's a bit of an exaggeration) boiled down mainly to letting "clearance" into previous patents, much more emphasis on melodies and introducing quite successful slower tempos. In the band's first period before David Vincent split from the group for 8 years, "Domination" is the least impressive and not as thrilling material as Trey & Co. did their previous cds. Naturally, the level of their music still remained high (as evidenced by the number of hits, with brilliant "Where The Slime Live"), but...I was more comfortable with the development they made on the next album (ie. the extreme one).

Civilizing music is, as I have already pointed out, something I like moderately, but in the case of Morbid Angel it defends itself very well. The novelties on "Domination" are mainly the aforementioned slower, more cylindrical parts ("Where The Slime Live", "Caesar's Palace"), greater melodiousness ("Eyes To See, Ears To Hear", "Nothing But Fear") or stronger accentuated here and there atmosphere ("Hatework", "Inquistion (Burn With Me)"). The sound has also changed to a more "dirty" one, although this is a big advantage against the background of numerous melodiousness. Erik Rutan, a quite talented guitarist (formerly with Ripping Corpse), who brought some slightly different ideas and solos (very melodic), also added his own here.

The number of hits remained unchanged, as there were also quite a lot of hits on "Domination". It's worth adding to the previous counting songs such as: "Dominate", "Dawn Of The Angry" and "This Means War", although these from brackets could also appear here again. Okay, not extending it any more, on average they take intros on "Domination" (if only two, but quite boring) and the ending with the mentioned "Caesar's Palace" and "Inquistion (Burn With Me)", which, of course, are not weak, but they are slightly different from hits like "Where The Slime Live" or "Nothing But Fear". There were no major reservations, there were many more pluses, also for something "different" the Morbid Angel performed very well. Let me just add that "Domination" is the last sensible cd with David Vincent in the line-up.

Originally on: https://subiektywnymetal.blogspot.com/2020/05/morbid-angel-domination-1995.html

From Altars of Madness to Covenant, we see a continuous improvement in Morbid Angel’s discography. Gradually evolving from their underwhelming debut to the masterpiece of metal that was Covenant, Morbid Angel established themselves as a mainstay of the death metal scene, and as a result of the commercial success of that genre from 1992-1994, Covenant went on to influence future generations of mainstream metal such as Korn (listen to “Ball Tongue” on their self-titled first album) and Slipknot. Unfortunately, Domination was in no way a competent follow up to the success that was Covenant.

In the first place, the band sounds exhausted and sloppy on Domination, which could perhaps be blamed on touring and/or band conflicts (the fact that Vincent left the band practically as soon as touring was done for this album says something). This is perhaps the biggest drawback on the album as a whole. For example, compare "Rapture" from Covenant and "Where the Slime Live" from Domination. "Rapture is a fast, tight, and simple track evidently meant to be played on MTV. On the other hand, "Where the Slime Live" is a similar attempt at a radio single, but it is much looser around the edges. Its chuggy and murky chords would lay the ground for future nu-metal bands to follow (for better or for worse). The solo, while simply magnificent, is long and winding, unlike the solo on “Rapture”, which is relatively short and to the point.

The next major problem for some is the cheesy attitude of the lyrics. On Covenant, David Vincent was very serious about the fact that he hated God, and was a servant of Satan. On Domination, Vincent “experiments” a lot more with clean vocals and alternative lyrical themes. For example, on the first track, "Dominate", Vincent sings about *gasp* dominating things. “Caesar’s Palace”, a mediocre slow song in the latter half of the album, actually has some interesting lyrical themes regarding the resurrection of Julius Caesar, which Sabaton is now kicking themselves for not penning first. The pinnacle of cheese comes in the song "Dawn of the Angry" where the following lines are shouted: "Anger rise!/ We fight a war/ With much at stake/ The rights of birth/ That no one can take" These kind of lyrics sound almost like they could be on a Slipknot song about killing everyone, and they pervade the album.

There are two more things about the album that irritate me. The first is the song "Hatework" which closes the album, and is one of the worst things Morbid Angel has ever shat out. I do not understand how it is praised at all, as it drones on and on with a lame riff, dumb marches, and shitty synths that shouldn't be in Morbid Angel at all. This brings me to the last thing that irritates me about this album: the instrumentals. As usual, they are shitty dungeon synth works that shouldn't exist. The song "Melting" is only notable for reminding me of the video game “Command and Conqueror: Red Alert 3” for some reason.

Now it's time to take a look at the good parts of the album, and there is plenty to look at. First of all, Trey's solos reach a level of melody and harmony that they haven't hit before or since. For better or for worse, he sometimes sounds like Kirk Hammet on speed. Erik Rutan also makes his first appearance on this album, and (aside from “Hatework”) his compositions are fairly decent. His melodic leads are a great contrast to Trey’s wacky, all over the place solos. Perhaps the best part of this album is that it is simply, undeniably, fun. There isn’t really a way around this. Domination is probably Morbid Angel’s most tongue-in-cheek album written before 2011. David Vincent’s voice is as clear and understandable as a death metal growl can hope to be, and the simple structure of some of the songs makes for a catchy song bound to appeal to people simply looking to scream and shout along with the chorus. Listen to “Eyes to see, Ears to Hear” if you need clarification on this point.

In short, this is an album to hear songs from live, not a good experience through headphones or stereo on a calm winter night. If you do not enjoy corny tongue in cheek metal bands, stay the hell away from this album and go listen to Covenant or Formulas Fatal to the Flesh, but if you have a friend who is into “happy fun time” music, or are into it yourself, by all means, give this album a listen. Ultimately, Domination breaks Morbid Angel’s cycle of continuous improvement with each album, but it’s just a fluke and is in no way indicative of a major drop off in quality. Morbid Angel would go on to release one of the best albums of their career with Formulas Fatal to the Flesh, and, in the end, Domination just appears as an exhausted Morbid Angel giving it their best effort and trying to have a good time. Burnout is a bitch.

More than anything this album is a logical progression in Morbid Angel's brilliant 90s era discography. Altars was the inception into the band's twisted universe, Blessed helped distinguish the band's pure death metal sound, and Covenant saw them maturing to reach the point of excellence. Domination kept the concision and song-writing focus of Covenant, but now had room to explore the more melodic DNA that could be found in the band. This melodic aspect would be dug out from the guts of Morbid Angel and once out, blended perfectly with the band's entity. At no point do the melodies sound out of place or like they're compromising this death metal titan's identity. Rutan's contribution to the melodic aspect was on point and never sent the album veering. Some of the best examples of the fine obscure melody found on this album include "Eyes to See" with its epic and insidiously dark chorus (and still trademark M.A. sounding) featuring the very rare and excellent Vincent clean deep vocals (found on God of Emptiness previously), "Nothing but Fear" and its beautiful counterpoint melodic break, with Rutan's eventual soaring leads.

Other than that very central and novel element of the more melodious facet of the album, we're given some high quality forceful M.A. music, with its trademark martial death metal style. Hyper speed blasts (Sandoval always had a bit of a military edge to his drumming), tremolo guitar riffs along with epic power chord sections. Some of the best warfare-sounding tracks include the terribly uncompromising opener and M.A. hymn "Dominate", "Dawn of the Angry" or "This Means War" which rather than being merely massive sounding supply the originality that was now expected of the band, making them each recognizable instead of just filling the album up with 'more of the same'.

Another important aspect of this album is the great balance between the low end, controlled but distinctly organic sounding, and the more dynamic mid range and highs. Moments like the intro to "Caesar's Palace" or most of "Where the Slime Live" really showcase that low end balance. The guitars are deep and outright low, but don't come across as muddy, which for example on the latter mentioned track (Slime) allowed for Azagthoth to focus on intentionally minimalist riffing and left room between the notes for that fat low end on chugs and heavy palm muting to come to the foreground with full force. Even the beautiful late album instrumental "Dreaming"; medieval in tonality which adds a bit of quaint charm and melancholy to the album and further establishes the bridge between melody and darkness; showcases some of that low end balance with the heavy Taiko drum serving as the powerful metronome to the track's mid and treble instruments.

Otherwise, there really is a tightness aspect to this record: the solos are more focused than ever on here, a rarity for Azagthoth and the band, whether on early or later records the same. This might be their tidiest record, solo wise. Their frequency is still high, and multiple solo breaks within one song aren't all that rare (although rarer than on Blessed for eg). This is also probably their tightest sounding record: as mentioned before the low end is well present but also well contained, and the drums are very locked in with the guitars whether it's the double kicks, or the toms accompanying Azagthoth with clinical precision and fattening up his riffs in the case of toms. There are also consistent full instrumental stops during songs where drums, bass and guitars all stop and start again at the same time. A song like "Caesar's Palace" would likely not have found a place on Blessed or on Formulas, and those two records were so much about experimentation and feeding songs a high number of riffs. The latter song (Caesar) sounds like some of the tightest and most simple they've ever sounded, and yet it sounds 100% Morbid Angel.

A special mention goes out to "Hatework", the record's final. I've always seen it as the grande finale to a mighty album, but feel most death metal fans have no clue about it. It's a track completely ignored, and yet, it's an absolute gem. It's one of the most epic anthems I know in death metal. The production is as organic and exquisite as on the rest of the album. The furious chaotic riff guitars work so perfectly well with the military-themed drums, and the vocals... no other description comes to my mind but David Vincent sounds like he's pouring lava out of his lungs. They sound volcanic and hellish. But the track is the perfect culmination of the album, and it incorporates many elements from previous tracks spread out through the album.

If I think high quality death metal, that is all of the following: tight, chaotic, melodic and epic. I'd think of "Domination". You can find plenty of albums that have three of those, but hardly any that gather all four.

My first review was a defense of perhaps the most infamous album in metal, St. Anger, and I've also defended Chaos AD. Now I'm continuing that trend by defending the oft-criticized Domination. This album was a change in direction for Morbid Angel. For one thing, it foreshadowed the direction that would be taken on the subsequent two releases. The title also reflected David Vincent's burgeoning desire for sadomasochistic pursuits following this record, but I digress. I do have to disagree with the claim that this album is more commercial. For one thing, listen to the record and it sure as hell is not commercial. Maybe "digestible" is a better word, but even then there's some of the standard whiplash-inducing tempo changes present on all Morbid Angel records. If anything, Covenant was more commercial than this, especially with songs like "God of Emptiness" (but that doesn't stop it from being the best Morbid Angel album!) There are a few weak spots, the weakest probably being "Nothing But Fear," but the strong parts on this album rank with some of Morbid Angel's all-time best material. The classic "Where the Slime Live" is a nasty, sludgy number with venomous vocals, and one of Trey's all-time best solos (this one has a bit more melody than usual!). I don't know if it's my favorite Morbid Angel song, but it's definitely up there.

We get some uncharacteristic but very welcome fast, thrashy chug rhythms on "Dominate" and "Dawn of the Angry," which happen to be the best songs on the album besides "Where the Slime Live." The solos on both these tracks are second to none as well. One thing I'll point out is that this album has some of Trey's most melodic soloing. Not to say that the whammy work and atonal wizardry on previous albums did not take skill, but, for better or worse, it seems Trey's soloing took on a more traditionally classical influence on Domination. The rolling rhythms of "This Means War" and "Dawn of the Angry" foreshadow the approach that would be taken on the subsequent two Morbid Angel releases. Both have very strong riffing, but "Dawn of the Angry" stands out in particular for its absolutely blazing main riff. Although it features some unintentionally funny lyrics such as "Call of duty now, all the minutemen rise and shine," the song is written very well and has interesting rhythmic changes. "This Means War" has the fast, blasting, marching rhythm that half the songs on Covenant did, and the clean guitars during the verse section add a layer of sinister atmosphere. "This Means War" is one of the better songs on the album.

Some might complain about the amount of instrumentals and experimental work on this album, but this is something that Morbid Angel has been doing ever since Blessed Are the Sick, and even Altars if you include "Chapel of Ghouls," "Immortal Rites," and the end of "Blasphemy." I really enjoyed the instrumentals on Blessed, but not all of them felt like they flowed with the album as a whole. In contrast, the instrumentals on this album work wonderfully, at least within the context of the album. Perhaps it is because they are more understated than the borderline acoustic pop of "Desolate Ways." Did I mention "Hatework"? What a song that is. The haunting, taunting bells, the ambient synth and guitar. It lends the song an air of the eve of apocalyptic destruction. One of the gems of this album. "Caesar's Palace," although not my favorite track, certainly stands out and has some very enjoyable elements, particularly in the realm of atmospherics. I have to say the intro is very strong, but when the vocals come in, it loses its magic. I think they should have either kept the intro as just an instrumental or done something else for the vocal section. And by this I don't mean the vocal style itself but rather the vocal lines. "Eyes to See, Ears to Hear" is one of the tracks that a lot of people who don't even like the album say they like. It's a pretty good song, and I like that it features some of David's "God of Emptiness"-style vocals. "Inquisition (Burn With Me)" isn't the best track, as it meanders a bit, and even foreshadows the type of lyrical delivery that would be found on Illud, but it's still a good song with some compelling lyrics. "Nothing But Fear" has a good opening riff, but the rest of the song isn't very compelling. "Melting" and "Dreaming" are cool atmospheric diversions.

Even though this album isn't evenly good throughout, when it hits, it hits hard, and there are three really good gems on here. The goodness of these songs more than negates the three weaker songs on the album, and I legitimately enjoy "Hatework" and "This Means War," so that tips the scale in favor of a good score. This album isn't quite as manic as Altars of Madness or as tight and destructive as Covenant, but it's a beast all of its own and an album that doesn't deserve all the criticism it gets. People complain about the production, and while it doesn't hold a candle to Covenant, I think it beats Blessed Are the Sick even if the drums sound too triggered. It probably ranks as my fifth favorite Morbid Angel album. Sure, this album isn't as well-balanced as albums like Formulas or Gateways, but I'd argue the best songs on here are some of Morbid Angel's absolute best songs, rivalling the best stuff on A-C. For these reasons, I have to give it a much higher score than it seems to be getting on here.

For being one of the most diverse and consistent Morbid Angel albums ever, it's so strange to me why people trash this one so much, especially nowadays. When this album came out, I clearly remember how many metalheads hailed it as the best since Altars. It was way better produced than B and C, had a bit of everything that Morbid Angel has produced, songs were very memorable, and so on. Now, decades has passed and people see/hear things I haven't, not even from 1995 to date.

When I say this album is varied, it's cause each song is very different from each other in almost every aspect, but keeping a cohesive atmosphere throught the whole record. At difference from the rest of MA albums that feature 1 speed - Covenant/Formulas are fast, Blessed/Gateways are slow - Domination has no unique feature in that sense. Domination starts with a sort of 'title track' in the name of Dominate, which is not really that similar of how Covenant starts; a short and to the point track that destroys the listener from start to finish. Then the band just changes completely the pace of the album with 'Where the Slime Live' which is a groovy and heavy as a tank track, again, not different from what the band has offered before like the title track of Blessed Are the Sick with again a very memorable solo which sounds a bit more streamlined than the ones found on Covenant or Altars but it's also better written to me.

The albums progresses from the most straightforward death metal tracks to a more atmospheric and epic ventures, probably helped by Erik Rutan who also contributed to write some of songs here. Songs like 'Eyes to See, Ears to Hear' have a bit of everything you can expect of Morbid Angel but adding new elements as well; the dissonant riffs and the mid paced tempo are features that harkens back to the Abomination days while adding a bit of clean vocals alas God of Emptiness in the chorus, but the construction of the song itself is something new for the band, as well as the slower tracks like 'Caesar's Palace', which is a slow and crushing exercise of doom/death or the military and epic feeling of Hatework, with the most hateful vocal delivery on the entire album but also heavy in the use of keyboards to enhance the atmosphere, serving as a perfect closer to the album.

Tracks like 'Dawn of the Angry' and 'This Means War' bring the most beloved neckbreaker factor that death metal can't be absent. The riffs on those songs are very memorable and the groove factor is well complemented with Pete's relentless drumming, which sounds incredible and it's probably his best produced drum sound ever.

I need to refer to the soloing in a separated paragraph cause it's really the best to be found in a single Morbid Angel album. The guitar tone sounds excellent; it's heavy, dark yet it carries a strange vibe that I relate to the band's love for Lovecraft. Trey and Erik wrote a pack of solos that are technical, evil, epic and occult, everything at the same time. Rutan especially outdid himself on 'Nothing but Fear' outro, which is one of the most beautiful death metal solos in existence. Trey's chaotic and technical style is ever present and in full display but he opted for condensing it a bit to make them more memorable, like the mid solo in 'This Means War' or the great intro for 'Inquisition/Burn with Me'.

This is one of the greatest showcases of death metal in a single release. Just like Covenant, it's a bible of how to write and play the style with perfection, conviction, brutality and at the same time breaking new ground each time.

On Domination Morbid Angel, now joined by ex‑Ripping Corpse guitarist and contributing songwriter Eric Rutan, loses conceptual unity and their once inimitable vision is now confused, resulting in a streamlined version of their sound, polished and compromised for a wider range of appeal. Covenant marked the end of a classic trilogy, while Domination fails to uphold the remarkable level of consistency demonstrated on earlier releases, and lacks much of enduring interest. Though the album features moments of quality, the disruption of focus and unity damns this work, earning it the distinction of the first inessential Morbid Angel album.

“Darkness - swallowing all in its path
The blind leading the blind and the "flock" is ever confused
Who has the gift of healthy sight and mind?
Who can withstand while the others are blown away?”

They storm out of the gate with the first three tracks, followed by a gradual decline into material that ranges from episodes of superficial aggression to forgetful, uninspired songs, with the band relying uncharacteristically on common stylistic traditions. The presentation resembles the sequence of Blessed Are The Sick, yet does not achieve what made that work the group's most captivating work. This is due mostly to a lack of powerful expressive character and presence, as well as the preternatural aura, a component of mysterious intrigue that distinguished this band from the common lot. The music relies too much on the impact of crushing rhythm and surface intensity, and its design is puzzlingly de-intellectualized, with a significantly lower grade of song distinction. There is nothing ceremonial about this album. It is baffling in its normalcy and lack of spirited determination. Of course, the instrumentation is superior, but their unyielding spirit and purpose-oriented approach to creativity is absent.

“Years of complacency on the part of the mob
Feeding on lies...so slothed, so full this is it
Restless...and tolerance nearing its peak
Woe to the next ones who push us too far”

This weakly-produced fall from grace marks the final appearance of vocalist/bassist/songwriter David Vincent (though he would return years later), whose venomous and commanding vocalizations served as an essential part of this band's distinctive identity, but whose performance on Domination sounds uninspired and one-dimensional. Eric Rutan also departs after this album to concentrate on Hate Eternal, leaving Trey Azagthoth and Pete "Commando" Sandoval, arguably two of the most talented and pioneering at their respective positions in the death metal genre, to navigate the progression of the band. While Domination isn't a catastrophe to Morbid Angel's legacy, it adds nothing of real artistic value. It would prove to be a disappointing disruption of their program, which was temporarily rejuvenated on 1998's Formulas Fatal to the Flesh, before all inspiration and genuine motivation was lost.

It seems to be that people either love or hate this album. I can't seem to understand why. I had an unbiased approach at it as I heard it before I saw the negative reviews on how they were trying to "commercialize" their sound. Seriously, open your ears, this album is fast and heavy with the classic Morbid Angel sound. Blare this cruising in your car and you're still going to get the standard pissed off look from people as with any other good death metal album. This album isn't soft at all and is far from radio-friendly. Seriously, anyone that rates this album under a 10% should be questioned of their credibility towards metal as a whole. Sure, it's not as good as the first three, but anyone rating it that low obviously has no general knowledge of music at all.

So with this album Trey comes at you with the standard Morbid Angel riffs, a mix between tremolo-picked riffs and the slower, off-timed grooved sections that are now played at a lower tuning, giving a different feeling to their sound, especially the slower-paced grooves that first appeared on BATS. Backed by Sandoval's technical drumming mixing between blast beats, machine-gun like double bass beats, and some great fills, this album is already above average. This was not David Vincents finest output vocal-wise, but give him a break, it's not like vocals are his only priority. The leads are still overall pretty good with Treys trademark unorthodox whammy bar-styled playing that positively contributes to the album as a whole.

The production is a little cleaner then I like, but it's not like it's too overdone like your average core bands of today. This might have been looked at as over-polished back in 1995, but I wouldn't know because I was merely 5 years old. Despite the production, it still holds an aggressive atmosphere to it. All in all, I don't believe this album deserves the shit talk that it gets. The prior albums were a lot better in pretty much all aspects, but those I would rate in the 90s as this one is only deserving of an 80%.

When discussing the back log of the influential Morbid Angel, I'm often surprised that Domination is typically held in low regard. Though I'm a huge fan of their debut Altars of Madness, fan favorites Blessed Are the Sick and Covenant held very little of interest to me. When their fourth album Domination arrived, I was hesitant to take the plunge, what with its gaudy cover art, but it's turned out to be Morbid Angel's most interesting album, a slab of sludgy yet complex death metal with memorable songwriting. It transports their core of dense riffing and infernal drum battery into a realm of sadistic grooves and sinister tones. These days, when desiring a fix from this Floridian staple, more often than not I will reach for this album over any other.

Opener "Dominate" is not a far cry from the material on Covenant, a blasting frenzy which suffers from a slightly dull verse but makes up for it through its bridge and chorus thrashing and sick leads. David Vincent's vocals are incredible on this album: truly dense and brutal in a way the band had not yet manifested. "Where the Slime Live" may be a silly title, but the song is simply phenomenal with its deep, wrenching grooves over Pete Sandoval's apocalyptic levels of double bass, and its simultaneously anti-Christian, anti-political lyrics. Mythos-inspired "Eyes to See...Ears to Hear" is one better, and perhaps my favorite Morbid Angel track aside from "Chapel of Ghouls". The choral verse is fucking incredible, and Vincent is just VULGAR sounding, it's as if he has transc...descended into one of the Elder Gods the band is so fond of in their lyrics.

'Worlds apart are they and I
My world remains in sight
Their lives - despair
The "I's" and "They's" cannot compare'

I should also note the amazing guitar work of this track, both the rhythms and leads are among the best constructed of the band's entire catalog. "Melting" is a brief instrumental featuring some hints at deep cult chanting and bombastic synths, which is followed by the intense "Nothing but Fear", another platter of winding, dense rhythm and the 'swampy' sound permeating much of this material. "Dawn of the Angry" features some blistering axework and utter brutality which should appeal to those who worshiped the previous album. Ditto for "This Means War", with a rhythm not unlike "Eyes to See...", only cranked in velocity. "Caesar's Palace" is another of the album's best, with a wondrous, morbid and majestic intro segment before the slow pummelling grooves of the main body. "Dreaming" is another of the bombastic synth instrumentals which do well to pace the record, and "Inquisition (Burn With Me)" is unflinchingly riff-tastic. "Hatework" combines dark atmospheres such as strikes of a bell into its epic, abyssal composition, to close the album with class.

The atmosphere and production on Domination is phenomenal, something the band has never so brilliantly captured on their other output. Formulas Fatal to the Flesh too this 'swampy' Everglades feel of death metal to a further extreme, but simply failed to deliver any quality songs (in my opinion it's the worst of their offerings). But the grim luster of this 1995 morass sounds perfect today. It's really a shame this wasn't a bigger splash for the band. It sold fairly well but didn't receive the critical acclaim it deserved. I'm not sure a lot of fans who were expecting another blast fest quite understood it. The thing is, it's STILL a blast fest, Morbid Angel 100% through and through, but the cohesive and sludgy groove of the material makes it truly stand out. There are one or two tracks which slack behind as far as memorable writing, at least in part, but the rest of the album is surely the stuff of cosmic cult horror.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

Of all the albums in the David Vincent era of Morbid Angel, this one has been the most difficult for me to fully understand, in large part because I was torn between the opinions of various people who I’ve conversed with, some of them being people who actually got me into the band. In many quarters, “Domination” is considered the absolute nadir of their career, even when considering the less than stellar albums that followed Vincent’s departure. The objections most tend to focus on the notion of the album being dumbed down and repackaged for commercial consumption. The former half of this assertion strikes me as utterly bizarre since having listened to the album multiple times, the latter holds true to an extent in the album’s production, which is notably clearer and more polished than past works, but still well out of the realm of anything that could be called mainstream. Ultimately this hostility seems to be centered on the fact that many didn’t accept death metal as being something that could sell extensively or be appreciated by a wide audience. But as present day metal culture shows, even the intentionally antiestablishment world of black metal is not beyond the curiosity of popular culture, though they do tend to have a pedestrian understanding of it.

Although I consider this to be the weakest of this band’s offerings during the Vincent era, this is still quite a morbidly good listen. The guitars have been loaded up with enough sludgy depth to make Crowbar proud, while simultaneously reasserting that doom-laden yet clear atmosphere that typified “Covenant”. In fact, the characteristics that made said album appealing have been magnified on several songs on here, particularly that of the somewhat rough edged and overly processed “Where The Slime Live”. They get a little carried away with the vocal effects, but this song shows a band that is willing to explore slower tempos and depth of atmosphere while still constantly referring back to the genre’s extreme thrash roots. And when the band revisits the high tempo glory of their earlier works, the format is a little easier to follow and painted with a brilliant set of methodical lead guitar elements that go beyond the typical barrage of Slayer-inspired whammy bar madness and frenetic scale runs. Particularly on the sludgy thrashers “Eyes To See…Ears To Hear” and “This Means War” lay a beautiful array of melodic leads loaded with passion. It’s pretty easy to see where Demonaz got his influence for those awe inspiring leads on “Blizzard Beasts”, as the guitar tone and tendency to keep things expressive rather than overly frenzied heard in Azagthoth’s lead breaks are all but a perfect match with said album, not to mention a casual similarity in riff construction, though on here things are a bit more doom inspired and dissonant.

While the muddy meanness on display throughout the majority of this album is not really out of character for this band, there are some side elements that are. Amidst the two instrumental interludes on here, and the longer epics “Caesar’s Palace” and “Hatework” is a collection of keyboard sections that range from ambient sorrow to an almost epic symphonic character. I’m not sure where Azagthoth got the ideas for these sections of the album, but it brings a uniquely intelligent character to what is otherwise a musically vulgar condemnation of all things light and peaceful. It’s unclear whether or not anyone in this band was aware of any work done by Burzum or Enslaved, but the woeful ambient sounding marching instrumental “Dreaming” sounds like it could have come from one of the earlier works of either band. Perhaps it was the keyboard content that turned off many of Morbid Angel’s older fans to this album, but speaking for myself, it isn’t a negative. Given the general tendency towards a clear and polished sound, these additives actually seem the logical course to complement songs that aren’t always cutting off heads at tempos above 3 clicks per second.

Regardless of what many steadfast trustees of death metal may say in opposition, “Domination” is not a bad album, and isn’t really all that much of a decline in quality from “Covenant”. If one can get beyond the fact that Morbid Angel was enjoying a brief period in the lower echelons of mainstream interest, this is something that can be enjoyed as a more organized and somewhat progressive variant on what is pretty much still straight up death metal in all its morose glory. And besides, if they can come up with a genre like epic doom metal, why not apply the same concept to the one that features vocals that are deep and dark enough to make your floors tremble.

Not a proud moment for our favorite death metal band. Having achieved an impressive level of commercial success, by death metal standards at least, and without compromising, they decided to... compromise. We hope. If this album wasn't a plea for a wider audience, it becomes a hell of a lot harder to make any sense of it, especially seeing as they went back to being good after it failed to reach the mainstream.

To start with the least of this album's offenses, the production sucks outright, from the thwipping drums to the radio transmission guitars. I faintly recall reading somewhere that the producer didn't grasp death metal at all, and while I can't back that up, it's believable based on the final results. The vocals are pushed way up in the mix, but that's probably not an accident. They're noticeably less growly and more intelligible than past releases, which isn't so much a problem as a symptom: this is supposed to be a repetitive and predictable scream-a-long album, with the sluggish guitars providing a rhythmic backdrop instead of leading the way.

Even as dumbed-down, semi-commercial death metal, it's not particularly enjoyable; it's not very catchy and half the songs sound the same. Even the distinctive Morbid Angel-ness of the riffs and solos can only do so much to save it.

The last track, “Hatework,” tries to spare the album from total disaster with some keyboards and march drums; it might sound kind of stupid, but at least it wasn't an idea born of audience surveys and pie charts.

To date, this is the worst thing the band has done by far; the only arguable exception is “Heretic,” but it at least has the dignity of being an apparently well-intentioned failure.

The last album (so far) to feature vocalist/bassist David Vincent, Domination seems to encourage the most extreme differences of opinion. Aside from Heretic, it is generally the lowest-rated album amongst fans and casual listeners alike. The fact that it was their second album on a major label (Giant/Warner) as well as being quite different in both lyrics and atmosphere from both Altars of Madness and Blessed are the Sick (and to a lesser extent, Covenant) may have contributed to some of the prejudice, but in my view it is utterly ignorant to disregard an album due to these facts alone.

By 1995, death metal was in a state of flux. Many of the bands were by this time releasing substandard material and, along with the legions of inferior bands flooding the market and the failed attempt to commercialize the music through the now well-documented merger of Earache Records with Columbia/Sony, contributed to a general air of disinterest and boredom amongst fans. Also, black metal's extreme ideologies and church-burning antics were making headlines and effectively capturing the attention of listeners, and combined with the previous factors, death metal could not really compete.

The fact is, Morbid Angel smashed through these barriers and let none of this prevent them from creating a masterpiece. This album is the ultimate statement of what Morbid Angel is capable of - it is almost obscenely dogmatic at some points, and displays exactly what Morbid Angel had become by 1995.

In contrast to it's predecessor, which features a muddy and murky sound, Domination features a great production. Everything is loud and clear, with good instrument separation, yet at the same time, heavy and thick - an increased budget is perhaps one of the main factors for such an improvement. This works to the benefit of the material; a song like Where the Slime Live would not be nearly as effective with a less bass-heavy production. The drums, however, suffer a little - Pete Sandoval delivers yet another outstanding performance, however, he does sound a bit restrained, due to a slightly sterile drum sound. The overall tempo is generally much slower than anything the band had done previously, although there are still some very fast songs like Dominate and This Means War.

The guitar work is amazing. Forget all the other guitar teams out there: Hetfield/Hammett, Hanneman/King, Owen/O'Brien, the Hoffman brothers - Trey Azagthoth and Erik Rutan are superior to them all. Trey turns in his usual 110% effort, with his customary flowing riffs and out-of-control solos, although in keeping with the atmosphere of the album they are a little more melodic and dream-like than before. This being the first album he performed on, Erik Rutan asserts himself unbelievably well. His style is markedly different to Trey's - more lush sounding and classically-inclined (his solo on Nothing But Fear is particularly well done; why isn't he as good as this in Hate Eternal?)

This being David Vincent's final album with the band (excluding, of course, the upcoming album and the live album Entangled in Chaos), you'd expect him to depart in triumph. And he does. Following the tradition of previous albums, his vocals change yet again. In contrast to Covenant, which featured drier, more guttural vocal work, Domination's vocals are a raspy, articulate roar. I can't really say a great deal about his basswork, save that is perfectly competent and adds to the thick heaviness of the album.

Highlights are incredibly difficult to pick, as Morbid Angel do not fall into the fault of so many death metal bands in making all their songs sound overly similar. Every song here is given its own identity and voice. Where the Slime Live, with it's sludgy, monolithic atmosphere, swamp-like vocals and extremely harsh lyrics (which seem to be expressing condemnation and scorn of politicians and religion) is a definite standout.

Eyes to See, Ears to Hear and Nothing But Fear run well together - both songs have quite a similar feel. Eyes to See is more "mystical" sounding (I'm not really sure how else to explain it) and Nothing But Fear is particularly impressive, with its intelligent lyrics and an outstanding solo from Erik. Its really a shame that Morbid Angel doesn't play more songs from this album live.

As per the Morbid Angel tradition, Domination features two instrumental tracks. The first is Melting, a short ambient track with some bubbling noises in the background, which, to be honest, is rather forgettable. The other is Dreaming, a great piece that evokes images of Ancient Rome, which makes it a great companion to Caesar's Palace, another highlight with lyrics devoted to - who else? Julius Caesar.

Hatework... this song gives off such an incredibly hateful, sinister atmosphere of doom that there is really nothing else like it on any of Morbid Angel's albums. Along with God of Emptiness from Covenant, this song showed that Morbid Angel were willing to experiment a little, unlike some of their peers at the time. Composed of deep (possibly David's deepest ever) vocals, martial drums and a mind-blowing solo at the end, this song wouldn't be out of place on a doom album. A masterpiece.

And so the album ends. That this album is cast aside by so many people is a shame. I think that a lot of people disregard it simply for the fact that it is so different from what had come before it and clearly, many fans either can't or won't accept change.

Domination is a testament to creativity and atmospheric, "dominating" death metal; it represents Morbid Angel at their peak, both success-wise and musically.

Here's what you entered in the review body for copy and pasting purposes:

Ah, how to review this album. An album that has inspired much controversy over the years amongst many death metal fans and thus, by extension, many Morbid Angel fans. An album that made Morbid Angel even more famous in the metal world, but at the same time, caused them to be regarded less highly by the metal underground, many of whom felt this album was a betrayal of Morbid Angel's principles - a "sell out", so to speak.

There are good reasons for this, to be sure; this album is indeed far more commercial than any of Morbid Angel's previous albums. It has a clear, thick production - hating it for that reason, however, is just plain stupid, in my opinion. That is thankfully probably not the reason why most Morbid Angel fans dislike Domination and feel Covenant is much better.

The biggest reason why, and I think the best reason, is that the songs are more bland than the songs from the first three albums. And they do feel less chaotic in the good way that Morbid Angel's first three albums feel chaotic. This is pretty obvious just from the first listen to "Dominate" the album's opening track. Right from the start it doesn't feel as genuine, either in crushing doomy riffs like Blessed are the Sick did with its opening song Fall from Grace, or in sheer brutality as Altars does with its opening song Immortal Rites, and Covenant does with its opening song, Rapture. It just isn't as good. The worst aspect of this is David Vincent's voice. What the hell happened to it? On Covenant it was incredibly throaty and deep and very menacing. It sounded very genuine and easily as truly satanic as Deicide. But on Domination, his voice actually sounds less deep! It's more of a gravelly growl, which isn't necessarily bad, but makes the music a lot less menacing than it would be if David's voice was as deep as it was on Covenant.

Also, the music clearly isn't as good either. It sounds a little uninspired almost. This is an ok opening song, very aggressive, but it doesn't really set the mood for the rest of the album, which is decidedly slower than Covenant. And most of this time, this isn't in the effectively doomy, creepy way Blessed are the Sick was slower, or how their later album Gateways to Annihilation is slower. Both of those albums are, to put it bluntly, just plain better than Domination.

The one good aspect of this fairly unremarkable opening song is the solo. This is a little more melodic than usual, probably due to Erik Rutan's presence - this would be seen even more overtly on Gateways to Annihilation, where Erik contributes some very melodic solos indeed - but not melodic in the corny, silly way that melodeath is. Melodic in a dark and sinister and otherwordly way, as it should be. And although the solos are ok here, I definitely prefer the ones on Gateways to Annihilation.

So, with that song out of the way, we're onto the next song, "Where the Slime Live". This is a very sludgy and slower song. Now, just because the second song on a Morbid Angel album is sludgy doesn't automatically mean that the whole album is almost entirely sludgy and either slow or mid paced, because it isn't. After all, Covenant, which is easily overall one of the faster Morbid Angel albums ever, slowed down considerably on its third song, World of Shit(the Promised Land). But shortly after the one minute mark, this song also sped up. Such is not the case on "Where the Slime Live", however. This song is more like God of Emptiness from Covenant in that it stays at a slow tempo throughout the whole song. There's nothing really wrong with this though - in fact, this is easily one of the best songs on the album. The only annoying thing is the rather weird and admittedly slightly silly sounding distortion effect used on David's voice for this song. It certainly makes it sound less "deathly" than, say, God of Emptiness from Covenant or the title track from Blessed are the Sick, if we're comparing other sludgy songs. Also, this song isn't the best of Morbid Angel's sludgy songs - "Nothing is Not" from Formulas Fatal to the Flesh and the slower songs on Gateways to Annihilation are better in almost all respects, and also don't have those annoying distorted effects on the vocals. But that aside, this is still one of the best songs on Domination. Heavy, thick, crushing, sludgy.........all things Morbid Angel does very well. And this is no exception. The solo is this song is great too, very eastern inspired like Erik Rutan's solos on Gateways to Annihilation are too. Fairly clever lyrics too, avoiding the over-present war themes that make up too much of the lyrics on most of the rest of the songs on this album. Instead they seem like a criticism of religious dogmatic lies, as far as I can tell.

Does this song set the mood for the rest of the album then? Not exactly. That's another problem I have with this album - all of the rest of Morbid Angel's albums manage to keep the majority of their songs' tempos one way or another - fast or slow. Altars being fast, Blessed being slower(although it does have some very fast songs too)Covenant being fast again, and Domination is.........well, mid paced. That's part of the problem - the opener is very fast, and then you get the second song, and that's slow. That's mostly fine, but then there's the third song: "Eyes to See, Ears to Hear" which starts out fairly fast, but again, like the previous two songs, lacks the visceral power of their previous albums' songs. It is much faster than Where the Slime Live, but slower than Dominate. It's in between really, and ends up being pretty unremarkable. The solo is, again, the only special thing here, as it is a little different sounding from the solos on the first three Morbid Angel albums. But at the same time, the song isn't bad, it's just nothing that special in comparison to the brilliance of, say, a song from Covenant like Vengeance is Mine.

But still, it's ok - the lyrics are fairly clever too, again avoiding over abuse of war themes. But it's hardly as vicious or satanic as the lyrics to pretty much any of Covenant's songs.

Then we have a rather pointless instrumental interlude track, "Melting". Not really bad, and not really that annoying, but not really necessary. However, this doesn't matter that much.

Now we're onto the next song, "Nothing but Fear". This song is mostly mid paced throughout - not brutal, malevolent, really overtly satanic and incredibly fast like most of the songs off Covenant, or skullcrushingly doomy, slow, and suffocating like most of the songs off Gateways to Annihilation. Instead this is somewhere in between, and like the first three songs on this album, it just lacks the feeling of the songs from the first three albums. It's not bad, in fact this is quite a good song, very good lyrics, quite intelligent, and quite occult based too - but it simply doesn't capture the same feeling as the songs from Altars of Madness, Blessed are the Sick, and Covenant do.

Next up is "Dawn of the Angry". Quite a well known song, this one, and it's pretty good. Although this marks the beginning of the over-done war lyrics, the actual song is good. There is a great solo here too, very melodic in a dark and brutal way. This song isn't overly long, it's mid paced, yet it's aggressive and mostly straight to the point. The riffs here are actually very good, great for headbanging, and again the solo, very eastern styled and just very well done. Easily one of the better songs on the album, weird lyrics notwithstanding.

Now we've got "This Means War". Which is, to be honest, rather unremarkable. It's shorter, faster, and more aggressive than most of the other songs on this album - and isn't that a good thing, since this is a fairly slow album? No, because this isn't a fairly slow album. Gateways to Annihilation is Morbid Angel's truly slow album, and that album pulls off the slowness effectively. Domination, on the other hand, is mostly mid paced, and thus it doesn't need to have an ultra fast song when the previous song wasn't that slow. But this song is ok. It works as a very aggressive sounding song. And although it is aggressive, and well, angry, it still doesn't have the malevolence of the brutal fast songs in Altars and Covenant, or even the couple of fast songs in Blessed are the Sick. Why not? Well, besides the fact that is simply isn't as brutal as, say, "Maze of Torment" or "Damnation" from Altars of Madness, or as brutal as "The Lion's Den" or "Pain Divine" from Covenant, the lyrics are about war, rather than being about the occult and killing christians and satanic things, which they were on Altars and Covenant and ought to be about here. Still, this song is ok.

Next up is "Caesar's Palace" - which is, well, not that great. It has a pointlessly long intro, for one - the actual song, meaning the heavy riffing and vocals, doesn't start until over two minutes into the song. And when it does start, it quickly goes very mid-paced. This isn't a bad thing by itself, but it means that it fails to achieve a doomy effect which it could if it was slower, or a more brutal effect which it could if it was faster. The lyrics are about Caesar, which is.......well, it isn't about the occult at all. Where's all the lovecraftian influences that were so prominent on Blessed are the Sick? Where's the brutal satanism and anti-christianity that was so prominent on Covenant? Instead, we've got lyrics about war and about emperors.......not a bad subject for death metal at all, but it just doesn't fit in with the rest of their albums' lyrics - which are all about lovecraftian stuff, sumerian stuff, and/or satanism and anti-christianity. So it makes the album stand out, and not in a good way. This song is still ok really, but nothing special.

Then we have an instrumental interlude, "Dreaming". Not bad, in fact it's a lot better than the first instrumental on this album.

Next is "Inquisition(Burn with Me)". This song is pretty good. Again the lyrics are mostly war themed, which as I said before I can't help feeling is a little out of place when they should be lovecraftian or satanic. But still, besides that, this is a good song overall.

Finally, we have "Hatework". This is easily one of the weirdest songs that Morbid Angel ever did. Mostly because it has a huge amount of keyboards and weird sythesised effects, which to be honest doesn't really fit in that well with the guitar. It sounds like over-use of keyboards to the point where they drown out a lot of the other sounds. Thankfully Morbid Angel never used Keyboards in this way again on any of their later songs, and instead mostly regulated them to the instrumental interlude tracks. In any case, this song is not very good for headbanging. The riffs sound odd underneath the wall of keyboard sounds, and the whole song is very strange. But the one good thing about this song is that it does give a feeling of impending doom and crushing, nightmarish darkness - something that the other songs on Domination just didn't do, unlike the songs on Blessed are the Sick, which succeeded in this regard. Even so, for a slower Morbid Angel song I still far prefer God of Emptiness from Covenant, the closing song on that album.

Overall, this album isn't bad at all, it's just not really that special or interesting throughout. That's it's biggest weakness - it lacks the darkness, otherwordly feel, and brutality of not only the first three albums, but also of the following two albums. This is stands in between as an album with over use of weird vocal effects, too many keyboards in some places(the intro to Caesar's Palace and the whole Hatework song), a bit too much focus on trying to be more accessible, not as memorable songs as previous albums, and an uncertain speed - it tries to replicate the atmosphere of Blessed are the Sick, but it doesn't succeed in this very well. It's certainly slower than Covenant, but it's nowhere near as slow as a lot of people make it out to be. Instead, it's mostly mid paced. Which means that on most of the songs, it fails to capture either the terrifying aggression and brutality of the previous albums' faster songs, or the crushing doominess and creepiness of the previous albums' slower songs. Thus it doesn't really create a very interesting atmosphere throughout the album in comparison to any of the other albums, earlier and later.

Even so, it isn't a bad album. If you're a Morbid Angel fan, you should definitely still own this. And if you're a casual death metal fan trying to get into death metal more properly, this album may be the perfect way into death metal, as it isn't as harsh or as inaccessible as their first three albums, or their following two.

Despite the amount of time I've spent criticizing the songs on this album, I actually still like the album a lot. I don't like Hatework or Caesar's Palace that much, but most of the other songs are either pretty good or very good, even if not as brilliant as those on, say, Altars of Madness or Covenant. It still has some very good stand out songs and is just as brutally crushing and heavy throughout in most ways. Thus I'm still proud as a death metal fan and as a Morbid Angel fan to have this album in my collection.

I don't get why this album has gotten rather underwhelming reviews from people. I consider this to be better (or at least on par) than anything done after this with Steve Tucker. Perhaps its the timing of this release, given that it came out after 3 classic Morbid Angel releases in Altars..., Blessed... and Covenant. People may have been let down and it's hard not to compare this to three death metal classics. But Domination is a very good album nonetheless, also I find David Vincent's lyrics and voice to be more interesting than Tucker's.

My friend owns a record shop in my city that sells pretty much everything, including all kinds of metal music and he tells me that of the 3 most sold MA releases Domination is third behind Blessed Are The Sick and Altars Of Madness. Is it because of the two "big" tracks in Domination and Where The Slime Lives? No, the rest of the album holds up very well, especially tracks like 'Nothing But Fear', 'Dawn Of The Angry', 'Hatework' and 'Inquisition (Burn with Me)'. There's a lot of strong tracks in here and as an album is holds its own with the first three classics, maybe not on their level but great either way.

I don't get why they never had Erik Rutan do rhythm duties with Trey after this. He complimented him so well and made the guitar sound great, thick and lush. Wonderful duo they were but I wonder if Trey's ego got the better of him and decided to let him go. I hope they use the same lineup in the future album(s) as this one. To me it's their best and if they want to recapture their past glory they need to do so.

Morbid Angel have been dishing out hellacious and ball shattering music for quite a few years now but "Domination" stands to be one of their best releases along side "Covenant". The only flaw, albeit sort of a daunting one, is that some of the tracks just seem to be like filler tracks in the sense that they are no where near what Morbid Angel can really put forth.


Aside from that flaw the album has actually a very brutal and technical presence. Right from the start of "Dominate" the album pummels and plows through three tracks of eargasm only to have it stop at a filler track, "Melting". The action then picks up with "Nothing But Fear" and "Dawn Of The Angry" which are my two favorite tracks off of this album. The remaining four tracks are decent but nothing truly groundbreaking or new to mention (although "This Means War" is a killer track).


The musicianship and veracity of Morbid Angel is no doubt present on "Domination". Pete Sandoval again blows us away with pulse pounding blast beats and gut rumbling double bass kicks. Trey also melts the faces of those who listen into slime with the nice and truly wicked sick guitar solo's presented on the album. The lyrical content of course is the trite and tired same old themes of war, death, Satan, etc. Nothing new in there either.


Morbid Angel do not have another "Covenant" on their hands with "Domination" but nonetheless it is still a very good album with a few minor set backs. Hopefully Morbid Angel won't continue to experiment with these filler tracks that much more and get back to what they do best, kicking ass.

Despite the muddy and incoherent production and mix (by Bill Kennedy instead of the usual Morrisound crew) and the fact that David Vincent was not bringing his A-game to the table with vocals and lyrics, this album is still a mighty blow to the weak and watered-down shite of the mainstream. The songs are still for the most part there, the definitive feel of organized chaos that MA could still bring to the table like few others could or have since then.

Trey Azagthoth and Erik Rutan were one of the best, if not the best, Death Metal guitar teams at this time (mid-90s). Erik's fluid melodic creations coexisted alongside Trey's wilder flailing and shredding beautifully, the solo in opening title track "Domination" being a fantastic example. Trey contrasts this well with his frenetic leads on "Where The Slime Live" (great title!) and "Eyes To See, Ears To Hear". Two eccentric and individual stylists on top of their game, you've got to love it. Their instrumentals leave a bit to be desired, though; while interesting, they feel out of place on this album.

David's bass is not as distinct in the mix as before, but it still maintains somewhat of a presence, and his vocals are not as coherent as "Covenant", my personal favorite performance of his. Pete Sandoval, well, he's Pete, the Neil Peart of Death Metal. Nuff sed.

This album tends to be better in its beginning, as it fizzles out slightly by the end--"Hatework" is not one of the better songs on display here. "Dawn of the Angry" and "This Means War!" make up for this a little, but the first three songs are the strongest on the album, no two ways about it. As mentioned, the instrumentals are good but not great. By about halfway through, it kind of dies a little, but it rallies back and manages to not fall on its face too terribly hard. It still beats the pants off of "Heretic" and "Formulas..." by far.

"Covenant" is still their shining moment of perfection, their Unholy Grail of pure true Death Metal with feeling and character as well as musical muscle and the songs are just there. "Domination" is inconsistent at best, but still is far from their worst effort. For David's swan song, it doesn't quite rival Judas Priest's classic "Painkiller", but still they coulda done worse anyway...*shrug*

Allow me to reveal my ANUSite heritage for a moment: HIV+ - A phrase within the American Nihilist Underground Society used to denote not only a complete and utter failure of something on its own terms, but also an impure connection society at large. This is a phrase often used in conjunction with albums that are both terrible and a cheap attempt at a cash-in with greater public attention. Properly, it signifies the ultimate sell-out: a compromise of one's own values for money, and an actual failure at that process. Nothing is more pathetic than an album labeled HIV+.

'Domination' is one of these HIV+ albums. This repugnant album represents the complete and utter nadir of Morbid Angel's work, now and forever. I dare say that it would be impossible without considerable effort from the band itself to eclipse this LP in pure, unmitigated worthlessness. Rarely does the mere presence of an album make megenuinely angry, but this one does. Perhaps it's even more horrendous due to the previous history of the band, with three nearly flawless albums under their belt. Whatever the factors, one can rest assured that 'Domination' is not only a festering wound on Morbid Angel, but on the metal scene as a whole.

What can possibly rationalize such an insanely precipitous drop in quality? Surely this can be in some ways forecasted by the time: 'Domination' came around at the deepest artistic trough for death metal that had occurred since its inception. In 1995 death metal had been to a greater or lesser degree abandoned by the deepest parts of the underground, which had fled the genre like rats from a sinking ship in favor of the more ideologically solid (and less commercially inclined) sounds of black metal. This was in significant part due to Earache's attempted deal with Giant Records, which at this point was on its last rapidly disintegrating legs. But these are all just influences and not really quality excuses for the abortion that is this album, which is not merely an abomination on an artistic level, but can't even muster up any entertainment value to make it worth the occasional spin.

Opener 'Dominate' is similar to previous MA openers such as 'Rapture' in its high-speed intensity. Certainly this is a reflection of the previous albums, and for the brief two and a half minutes of its existence it nearly offers a glimmer of hope for this LP. Of course, it doesn't have any of the genuine fury that Morbid Angel had on previous releases, but perhaps you could dismiss that as a fluke. But to the observant, one can clearly see that the spirit and passion of previous releases is fundamentally missing. The instruments, vocals, and lyrics, despite all their implied aggression cannot muster up the misanthropy of albums like 'Covenant'.

But let's say we get past this. 'Where The Slime Live', despite being rather flat and commercial is at the very least amusing. The conviction present here is rather stale and contrived, but the overall instrumentation isn't a total loss. Too bad that's what defines the best points on 'Domination' - not total losses. The next track, 'Eyes To See, Ears To Hear' follows this trend of 'well, it's not THAT bad'. And then there's the superbly telegraphed 'Melting', one of MA's regular ambient tracks, except this time it has no greater significance whatsoever except to fulfill the slot of ambiance that Morbid Angel provides on every release. Then, hey, another tolerable track in 'Nothing But Fear'. It doesn't seem that bad, does it?

Well don't worry, the HIV is about to erupt into full-blown AIDS.

First off is the pungent, whimpering combination of 'Dawn Of The Angry' and 'This Means War'. With utterly nothing to distinguish them from any other mid-90s death metal track, they are forgotten as quickly as they arrive. This is a first in Morbid Angel's career; tracks in their catalog simply aren't forgettable. Up to this point, every song they had written had life and personality. But not now, not to this Morbid Angel who has more interest in endearing themselves to Pantera fans than writing quality death metal. 'Domination' is little more than thundering rhythms and overwrought growls designed to elicit squeals from children who have never heard such, like, brutal tunes, man.

And there's four more tracks after those, each worse than the last. 'Caeser's Palace' is an utter embatassment, a track that attempts to call upon the majesty of 'Blessed Are The Sick' but simply falls flat on its face through the idiocy that 'Domination' cultivates like a delicate bonsai tree. To seemingly pair up with that we get 'Dreaming', yet another ambient track that mercilessly parodies previous gorgeous ambient tracks such as 'Nar Mattaru' or 'In Remembrance'. Witness the horror, yes, the abject horror of the realization that the previously mighty Morbid Angel have fallen in favor of appealing to fourteen year-old boys with delusions of grandeur and attention-deficit disorder.

But no, the worst is yet to come. Perhaps the most fundamentally loathsome track on the album is 'Inquisition (Burn With Me)', whose lyrics go far beyond laughably inept and turn utterly disgusting. What in god's name was David Vincent thinking when he composed such odious lines as 'They'd sell their mothers just to save their skin/that this might keep them alive'? Who thought that such uselessness, such HIV+ insanity could infect the writers of 'Altars Of Madness'?

Which brings us to 'Hatework'. We ascend the mountain of untermenschen-pleasing songs and we arrive at 'Hatework'. A monument to artistic death, an emblem of the rapid, horrific decomposition of death metal in 1995. Under the pretense of 'originality', Morbid Angel crudely chains together martial drums, aimless (and utterly pretentious) guitarwork, and overblown distorted vocals. And it finally ends. This style, this representation of all that is wrong with mid-90s death metal, finally ends to the cheers of all those who love music. All that you're left with is the feeling of molestation that occurs with such a tremendously bad experience. But it's over, and one can be thankful for that.

So who can we blame for such a travesty? Perhaps Erik Rutan? Most likely not; his contribution to 'Domination' was minor at best, and his major flaw is arriving in the wrong band at the wrong time. Pete Sandoval? Also a no. His contributions to the artistic qualities of Morbid Angel have always been mostly drum-based, so the blame does not effectively fall on him. But the two remaining members of the band, David Vincent and Trey Azagthoth, are the snake's head of this abomination.

Some degree of competition between Vincent and Azagthoth has always been detectable on Morbid Angel's albums. Vincent would roar his grotesque vocals, Azagthoth would match up with his fierce alchemy of riffs and solos, and in this dimension both members would ratchet each other up throughout the song. Up to this point, it had been a subtle element that worked with, not against, the music. However, upon the departure of the crucial buffer between those extreme personalities in Richard Brunelle, the structure that had been kept in balance began to fall apart. This at first resulted in a tight, vicious album where the competition between Vincent and Azagthoth reached an all-time high in 'Covenant'. But afterwards, with Vincent already contemplating his way out (in order to work on his wife's industrial rock/metal project, the Genitorturers) and Azagthoth attempting to seize control of the band in Vincent's absence, the personalities ground up against each other and cross-diffused, resulting in a useless exercise in juvenile futility. So with two oppositional personalities, nothing was achieved with 'Domination'. Vincent's lyrics and vocal performance are dreadfully subpar, and Azagthoth's riffing and solos are dripping with pretense and egotism. In this is the fundamental issue with Vincent and Azagthoth on this album: the former doesn't try, the latter doesn't think he needs to. Vincent and Azagthoth's compete and utter betrayal of the metal scene is an act that was too soon forgotten. It is nigh unforgivable, this assault on the virtues and triumphs of the metal scene.

What is 'Domination'? 'Domination' is the cash grab that failed. 'Domination' is the album that crippled Morbid Angel. 'Domination' is the album that set up Trey Azagthoth for hatred from the metal community. 'Domination' is the album that made David Vincent leave the metal scene in utter shame. 'Domination' is what death metal was in 1995.

'Domination' is HIV+.

From the start, this is a solid and promising death metal album. Back again are the deep growls that characterizes MA (and also basically every DM band) and the heart pounding double bass drums, along with the guitars chugging out evil riff after riff. The production is excellent, and definitely a high point to the album. Everything seems to be right in the mix, and not an instrument is left out. Note: this album sound 100x better with the bass turned WAY up!

Dominate opens up the album in typical aggressive fashion, but is only a prelude to the album's best track (and single, I believe), Where the Slime Live. Some great riffs and drum work are present on this thrashy/deathy piece of metal mastery. For sure the best track on the album. Other notable songs include Dawn of the Angry, which opens with an incredibly sinister riff and molds into a great headbanger of a song and also Hatework, but that comes at the end of a lot of turmoil.

This album simply drops off after Dawn of the Angry. Plain and simple as that. Much ambience fills the void of metal, and this is not a good thing, especially when one buys a Morbid Angel album expecting some death! The album rarely picks up pace until the final track, Hatework. Read: Ceasers Palace is a piece of shit. Never listen to this song, ever.

Overall, this is a decent album, which would be exceptional if it kept in the same pace and tone as Where the Slime Live and Dawn of the Angry.

A lot of people, even a good majority of MA fans, look down upon this album, and I really have no idea why. This is a killer Death Metal album, start to finish. David Vincent delivers an awesome vocal performance, and the riffs and atmosphere are in abundance. Pete Sandovals drumming is excellent without being over the top, and I really think he's one of the best drummers out there today.

The opening track, Dominate, is straight up brutal ass-kicking death metal. It doesn't really sound much like the rest of the album, but it is awesome nonetheless. Where the Slime Live is probably one of my favorite slower death metal songs of all time. Slow and groovy without being boring. Eyes to See, Ears to Hear has some interesting riffs in it, and a kick ass evil marching type bridge that makes me splooge my pants every time I hear it. The next little instrumental track is too long and waste of time, but the song it leads into makes up for it with pure ass kickage. Nothing but Fear is fucking classic, and the guitar solos are some of the best guitar work ever. The opening riff to Dawn of the Angry is awesomeness incarnate, and the rest of the song speeds along quite nicely. The other song worth mentioning is Caesar's Palace, which is one of my favorite songs of all time, barring the unnecessarily long intro. I get chills every time I hear the "Hail Caesar! Hail Caesar!" section. Fuck yeah. I like the instrumental keyboard track, though it's really just filler.

Anyway, this is a pretty damn good album over all. It's also the last with David Vincent, which is a damn shame. Worth buying if you're into MA or their style of death metal in general.

I've heard that this album, Domination, is different from Morbid Angel's previous stuff. Like they changed there style of playing death metal! I really don't have an idea if this is true or not. Mainly because this is the first Morbid Angel album I have ever heard...and it doesn't sound that bad to me. I am not for sure what exactly changed about it, but what ever it is, it isn't entirely bad.

This album has a lot of potential; a lot of positives and a lot of negatives. So instead of listening tracks and what is good and bad about them I will review the positives and negatives (in no particular order). One positive you can hear right off the bat is in Dominate. This album has speed, and lots of it. The drums are just amazing. Double bass and constant beating will leave you headbanging for hours. I must warn you though, all of this album isn't pure fastness. Some parts are more slower. While not melodic, it still has the occasional feeling of draggin on. For example the beginning to Caesar's Palace. This slowness only gives it a doom metal kick, which is very interesting to listen to.

The singing has both positive and negative aspects about it. Overall it is the growly type you would hear in most death metal bands. However, on some songs the vocals are distorted...WAY distorted. Almost giving it a gurrgle (if that's even a word) type sound; like someone singing under water. Best example of this is on the song Where The Slime Live. Another negative about this album would be the joining of songs. It doesn't happen much, but when it does...lets just say it doesn't blend togther as well as it should.

Another of the great positives are the guitar riffs and solo's. Most of the time on this album they are slow, doomy type riffs. While other times they are blazing, almost thrashy type riffs that will leave you headbanging for hours. Solo's are sometimes choppy, but it is a nice different take of pentatonics. Sometimes the riffs seem recycled, not for sure but that could be a possibility. Musically this album has it, especially for the feel of the listener. This can be heard best at the beginning of Hatework!

Over all there are some good songs, and some okay songs. Personally I think this album is one of those albums where the appreciation of the album goes down if you listen to it every single day. Once in awhile listen for intense headbanging recommended for this album. Some songs I'll recommend are Dominate, Nonthing But Fear, Dawn of the Angry, Caesars Palace, and Dreaming/Inquisition!