Dominion came together from the ashes of UK death metal underground band Blaspemer. Blasphemer who were voted best unsigned band in 1994 with their Dominion demo by Terrorizer magazine's readers poll. Blasphemer then began to move in a more progressive direction in early 1995.They first began experimenting with female vocalist Michelle Richfield on an 8 track demo recording on then Blasphemer's drummer Andy Miller's home studio equiptment. The songs that were on that particular demo were pre production for a demo to be recorded later that year at the then famous academy studio's in Dewsbury (west yorkshire).The songs that appeared on the 8 track pre production were entitled The Sea Of Selfishness,Parasite,Until The Storm Departs & The Joyfull Tears Of Sorrow.By the time the band had entered academy studio's in the autumn of 1995 Andy Miller had been replaced on drums by Canadian Bill Law who Blasphemer bass player Danny North had met at his time studying at MIT music college in LA USA the previous year.Bill Law had flown out to the UK to feature on the demo with the band hell bent on capitalising from the recent publicity and securing a record contract.The songs that featured on the unreleased academy demo in 1995 were The Sea Of Selfishness,Parasite & The Joyfull Tears Of Sorrow.After the academy demo was recorded Bill Law flew back to Canada but it was not long before he was on his way back to relocate to the UK on a permenant basis as the demo had fallen in to hands of the peaceville label and a record deal was on the table. It was felt by label and band with new members Bill Law on drums and Michelle Richfield promoted to lead vocalist that a name change was in order to represent the new progressive direction of the band. The name Dominion was chosen in order to keep a connection to Blasphemer's critically acclaimed demo of the previous year. The song The Joyfull Tears Of Sorrow was the first thing that peaceville released to announce thier new signing on the Under The Sign Of The Sacred Star compilation in early 1996. Dominion then set about writing their debut album Interface which was released later that year and again was recorded at academy studio's with long time engineer/co producer Mags at the helm. The debut album Interface recieved good reviews in magazines and fanzines and featured label mates My Dying Bride Singer Aaron Stainthorpe guesting on the track Alive?.The ten track debut album would in todays market be regarded a mixture of gothic female fronted vocals and power metal influnenced by Iron Maiden but back then this kind of mixture of styles was unheard of. The band got to promote their debut album with gigs all across the UK and the high point of 1996 was Dominion's support slot to Cradle Of Filth on the UK leg of the Cruelty & The Beast tour.Dominion recieved a great live review from their London show with Cradle Of Filth at the LA 2 venue in Terrorizer magazine early 1997. Dominion were also asked at this time to record two cover versions of non metal songs of their choice to feature on the peaceville X album which was to be released late 1997. The band chose to cover Shout by Tears For Fears & Rolling Stones classic Paint It Black. Dominion's version of Shout was to later feature on London Goth night club The Electric Ballroom anual cd of favorite tracks of the year played in the club on thier Full Tilt night. Dominion in spring 1997 then set about writing their follow up album to their debut album Interface.Their second album Blackout which was released in december 1997 and again was recorded at academy studio's with co producer mags. It saw a departure from dual guitar harmonies and more complicated arrangements which had featured heavily on their first album. A more simplistic riff oriented approach to song writing with heavy bludgening songs such as Distortion and Blackout were prominent. However songs such as Covet pioneered by Dominion's lead/rythem guitarist Arno Cagna showed Dominion were prepaired to take risks and not just draw on death/trad metal influences. Blackout really saw the band devoloping their own sound and stlye which sounded radically different from any other UK metal band of that time.The interchages of soaring gothic feamale vocals of Michelle Richfield and male growls of Mass Firth were un heard of in 1997 and reaked of originality.Blackout recieved great reviews through out the press and saw the band getting a KKKK review in Kerrang magazine. Kerrang magazine also featured Dominion as a "buzz band" of the week and this was the time for Dominion to land the right tour to promote Blackout. However by this time the now defunct music for nations who were by then the parent company of peaceville refused to provide finance for Dominon. Music for Nations didn't understand the band. They couldn't see the way the metal scene was heading. The advent of female fronted metal bands like Arch Enemy,Nightwish & Lacuna Coil were only just round the corner. As a result finance for tours with Crobar & Napalm Death were not provided. This resulted in alot of infighting in the band over various things which sadly resulted in Dominion braking up in spring of 1998. Suprisingly this year peaceville who are now free of the defunct music for nations released a compliation album of Dominion's entire catalouge with a couple unreleased tracks thrown in for good measure called Threshold A Retrospective. Again Dominion recieved awesome reviews in magazines & on the net. Kerrang magazine once again gave Dominion a KKKK review hailing them as "brit metal pioneers,awesome top notch metal darkness,a criminally over looked band" in issue 1115 july 2006. This I guess just goes to show how Dominion's songs have stood the test of time and how they pioneered a genre before anyone realised it existed!!!Buy Dominion's latest album Threshold A Retrospective on peaceville
http://www.peaceville.com/index.php?cid=3
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