Domine

With previous 4 releases, DOMINE has been hailed as one of the best example of HEAVY METAL music with EPIC and POWER elements. With each new release, the group has evolved its music, adding new elements to its classic HEAVY METAL style and, little by little, they have moved from the raw and dark sound of their debut album "Champion Eternal" to the powerful, free and more mature approach of "Ancient Spirit Rising".
"Ancient Spirit Rising" is Domine’s fifth release and, as the title itself suggests,
it’s a musical and spiritual come-back.
Do you remember when you were a kid and started buying albums, and got excited by discovering your favorite bands ? Yes ? So, do the guys in Domine, five musicians who are five music fans too.
Those emotions last forever, right ? Well, surely they turned five guys from Florence, Italy into musicians and avid rock fans.
By the time, the band started to write and rehearse the songs for their fifth album, they decide to record the album they would like to buy and listen to, with no limit and no genre barriers.
Of course, "Ancient Spirit Rising" IS an HEAVY METAL album, no doubt, no shame and no regrets about it, but the boys filled it with many other things they love and they wanted to explore. They wanted the album to be METAL, with hints of HARD ROCK, PROGRESSIVE ROCK, CELTIC and ACOUSTIC MUSIC, CLASSIC MUSIC, a general 70’s feel and even some adult ROCK. They never forget about their fans and their HEAVY METAL roots but they search for the feeling of excitement they get when they listen to their favorite albums by Queen, Led Zeppelin, Rush, Kansas, Thin Lizzy, Maiden, Sabbath, Boston, Priest, Heep and Rainbow, just to name a few untouchable names…
Does it sound too pretentious ? Well, maybe yes but listen to the 3 long suites "The Lady Of Shalott", "Ancient Spirit Rising", "How The Mighty Have Fallen", or to the progressive "Another Time, Another Place, Another Space" and tell me if you don’t feel that 70’s "spirit" rise again…Those songs are labors of love and enthusiasm.
For the fans of straight ahead METAL, there are the super fast and soon to be live faves "Tempest Calling", "I Stand Alone (After The Fall) and "Sky Rider", while the EPIC METAL mongers will be rewarded by the powerful opener "The Messenger" and "On The Wings Of The Firebird" (with excerpts from Igor Stravinsky’s "Firebird Suite").
They even recorded a cover of Uriah Heep’s "Too Scared To Run" (from 1981’s "Abominog" album) for the Japanese edition.
The themes of the lyrics of "Ancient Spirit Rising" move away from the Sword’n’Sorcery books references you find in Domine’s previous albums or - God forbid ! - the usual clichés of most Power Metal bands. "Ancient Spirit Rising" lyrics deal with universal themes, life, death, joy and sorrow, freedom and misery, all of which are expressed in a poetic, romantic and epic style. Songwriter Enrico says : "I still love Michael Moorcock’s books (there actually IS one song about Elric in the album..how can they leave him out?) and all those amazing novels, but this time I wanted to avoid swords, steel, dragons and dungeons and write about personal feelings and views on life, keeping an epic feel to meet the tone of the music. Swords, Conan and Dragons will probably come back some day, but this album is heavily influenced by Victorian art and spiritual questions. "The Lady Of Shalott" is inspired by the evocative painting by W. Waterhouse and by the Alfred Tennyson poem by the same name. The rest is all personal thoughts."
In the end, the guys hope people will enjoy the album as much as they did writing and recording it. This is what they think music should be about.
DOMINE is one of the most successful bands of the Italian METAL scene.
The EPIC POWER METAL band from Florence, Italy, gets officially on the map with their first cd "Champion Eternal", ..onheart Records, the in-house Metal label of Audioglobe, leading independent distributor in Italy. The band is not a new name when the debut album is released, being around since 1983 and having previously recorded four demo tapes (from 1986-1994) in the Epic Power Metal style, long before the genre became a band-wagon to jump on. The band has been influenced, since day one, by the classic METAL sound, Heroic Fantasy and Sword’n’Sorcery novels, especially the books by English writer Michael Moorcock. Even if the debut album came out after a long time, waiting for the Italian scene to grow, the demo tapes are regarded as cult-underground releases. However, the line-up of the band drastically changed just before the cd and this recording was really a new start. The debut cd line-up of the group is Enrico Paoli on guitars, Riccardo Paoli on bass (the only ones left of the original line-up), Mimmo Palmiotta on drums (previously with Masterstroke and Death SS) and vocalist extraordinaire Morby (ex-Sabotage, one of the very first metal band in Italy). After the release of the album, Domine plays a lot of gigs, the best being the one at the "Italian Gods Of Metal Festival" and the one as support for Rage and Grave Digger.
Riccardo Iacono enters the band ..boards in September 1998 and with the new line-up Domine record "Dragonlord (Tales Of The Noble Steel)".
The album is recorded at New Sin Audio Design studio in 1999. The sound of the group is now a powerful mix of Epic and Power Heavy Metal, played with grandeur feeling and dramatic solemnity, a metal storm of dueling guitars, thundering tempo changes, soulful guitar solos and soaring vocals.
Domine signs a deal with Metal Blade for the release of "Dragonlord" in USA and the cd is licensed in Brazil, in Japan, Taiwan and Russia.
Enters new drummer Stefano Bonini, previously with extreme act Necromass, with whom he recorded 2 cds and toured Europe with Dark Funeral.
After the release of the album, the band begins live activity, playing a sold out gig in Athens, Greece, and undertaking their first European tour with Riot, Anvil and Agent Steel. The tour is called "Metallic Movement 2000" and traveled across Holland, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Italy, Switzerland, France and Spain.
The next big step for the band is being part of the bill of the Gods Of Metal Festival 2000, in Monza, THE metal event of year 2000 in Italy with Iron Maiden.
Domine plays at the Powermad 2000 Festival with Running Wild and Grave Digger and the Metal Gladiators 2000 Festival in Bologna with Gamma Ray and Freedom Call.
Domine enters New Sin Audio Design studios again in April 2001 to record their long awaited 3rd album. The result is "Stormbringer Ruler – The Legend of the Power Supreme". After the recording process the band plays as support for Rage and gets on prestigious stages like the ones of the Gods Of Metal Festival 2002 (with Manowar and Blind Guardian) and Wacken Open Air 2002 (on the True Metal stage). Domine plays in many national festivals like Italian Attack, a mini tour of 3 gigs with some Italian bands like Labyrinth and White Skull, and other summer festivals.
Domine enters the New Sin Audio Design studio for the fourth album "Emperor Of The Black Runes" in May 2003, after some months of writing and pre-production.
"Emperor Of The Black Runes" is another step forward for Domine, once again pushing the limits of the band’s style with a good balance of fast, classic heavy metal songs and long EPIC tracks. "The Aquilonia Suite", a track with excerpts from "Conan The Barbarian" soundtrack, gets an enthusiastic response from the amazing composer Basil Poledouris.
After 2 weeks from the end of the production sessions, Domine opens the third day of the huge Heineken Jammin’ Festival, with Iron Maiden as headliners. The festival is held inside the big formula 1 circuit in Imola with 100.000 people in 3 days. Domine performs in front of 40.000 enthusiastic fans and receives great reviews in all the metal magazines, which praise the band as one of the best Italian Metal bands.
The new album gets fantastic reviews and 3 covers on Italian mags.
The band plays at Gods Of Metal 2004 with the reformed Judas Priest and as support for Dream Theater.
It’s now time for the fifth release, "Ancient Spirit Rising".