Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
So evil its just downright disturbing..., May 22, 2003
Morbid Angel built a reputation for being one of the best, most innovative, and EVIL bands in all of death metal. As I sit here listening to this CD I get the feeling that Satan himself is lurking behind me... doesn't that just say something? Blasphemy all over. Just look at the cover!
Well, all of that aside, fortunately, Morbid Angel are VERY good at what they do. Pete Sandoval's drumming is as fast and brutal as it gets, with ultra-rapid heartbeat double-bass drums going throughout the entire CD. They are fastest at the beginning of the 6th track, "Dawn of the Angry" (which is the best song, by the way). If you are a drummer, then listen to this and you might learn something about true speed. Sandoval pushed extreme metal drumming to new heights ever since Morbid Angel broke into the scene. Bassists will also be happy with the work on this CD, which completes the rythym section with a devastating edge, giving the CD even more power.
Trey Azagthoth's (how do you pronounce that?) guitar work is just beyond amazing. It stands up to, if not beats, work by some of metal's best guitarists of all time, like Zakk Wylde, Randy Rhoades, and Kirk Hammet. Guitarists will drop a jaw at this overwhelmingly amazing work on his part, especially his otherworldly solos. Solos are EVERYWHERE on this album, and many metal purists will like this.
The vocals are typical death metal, with low-end, rumbling growls throughout most of the disc. I'm not a fan of death vocals, but I think they sound great when the music accompanies them perfectly. This is one of those cases. If a band can play as well as this, who cares about "amazing" vocals?
Overall, I found this to be an amazing thrill ride, NOT for the weak-hearted. Also, if you are a particulary religious person, don't buy it. Metalheads, drummers and guitarists will find this an amazing work, so check it out now. This disc has everything you could possibly want in a death metal album. From the opening of 'Dominate" to the sleepy closer "Hatework", this disc will crush you. But it's a good crush, ya know?P.S.: To Morbid Angel... personally I think that "Inquisition" would have made a better closer. Oh, well... it's still amazing!
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
a forgotten masterpiece, April 15, 2004
Underrated even by members of the band that created it, this cd is evidence that not even the musicians themselves are the best judges of their art. Trey Azagthtoth (guitarist/songwriter)is an excellent musician and very creative, but many of Morbid Angel's albums lack truly memorable songs. Great riffs and incredible drumming (from Pete Sandoval) abound, but songs that truly embed themselves in your mind and make your blood burn from beginning to end are never many. "Domination" is a masterful exception, and the best album Morbid Angel have ever written-- a brilliant combination of technical proficiency and raw, straightforward, great songwriting.
Extreme metal albums often suffer from having most of their songs centered on a similar theme. The result is a repetitve album that loses the interest of the listener. Morbid Angel's "Formulas Fatal to the Flesh" and "Gateways To Annihilation" both are partially guilty of this, but "Domination" blows this convention away. There is a track here for any kind of brutal music fan: the pounding brutality of "Dominate" and "Dawn of the Angry", the complex layers of "Nothing But Fear", the slow and sinister grinding and churning of "Where the Slime Live" and "Hatework"-- the album stays fresh and never wilts. Even the normally filler-quality Morbid Angel intrumentals are passable in "Melting" and "Dreaming."
Azagthoth and the excellent Erik Rutan (now of Hate Eternal) provide Morbid Angel's trademark 'firestorm' guitars in full force. The riffs are creative and powerful: you can almost smell brimstone in the assault of "Eyes to See, Ears to Hear" and "Dawn of the Angry." The two also provide an interesting contrast in their styles of lead guitar and soloing. Pete Sandoval's drumming ability is nothing short of legendary, and he carries every track with relentless but artful percussion. Perhaps the best part of all is the voice of the mighty David Vincent. Always one of the greatest voices in brutal music, his guttural roar here is matchless. He adopted a unique style for "Domination", demonic and powerful, but easily understood at the same time. Extreme or death metal vocals often just blend in with the music, their meaning inaudible and their impact weak. In "Domination" Vincent gives the voice a power of command above the music, and he lifts the whole album to inspiring triumph. My only criticisms: the drums are a bit more muted than they could be, and as Azagthoth has since stated, the production is a bit smoothed out, somewhat reining in what each musician brings to the tracks. Even so, what hurts each individual musician in a very small way often aids the songs themselves--making them more cohesive and more powerful by combination of efforts, rather than one person sticking out here or there.
"Domination" is Morbid Angel's magnum opus. It is in almost all respects an improvement and evolution from its predecessor, the excellent "Covenant," and brought the group to musical heights they have not since acheived. It is a high water mark not just for Morbid Angel, or even just for extreme metal, but for heavy music itself. In any case, "Domination" is an indispensable piece in any true heavy music collection.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
People on Metal Archives are nuts! This is a quality piece of death metal, June 30, 2006
Whenever I get an album and listen to it for the first time I always look at the reviews for it on Amazon and the Metal Archives to see what a variety of other metalheads thought of said album. For this album though I was pretty damn surprised at the response from them with review titles like "Dave Vincent flips you off with both hands", one person even gave it a 30% WTF? Are you kidding me people? This is another solid MA release! What's a little different about this is that it's more groove-oriented, overall slower and simpler than the previous 3 albums and Dave's vocals sometimes seem like they're being strained just a tad too much (but they're still cool). I've heard some people even say that if Pantera made a death metal album it would sound similar to this one. Well I don't know about that exactly...
This album has some particularly great MA tracks like the opener "Dominate", "Where the Slime Live" and the closer "Hatework". The first is a speedy assault to the dome that has Death Metal legends written all over it, "Slime" is a powerful sludgy groove metal number with the usual anti-religious lyrics. Hatework is perhaps their most unusual song with Dave's angriest vocals yet. It has nice slow plodding riffs accompanied by some sweet melodies involving the bells of Hell itself! Some might say it's sound is tribal-like and I can see that too, nevertheless it's f*ckin' awesome. However, what I cannot see is the reason why a supposed death metal fan (let alone a Morbid Angel fan) would not like this. True, it's not quite as good as the previous 3 albums but it's still far above average and if I gave it a grade I'd give it an A- or 91%. Hey I only deal with the best music so trust me on this one. That would explain why I seem to give everything 5 stars I don't even bother buying below average crap or even average.
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