Dark Domination
Encyclopedia
Dark Domination is a black metal
band of Latvian origin, active since 1996. To the date, Dark Domination have released three full-length albums, one extended play
, one compilation of demo tapes and one full-length show on video, and have toured Northern and Eastern Europe. Dark Domination also have experimented with drone doom genre and ambient sounds on various albums.
was released in 2001 on Latvian underground label Beverīna in collaboration with German
label Ketzer Records (later the debut album was re-released by Portuguese
Hallucination 'Zine as a limited edition tape in 1000 copies with new artwork). The band also began to play shows in different countries.
2004 saw the release of demo tape … Of Hate & Blood — compilation of various demos from previous years that had not appeared on Blasphemy album. The compilation was released by Illegal Angel Productions (Greece
).
In 2005, the CD Let Satan Speak Through Our Lips
was released by I.N.R.I. Records (France) along with live show God's Tormentors: Live in Czech Republic
(filmed during 2005 Apocalypse Festival in Czech Republic
). The video was released on VHS and is not available anymore; the album Let Satan Speak Through Our Lips
was later re-released with altered artwork by Russia
n label Witchcraft Productions in 2007 and is still available. Also, available is the next LP Rebellion 666
that was released in 2006 via Evil Distribution. The latest release is an EP Reign of the Fallen One
(2008) on Japan
ese label Sabbathid Records.
Initially, Lord Messir had difficulties to find serious bandmates to play extreme black metal, as Latvian underground metal scene in early and mid-1990s consisted mostly of death
, thrash
and pagan metal
bands (Skyforger
is known today best of them outside Latvia). First line-up capable of playing live shows consisted of Lord Messir, Lodbrok (guitars, backing vocals), Eligor (bass) and Frostmourn (drums). After the death of Frostmourn (06/08/2004; he was found hanged in the forest) the drumming duties were taken over by Midgard (drums, occasional clean vocals). This line-up recorded Let Satan Speak Through Our Lips, God's Tormentors and Rebellion 666, however, Lodbrok quit and was replaced by lead guitarist Halpas. They wrote the latest EP Reign of the Fallen One with guest appearances of Uruk-Hai (released by Japanese label Sabbathid Records). The last line-up change was Dethecrator stepping in for bass and backing vocals.
Although Lord Messir remains the creative engine for the band, he does not bear sole responsibility for Dark Domination's music anymore. All members are contributing to songwriting and recording.
Currently (as of September 2009) Dark Domination are headlining Black Magic Tour in Estonia
(together with Estonian openers Viirastus and fellow Latvian band Ocularis Infernum). The band is also finishing the songwriting for their new album Chariots of the Gods
(TBA 2010).
drumming and shrieked/growled vocals. Most of the songs involves unpredictable changes of tempo and rhythm. Lyrical content includes anti-religious
, agnostic, misanthropic, nihilistic
, heretic
and Satanist topics that are typical for the Second Wave black metal.
Dark Domination uses B.C. Rich
and Jackson guitars
along with Washburn
six-string bass. All their songs are in standard guitar tuning (e'bgdAE) and are played with heavy distortion
, although the bass is tuned down to CGDAEA. The only effects in use are distortion pedals for guitars and hall effect for lead vocal on live shows. Acoustic guitars, organ and clean backing vocals are used occasionally on the recordings (on live shows all the backing vocals are growled
, with an only exception for the chorus line of the track "Servants of the Black Art").
Their music is notable for total lack of guitar solos, despite most tracks being 5 to 8 minutes long. In their live shows, Dark Domination uses a vast variety of pre-recorded intros and fillers between the songs.
Beyond the Gates of Hell that lasts approximately half an hour. The composition was split in 8 parts and appears in the album as intro and fillers between songs. Similar approach have been used on album Rebellion 666, however, the droning composition bears no name.
Bagpipes on track "War March Against Christianity" off the CD Rebellion 666 are played by Kaspars Bārbals (member of pagan metal band Skyforger
and folk pipe band
Auļi).
On album Let Satan Speak Through Our Lips, the closing track "Isanda Teenistuses" is written and recorded in collaboration with Estonian folk/black metaller Ahto-Lembit "Lembetu" Lehtmets of Loits
. Additionally, Lembetu has provided guest vocals on Rebellion 666 bonus track "Edasi, Saatana Lapsed" (the song actually is the same as title track of the album, only the lyrics are translated and sung in Estonian).
On the latest EP, Reign of the Fallen One, there are a symphonic intro "Venus Rising" and outro "Angel Enthroned". Both are written and recorded by Hugin of Austrian black ambient project Uruk-Hai.
, Wales
, United Kingdom
as one of his conceptual works in visual art.
As typical for their genre, Dark Domination uses corpsepaint while performing live. The members of the band are known only by their stage names, and their true identities are known only by close friends. This is not just due to almost 30-year tradition of the black metal genre: all the members of Dark Domination are working-class people and they are keeping the distance between their day jobs and underground scene of counter culture to avoid any possible disturbing interferences to the music. (Destructive Christian sectarians recently have burned and destroyed Latvian national folklore books just for the cause of «being non-Christian» and also have threatened press before. If the sectarians found out existence of Satanist black metal in Latvia there would be actual risk of erupting a bloody riot.)
Dark Domination is one of the oldest Latvian bands that have recorded and performed continuously over years with no hiatus. Despite this fact, in the recent years the band has performed in their homeland just twice. This have earned wrong reputation for Dark Domination among some of their fellow Latvian metalheads that the band considers themselves 'too good for playing in their own country'. As explained by Lord Messir, "we are ready to play a show whenever and wherever we are asked for, and we highly appreciate all the metal fans in our country. The problem is that Latvian circuit of metal music is very small, knowing that overall population of Latvia is just 2 millions, and the grassroots market of live metal shows is virtually controlled by one company. If you have no good relationship to them, they simply don't ask you to join in for their shows. We can, of course, try to start alternate show circuit in Latvian alternative underground culture but it would generate only financial loss and — unfortunately — we're not rich enough and we cannot afford it."
Black metal
Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, shrieked vocals, highly distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, blast beat drumming, raw recording, and unconventional song structure....
band of Latvian origin, active since 1996. To the date, Dark Domination have released three full-length albums, one extended play
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
, one compilation of demo tapes and one full-length show on video, and have toured Northern and Eastern Europe. Dark Domination also have experimented with drone doom genre and ambient sounds on various albums.
History
The band was created by Lord Messir (vocals, guitar, occasional keyboards) in 1996 under name Domination and initially emerged as one-man death metal project. On the next year Lord Messir switched to black metal, renaming his project to Dark Domination and asking different session musicians to join the project, although full line-up was assembled only after year 2000. After recordings of various demos, debut album BlasphemyBlasphemy (album)
Blasphemy is the debut LP by Latvian black metal band Dark Domination. The album's sound is raw and underproduced, being typical for Second Wave Black Metal...
was released in 2001 on Latvian underground label Beverīna in collaboration with German
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
label Ketzer Records (later the debut album was re-released by Portuguese
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
Hallucination 'Zine as a limited edition tape in 1000 copies with new artwork). The band also began to play shows in different countries.
2004 saw the release of demo tape … Of Hate & Blood — compilation of various demos from previous years that had not appeared on Blasphemy album. The compilation was released by Illegal Angel Productions (Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
).
In 2005, the CD Let Satan Speak Through Our Lips
Let Satan Speak Through Our Lips
Let Satan Speak Through Our Lips is the second LP and third overall release by Latvian black metal band Dark Domination. The album's sound makes notable difference from first album Blasphemy and their compilation of demo tapes … Of Hate and Blood: this album features clear and elaborate sound,...
was released by I.N.R.I. Records (France) along with live show God's Tormentors: Live in Czech Republic
God's Tormentors: Live in Czech Republic
God's Tormentors: Live in Czech Republic is a concert video by Latvian black metal band Dark Domination. It was released by French underground label I.N.R.I. Records in VHS format and is not available anymore....
(filmed during 2005 Apocalypse Festival in Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
). The video was released on VHS and is not available anymore; the album Let Satan Speak Through Our Lips
Let Satan Speak Through Our Lips
Let Satan Speak Through Our Lips is the second LP and third overall release by Latvian black metal band Dark Domination. The album's sound makes notable difference from first album Blasphemy and their compilation of demo tapes … Of Hate and Blood: this album features clear and elaborate sound,...
was later re-released with altered artwork by Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n label Witchcraft Productions in 2007 and is still available. Also, available is the next LP Rebellion 666
Rebellion 666
Rebellion 666 is the third full-length album by Latvian black metal band Dark Domination. It was written and recorded during the winter of 2005/2006 and released on May 31, 2006, via Evil Distribution — the first-ever Dark Domination's release on a Latvian label .-Musical style and...
that was released in 2006 via Evil Distribution. The latest release is an EP Reign of the Fallen One
Reign of the Fallen One
Reign of the Fallen One is currently the latest release by Latvian black metal band Dark Domination. It is an EP written in collaboration with Austrian black ambient mastermind Hugin of his one-man project Uruk-Hai...
(2008) on Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese label Sabbathid Records.
Initially, Lord Messir had difficulties to find serious bandmates to play extreme black metal, as Latvian underground metal scene in early and mid-1990s consisted mostly of death
Death metal
Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It typically employs heavily distorted guitars, tremolo picking, deep growling vocals, blast beat drumming, minor keys or atonality, and complex song structures with multiple tempo changes....
, thrash
Thrash metal
Thrash metal is a subgenre of heavy metal that is characterized usually by its fast tempo and aggression. Songs of the genre typically use fast percussive and low-register guitar riffs, overlaid with shredding-style lead work...
and pagan metal
Pagan metal
Pagan metal is an umbrella term for heavy metal music which fuses extreme metal with "the pre-Christian traditions of a specific culture or region through thematic concept, rustic melodies, unusual instruments or archaic languages", usually referring to folk metal or black metal. The Norwegian band...
bands (Skyforger
Skyforger
Skyforger is a heavy metal band from Latvia which was formed in 1995 out of the remains of doom metal band Grindmaster Dead. Most of their songs are about pagan gods and warfare; they also play traditional Latvian folk songs and metal covers. Although Skyforger is known for their folk metal, their...
is known today best of them outside Latvia). First line-up capable of playing live shows consisted of Lord Messir, Lodbrok (guitars, backing vocals), Eligor (bass) and Frostmourn (drums). After the death of Frostmourn (06/08/2004; he was found hanged in the forest) the drumming duties were taken over by Midgard (drums, occasional clean vocals). This line-up recorded Let Satan Speak Through Our Lips, God's Tormentors and Rebellion 666, however, Lodbrok quit and was replaced by lead guitarist Halpas. They wrote the latest EP Reign of the Fallen One with guest appearances of Uruk-Hai (released by Japanese label Sabbathid Records). The last line-up change was Dethecrator stepping in for bass and backing vocals.
Although Lord Messir remains the creative engine for the band, he does not bear sole responsibility for Dark Domination's music anymore. All members are contributing to songwriting and recording.
Currently (as of September 2009) Dark Domination are headlining Black Magic Tour in Estonia
Estonia
Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
(together with Estonian openers Viirastus and fellow Latvian band Ocularis Infernum). The band is also finishing the songwriting for their new album Chariots of the Gods
Chariots of the Gods (album)
Chariots of the Gods is the next album by Latvian black metal band Dark Domination that will be released somewhere in 2010.-Songwriting:...
(TBA 2010).
Music
The band's sound is characterized by complex, elaborate song structures with fast, dissonant chord sequences on irritating scales, extreme blast beatBlast beat
A blast beat is a drum beat often associated with extreme metal and grindcore, although its usage predates the genres, and is utilised by many different styles of metal...
drumming and shrieked/growled vocals. Most of the songs involves unpredictable changes of tempo and rhythm. Lyrical content includes anti-religious
Antireligion
Antireligion is opposition to religion. Antireligion is distinct from atheism and antitheism , although antireligionists may be atheists or antitheists...
, agnostic, misanthropic, nihilistic
Nihilism
Nihilism is the philosophical doctrine suggesting the negation of one or more putatively meaningful aspects of life. Most commonly, nihilism is presented in the form of existential nihilism which argues that life is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value...
, heretic
Heresy
Heresy is a controversial or novel change to a system of beliefs, especially a religion, that conflicts with established dogma. It is distinct from apostasy, which is the formal denunciation of one's religion, principles or cause, and blasphemy, which is irreverence toward religion...
and Satanist topics that are typical for the Second Wave black metal.
Dark Domination uses B.C. Rich
B.C. Rich
B.C. Rich is a manufacturer of guitars and bass guitars founded by the late Bernardo Chavez Rico in 1969. Currently, most B.C. Rich guitars are manufactured in Asia, but luthiers of the company's custom shop continue to hand-make instruments. The Hanser Music Group, based in Kentucky, operates B.C....
and Jackson guitars
Jackson Guitars
__FORCETOC__Jackson is a renowned brand of electric guitar that bears the name of its founder, Grover Jackson.-Early years:Grover Jackson obtained ownership in Charvel's Guitar Repair of Glendora, California in the 1970s with a promise to bolster Charvel's business...
along with Washburn
Washburn
Washburn is an uncommon surname of English origins.The WashburnW166pro In Blue is considered the rarest colour!!...
six-string bass. All their songs are in standard guitar tuning (e'bgdAE) and are played with heavy distortion
Distortion (guitar)
Distortion effects create "warm", "dirty" and "fuzzy" sounds by compressing the peaks of a musical instrument's sound wave and adding overtones. The three principal types of distortion effects are overdrive, distortion and fuzz. Distortion effects are sometimes called “gain” effects, as distorted...
, although the bass is tuned down to CGDAEA. The only effects in use are distortion pedals for guitars and hall effect for lead vocal on live shows. Acoustic guitars, organ and clean backing vocals are used occasionally on the recordings (on live shows all the backing vocals are growled
Death growl
A death growl, also known as death metal vocals, guttural vocals, death grunts, and harsh vocals among other names, is a vocalisation style usually employed by vocalists of the death metal and black metal music genre, but also used in a variety of heavy metal and hardcore punk subgenres.Death...
, with an only exception for the chorus line of the track "Servants of the Black Art").
Their music is notable for total lack of guitar solos, despite most tracks being 5 to 8 minutes long. In their live shows, Dark Domination uses a vast variety of pre-recorded intros and fillers between the songs.
Experiments and collaborations
On their album Let Satan Speak Through Our Lips the band have experimented with drone doom sound to create droning instrumental soundscapeSoundscape
A soundscape is a sound or combination of sounds that forms or arises from an immersive environment. The study of soundscape is the subject of acoustic ecology...
Beyond the Gates of Hell that lasts approximately half an hour. The composition was split in 8 parts and appears in the album as intro and fillers between songs. Similar approach have been used on album Rebellion 666, however, the droning composition bears no name.
Bagpipes on track "War March Against Christianity" off the CD Rebellion 666 are played by Kaspars Bārbals (member of pagan metal band Skyforger
Skyforger
Skyforger is a heavy metal band from Latvia which was formed in 1995 out of the remains of doom metal band Grindmaster Dead. Most of their songs are about pagan gods and warfare; they also play traditional Latvian folk songs and metal covers. Although Skyforger is known for their folk metal, their...
and folk pipe band
Pipe band
A pipe band is a musical ensemble consisting of pipers and drummers. The term used by military pipe bands, pipes and drums, is also common....
Auļi).
On album Let Satan Speak Through Our Lips, the closing track "Isanda Teenistuses" is written and recorded in collaboration with Estonian folk/black metaller Ahto-Lembit "Lembetu" Lehtmets of Loits
Loits
Loits is a black metal band from Estonia. They started out with rather straightforward pagan black metal, but have changed into national romantic black metal and militant extreme metal in latter albums. They call their brand of music "flak 'n' roll" because of its war-themed lyrics and rock 'n'...
. Additionally, Lembetu has provided guest vocals on Rebellion 666 bonus track "Edasi, Saatana Lapsed" (the song actually is the same as title track of the album, only the lyrics are translated and sung in Estonian).
On the latest EP, Reign of the Fallen One, there are a symphonic intro "Venus Rising" and outro "Angel Enthroned". Both are written and recorded by Hugin of Austrian black ambient project Uruk-Hai.
Artwork, corpsepaint and stage names
The artwork is created and directed by French painter Antonin Delas, who is a long-term collaborator of Dark Domination. Delas' paintings for all the album covers are monochrome — every album in different basic colour (Let Satan Speak Through Our Lips is dark red, Reign of the Fallen One — green, Rebellion 666 — orange; black and white covers of debut album Blasphemy and early demo tapes are not created by Delas). Let Satan Speak Through Our Lips album was exposed at Delas' personal exhibitions in SwanseaSwansea
Swansea is a coastal city and county in Wales. Swansea is in the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan. Situated on the sandy South West Wales coast, the county area includes the Gower Peninsula and the Lliw uplands...
, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
as one of his conceptual works in visual art.
As typical for their genre, Dark Domination uses corpsepaint while performing live. The members of the band are known only by their stage names, and their true identities are known only by close friends. This is not just due to almost 30-year tradition of the black metal genre: all the members of Dark Domination are working-class people and they are keeping the distance between their day jobs and underground scene of counter culture to avoid any possible disturbing interferences to the music. (Destructive Christian sectarians recently have burned and destroyed Latvian national folklore books just for the cause of «being non-Christian» and also have threatened press before. If the sectarians found out existence of Satanist black metal in Latvia there would be actual risk of erupting a bloody riot.)
Trivia
Members of Dark Domination are maintaining straight anti-drug attitude and are consuming no alcoholic beverages over rehearsals, recordings and even before the shows or on stage because of wanting, according to Dethecrator, "… to give out the energy by 666 per cent!" With tongue-in-cheek, this approach has been mentioned by other bands as «kosher attitude».Dark Domination is one of the oldest Latvian bands that have recorded and performed continuously over years with no hiatus. Despite this fact, in the recent years the band has performed in their homeland just twice. This have earned wrong reputation for Dark Domination among some of their fellow Latvian metalheads that the band considers themselves 'too good for playing in their own country'. As explained by Lord Messir, "we are ready to play a show whenever and wherever we are asked for, and we highly appreciate all the metal fans in our country. The problem is that Latvian circuit of metal music is very small, knowing that overall population of Latvia is just 2 millions, and the grassroots market of live metal shows is virtually controlled by one company. If you have no good relationship to them, they simply don't ask you to join in for their shows. We can, of course, try to start alternate show circuit in Latvian alternative underground culture but it would generate only financial loss and — unfortunately — we're not rich enough and we cannot afford it."
Discography
- BlasphemyBlasphemy (album)Blasphemy is the debut LP by Latvian black metal band Dark Domination. The album's sound is raw and underproduced, being typical for Second Wave Black Metal...
(LP, 2001; re-issued 2003) - … Of Hate & Blood (compilation of demo tapes, 2004)
- Let Satan Speak Through Our LipsLet Satan Speak Through Our LipsLet Satan Speak Through Our Lips is the second LP and third overall release by Latvian black metal band Dark Domination. The album's sound makes notable difference from first album Blasphemy and their compilation of demo tapes … Of Hate and Blood: this album features clear and elaborate sound,...
(LP, 2005; re-issued 2007) - God's Tormentors: Live in Czech RepublicGod's Tormentors: Live in Czech RepublicGod's Tormentors: Live in Czech Republic is a concert video by Latvian black metal band Dark Domination. It was released by French underground label I.N.R.I. Records in VHS format and is not available anymore....
(live show on video, 2005) - Rebellion 666Rebellion 666Rebellion 666 is the third full-length album by Latvian black metal band Dark Domination. It was written and recorded during the winter of 2005/2006 and released on May 31, 2006, via Evil Distribution — the first-ever Dark Domination's release on a Latvian label .-Musical style and...
(LP, 2006) - Reign of the Fallen OneReign of the Fallen OneReign of the Fallen One is currently the latest release by Latvian black metal band Dark Domination. It is an EP written in collaboration with Austrian black ambient mastermind Hugin of his one-man project Uruk-Hai...
(EP, 2008) - Chariots of the Gods (TBA)
Members
- Lord Messir – vocals, guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, keyboardsKeyboard instrumentA keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
, samplingSampling (music)In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...
(1996 – present) - Halpas – lead guitar (since 2007)
- Dethecrator – bass, brutal and clean backing vocals (live) (since 2009)
- MidgardMidgardMidgard is one of the Nine Worlds and is an old Germanic name for our world and is the home of Humans, with the literal meaning "middle enclosure".-Etymology:...
- drums, clean vocals (on recordings) (since 2003)
Former members
- Lodbrok – guitars, backing vocals (1999–2006)
- Frostmourn — drums (2004)
- Eligor — bass (2003 — 2009)
- G. — drums (1997 — 1998)