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Aeturnus Dominion - Semper Tyranis |
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DOWNLOAD: Global Cremation Suicide Meathook
Hail Metal
I had never heard of
this band till recently hence had no expectation of the quality of
their music. After I downloaded a couple of songs from their
website my initial impression was that of greatness. I promptly
emailed Ted Foster (lead guitar.vocals) and requested that he send
me a CD for review ASAP. I absolutely had to listen to this CD,
and as a fan of every real metal genre I can tell you why!
Aeturnus Dominion hails from the Central Coast of Australia and are relative newcomers forming in 2003. However they are by no means rookies and in fact most of the members have histories in other bands. In recent times Australia has attracted more attention from overseas audiences than in the past mainly due to bands such as Aeturnus Dominion, which are in my opinion one of the best new bands to come out in recent times. These guys can play very brutal death metal, dubbed by the band as bastard metal due to it being a mixture of thrash, death and black metal. If that isn’t impressive enough, then the excellent album cover art is sure to make you drool. The most prominent of the genres in this bastard metal band was death with an intricate thrash flare. The album kicks off with the track ‘Holocaust’ a fairly blackened track and incidentally the heaviest on the album. From the word go the album portrays KILLER BASTARD METAL with pretty neat guitar solo’s pulled off quite nicely by Ted. Spud on the rhythm guitar compliments brilliantly with non stop riffing mayhem. The barrage of mayhem continues with every tune and 'God Has Failed' which is one of my favorites is just pure destruction. The third tune slows it down a fraction with its introduction, but don’t let that fool you as the song momentum picks up instantaneously in a manner that only a thrash song would generate. It is well worth noting here that the guitar riffs are fairly genuine. I thought that the initial chorus would lead somewhere with its somewhat repetitive screams but instead I felt that they just failed to create anything solid, if you like, in this particular verse. Overall I dub this album a very good release because it truly lets you sample the uniqueness of what this band has to offer. I will let you discover the other tunes yourself but let me tell you that NOTHING on this album is even remotely close to sounding bad. Due to the variety of styles combined in Aeturnus Dominion ‘s sound metal fans of only one of those genres may very well love this album. I urge you all to visit the bands website and get this CD, even if you are only just getting into metal
What an amazing band
!!! This guys are really difficult to label because they have in
equal parts heavy metal influences and death metal ones combining
them into the same compositions. that is why "Holocaust" opens up
with a heavy/thrash riff and killer vocals and soon turn into a
faster part with death metal growling !! And this combination is
the trademark of the band.
Tracks like "Aeturnus Dominion" open with clean guitars and show a different side of the musical personality of this amazing band soon changing into a heavier part, with more deathly growling. The rhythms are sometimes more syncopated and sometimes faster, depending on the feeling that the composition must have There are guitar solos here that are tastefully played giving more melody to the music with a lot of feeling. The sound is huge specially on the guitars that are the essence here making this record a crushing experience.
AETURNUS
DOMINION play an interesting blend of mid to late 80's thrash,
early 90's death metal, and more current death metal elements.
Considering guitarist Demented had a traumatic accident which
resulted in removal of fingers from his right hand, and he's still
playing, you have to give these guys respect for their hard work
and perseverance. This album is actually a re-release of the
original 2004 album. These guys dub themselves as "bastard
metal", which is an appropriate term for a band that draws from so
many styles. All the songs on this album are good, there was
not one I felt like skipping over. I recommend this album to
fans of EXODUS, OVERKILL, OBITUARY, DARK ANGEL, HIRAX, POSSESSED,
SODOM, and KREATOR. Keep going guys! Rating: 8 /10
This album has been
out for a while now, but as it is about to be re-released I
thought that it was well past time for a review. Aeturnus Dominion
play a bastardised style of metal that mingles elements of death,
black, traditional/power metal and grind into an invigoratingly
chaotic mess that just works so damn well - at times seemingly
against all odds. The arrangements are varied and intricate and
the band has the enviable ability to successfully combine
vicious, misanthropic blasts and rasps with abyssal grooves and
growls, not to mention fabulous epic traditional riffs and
classic soaring vocals - usually in the space of 30 seconds.
Tracks like the Priest-meets-Obituary title track, the Cannibal
Corpse-y groove of Meathook and opening groove-grind barnstormer
of Holocaust get me every time. Sure the production's down and
dirty, but so are Aeturnus Dominion in the best possible way.
It’s not so easy to
classify Aeturnus Dominion, a new band that comes from the land of
the Kangaroos, but let me tell you something, we are in for a
really good surprise!!! Between Hard Rock, Heavy and above all
Death Metal, Aeturnus Dominion plays an excellent and original
Metal that will find, I really hope it, a well-deserved success.
Aeturnus Dominion is really original, just imagine some Heavy Metal (riffs, voices etc) that can even sounds “Hard Rock” in reason of the “bluesy” overdrive of the guitars on some tracks mixed with the violence of Death Metal. This is actually in some few words a good sum-up of the music of this excellent band from Australia. It’s not easy to find original bands nowadays but for sure we are in front of something here. The nine songs of this debut album are all excellent, and it’s nice to see that Heavy Metal and Death Metal can be mixed like that. “Holocaust” with its “fight” between the classic Heavy Metal vocals and Death Metal grunts is a good example of the music of the band. At the opposite, “Meathook” is a pure Death Metal composition, with fast aggressive drums and powerful aggressive riffs. The production is actually the only negative point of the album. Actually the recording is a bit average, I regret, but it’s not terrible and it’s easy at least to listen to the music of the album. Let’s just hope that Aeturnus Dominion will have the luck to record their upcoming album with some more professional means. I really recommend you “Semper Tyranis” the excellent first album of the Australian band Aeturnus Dominion. If you like Death metal and have enough of the European mix between Power Metal and Death vocals, you must have a look on this album that sounds “true” Death on a hand and “true” Heavy on the other. Really surprising I won’t forget Aeturnus Dominion and hope that we will hear about them soon. Rock N Roll !!!
The look of the demo
Aeturnus Dominion submitted, Semper Tyranis, is very slick and
good-looking, but there is a huge information gap. The envelope
contained just the disc in a simple case: no letter or note, no
bio, nada. I know the guy who sent this in reads the site,
therefore he should have known that we always include the names of
the band members and where they are from - so how about including
it? Aeturnus Dominion used glossy paper and a decent printer to
make their cover with full color art and even a photo of the band,
with a nice label for the cd as well. This all contributed to it
being chosen for today's review.
Aeturnus Dominion most certainly did not lead off the record with their strongest song, in my opinion. While the opening short scream is a fair Halford-esque impersonation, the clean vocal that follows is just awful. He does a very nice death growl and even a fair thrash thing (assuming it is all the same guy - it doesn't tell me) but when he tries to turn melodic, things all far apart. Don't make me hate the singer right off the bat like that, particularly when it is one of the few songs in which he does this. However, that is my sole complaint in regard to the musicianship. The guitar solos in particular, are quite stunning, and the overall songwriting is interesting enough to hold your attention. I would classify them as death metal with strong thrash overtones. They call themselves "Aussie Bastard Metal" - which sounds clever and at least tells me where they're from, but this is exactly the kind of vague descriptor I'm telling you not to use. For a demo, the production is quite good. Yes, I have issues with the drum sound, but the recording as a whole is not the muddled muck it easily could have been, so they get big points for that. This is also a very important factor for all demos - poor production may be the norm for demos, but that is all the more reason to avoid it. Everyone knows that in this day and age there is really no excuse for poor production, so be "troo," "kvlt," or "underground" at your own risk. Fuzz is a fast track to the circular file. Aeturnus Dominion have turned in an impressive cd. And here we come to the crux of it all - because of this, I will be more amenable to the next thing they send in. And that, is the most important thing your demo should be expected to achieve: getting your next one listened to. You may get some positive reviews and pick up some new fans, but it generally takes several demos before a label will pick up a band, so you should always be thinking about the next one. So don't rest on your laurels, ya bastards, send in another.
I absolutely didn’t
know this act before and with such a moniker (stupidly Aeturnus
Dominion reminds me Solitude Aeturnus) I was expecting old school
doom metal. On the other side with a label such as Grindhead
Records you can perhaps wait for sick grind gore music. Eventually
heavy death thrash metal is the music we have here. It’s a mix
between the eighties heavy thrash and nineties mid-paced death
metal styles, neither really fitting into the stereotypes of
either. The vocal works also compliment the band’s musical duality
alternating clear lines with more efficient deep growled parts.
Some songs also feature a more old school thrash metal spirit. My
preference definitely goes to the old fashioned mid paced death
metal stuff but that’s my personal taste. Semper Tyranis is
actually quite good but for my opinion, Aeturnus Dominion need to
find a real guideline as the guttural vocal lines shall disturb
the nowadays power heavy metal listeners and most of the death
aficionados shall find it completely tasteless. Make your own
opinion.
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