Right from the moment a certain band from Birmingham adopted the title of the 1963 Boris Karloff movie Black Sabbath as their name, metal has gone hand in hand with horror.
The hottest rising horror metal band in recent years, DOMINUM, will release their debut album, “Hey Living People“, on December 29, 2023. Led by songwriter and producer Felix Heldt (Visions Of Atlantis and more) on vocals in the character of Dr. Dead, the band takes the living into the world of the undead – telling stories of zombies, survival and insatiable hunger for more, creating their own intense and captivating reality.
While marketed as ‘melodic power metal’, “Hey Living People” is in fact modern melodic hard rock / pop with an anthemic delivery and a strong ’80s feeling. As a proof, they offer here a cover of 1985’s Dead Or Alive synth-pop classic ‘You Spin Me Round’, and 1987’s Midnight Oil hit ‘Beds Are Burning’.
Catchier than a zombie plague but twice as much fun, curtain raiser “Immortalis Dominum” opens with ’80s synthwave keyboards and boasts the first of many ridiculously infectious choruses.
The upbeat “Danger Danger” and “Half Alive” sound like Ghost (the band) with more hooks than a Hellraiser cenobite while the moodier title track possesses another instantly accessible chorus and a creepy melody that sounds suspiciously like the theme music to 1980 Italian flesh-eater flick Nightmare City. A coincidence? No, probably not.
More in common with classic ’80s Pop Rock than the Brutal Death Metal it suggests, the irresistible “Cannibal Corpses” is an “I Just Died in Your Arms”-style bite straight to the jugular.
“Patient Zero” is another riff-heavy monster featuring Within Temptation-style choral backing and an all too easily transmissible chorus while the wickedly tongue in cheek lyrics of “We All Taste The Same” come from the same school as Alice Cooper.
The lurching stomp of “Frankenstein” leads into a seriously pumped-up version of “You Spin Me Right Round (Like a Record).”
Quite how a song which such bleak lyrical content can be so cheerful and bouncy is something only “Better Shoot Yourself” can answer before the band bow out with the Lordi-esque “The Chosen Ones” and bonus tracks in the shape of Billie Eilish’s “Bad Guy” and “Beds are Burning” by Aussie rockers Midnight Oil.
Arriving so late in the day, “Hey Living People” is likely to leave a number of meticulously compiled and finalised best of 2023 debut album lists in nothing but tatters.
But, late entry or not, welcome to the party. Your hosts are Herbert West, Victor Frankenstein, and a horde of re-animated corpses.
Highly Recommended
1. Immortalis Dominum
2. Danger Danger
3. Hey Living People
4. Cannibal Corpses
5. Patient Zero
6. We All Taste the Same
7. Frankenstein
8. You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)
9. Better Shoot Yourself
10. Half Alive
11. The Chosen Ones
12. Bad Guy
13. Beds are Burning
Dr. Dead – Vocals
Patient Zero – Bass
Victor – Drums
Tommy – Guitars