Immortal Dominion - Awakening

Colorado’s Immortal Dominion harkens back to an older sound – the mid-’90s thrash/death of Pantera, Machine Head, and so on. This is distinctly second-tier stuff (think Pissing Razors), though I don’t mean that as a diss; only a few bands can be top-tier, after all. It’s just that the riffs and their execution have a certain simplicity and crudity that’s immediately evident. The vocals alternate among growls, screams, and cleans, and the latter two can grate at times.

Despite all this, I rather enjoy this CD, as the riffs are great. Sure, they’re not that complicated, but I invariably find myself nodding my head to these grooves. Writing strong, physical riffs is somewhat of a lost art, and these guys have it down cold.

This album really could have used a producer. 14 tracks of disjointed, though solid, riffs could easily have been 10 tight, focused songs. Some tracks near the end have bizarre, seemingly random fluctuations between clean/acoustic tones and distorted riffs. I can’t stress the quality of the riffs enough, though, and the occasional blastbeat or discordant harmony nicely updates the sound. Dave Otero, who did Cephalic Carnage’s Anomalies, turns in a fine mix and mastering job. Awakening is available from Fist Music.