Dominant are a Norwegian technical death metal band and this is their debut EP.
This is a 20-minute EP showcasing Dominant’s own brand of death metal. What does it sound like? Well, it’s clinical, precise, technical, and devastatingly brutal.
Being caught in Dominant’s orbit is like being torn to shreds by competing gravitational forces. Heavy and aggressive, the music on The Summoning is fierce and nasty.
This is a controlled savagery, however. The band clearly have a tight grip on the reins of the beast they have created, making sure that it bends to their will at every turn. This is music that certainly has a technical component, but not in an overpowering, chaotic sense, as can be the case with some bands’ output. Here, rather, the technicality is put to use servicing the needs of the core brutality of the band, which in turn fuels the overarching song.
Which brings us to the ultimate reason for Dominant’s existence; to provide the listener with face-smashing death metal songs. Technical and brutal they may be, but songs they still are. As they’re composed with this in mind more than anything else, it means that we don’t get barraged with inaccessible technicality for the sake of it, nor mind-numbing brutality the likes of which it’s easy to tire of. No, Dominant have essentially crafted some classic death metal songs that have been dressed up in technicality, modern brutality, and a surgical production. As such, The Summoning is an extremely enjoyable release.
Check this band out.
