Serpentine Dominion – Serpentine Dominion

serpentine_dominion_-_serpentine_dominion  I feel confident in saying that of all the new bands to have come out this year, none have faced a greater amount of both anticipation and contempt than Serpentine Dominion. Their debut album has even come out yet, but it’s already garnered much undeserved criticism from people who’ve only heard the two currently released tracks of the record, but there’s so much to be heard from this super group. I was personally expecting all nine tracks to be of straight, blistering death metal of Cannibal Corpse mixed with the genius musicianship from guys behind Killswitch Engage and The Black Dahlia Murder to switch things up. And while that still rings true, there’s one thing that I was not expecting – clean vocals. Now, they’re not in every song that Serpentine Dominion have to offer, but they still come in often enough in multiple forms to where I can happily sit back and tell you the two tremendously different vocal styles work very well together. I understand many people won’t agree with that, but I’m telling you Serpentine Dominion doesn’t give a flying f**k about what you think because they’ve made this band for the best reason, to begin with: for fun. What’s a cooler reason for three highly respected musicians to make a band together with other than “because we wanted to”? Nothing, that’s what. It’s also very neat to see how these guys are coming together to do a style of metal that is both very familiar, yet different in many ways including the theme. Neither Cannibal CorpseThe Black Dahlia Murder, or Killswitch Engage have done material concerning the corruption of government and all related topics, so in many ways for Serpentine Dominion acts as a brand new fresh wave for both the band members and listeners. Every single piece of material that comes flowing out of this record are simply phenomenal because everything about it packs a million fiery punches and pulls absolutely none of them for maximum effect, and in the end comes out this pulsing mass of intensity that just keeps on giving with each and every listen. If you’ve liked what Serpentine Dominion has demonstrated so far, you’ll absolutely want to check out the full record. If you haven’t, I suggest giving the full album a chance and if you don’t like it – then worry not because given the band members’ extremely busy schedules a follow-up album won’t come for years. And in that time they will have surely improved, but I find you can’t improve greatness other than making it perfection, and that’s how I feel about Serpentine Dominion. A fiery new band that shows much talent still lies in well-known musicians, I’m very happy to see the end result of years of waiting has become absolute magnificence.

“Serpentine Dominion” releases on October 28th! You can pre-order the album via iTunes here and stream the two single on Bandcamp here.

Track Listing:

  1. Intro
  2. The Vengeance in Me
  3. Vanquished Unto Thee
  4. Divide, Conquer, Burn, Destroy
  5. Sovereign Hate
  6. On the Brink of Devastation
  7. Jagged Cross Legions
  8. Prelude
  9. This Endless War