Manifestium

Item: The Dawn of Domination
Author: D_Lister

The Dawn of Domination

(1997)

Reviewed by D_Lister

Discogs YouTube

Label independentDead Zine1997

black metal death metal progressive metal

I ran across this tape recently and had to pick it up. It was without a case or an insert, but according to the website, it comes from 1997 and is a 6 song promo tape Manifestium put out. There are a lot of really good things about this tape, I just don't know where to start reviewing it. Let's start with a description of the sound, atmospheric progressive death/black metal. There that covers it.

Track one called 'Solitude' starts up and really gets going with some fast guitar work and a couple of shouts from the vocalist. The drums come in blast beating their way through as the song really takes full force and lyrics are sung. The vocal approach switches from growl to black shriek frequently and effects are used pretty much throughout the entire tape. Here they are echoed and without a lyrics sheet the echo makes it completely impossible to decipher the words. Still the music on this song really balances out to be a mid-paced progressive death sound.

The next track 'Swan' pretty much slows down and the vocals become more sung with the vocalists heavy Finnish accent becoming clear, still effects are put on the vocals usually an echo. Track three is called 'Kehrääjä' and starts off almost doom feeling, with a super heavy and slow growl. This song reminds me of several tracks off of Paramaecium's Exhumed of the Earth and I like that a lot! These guys definitely shine when in their death metal mode. This song does pick up again to a mid-paced speed and finishes out nicely.

Flipping the tape over takes us to my favorite song on this project 'Forlorn Dragon.' The buzzy guitars play off each other constantly with one filling and the other leading. This would be one of the faster songs presented and certainly when they get into the chugga chugga rhythms the heaviest, never-the-less you have a lead guitar constantly making itself known. This track stands out also because of the ending. Not only do they not just dead end stop the song, but they fade it out with lyrics being sung. That's right not just the music fading down but they are full on playing and singing as the song fades. Very nice.

Throughout the album the keyboards are not usually focused on but are present through every minute of each song. They are background and given this music it's appropriately so. The last song 'Twillighthymn' seems to be more of a musical filler to get to the end of the tape rather than an actual song. Basically it's an experimental electronic song that seems quite out of place.

Overall I love this tape, I've been listening to it a lot in the truck and will tell you that if you dug their track on From Kaamos... you may want to try and find a copy of this. It's really good.

8/10