DOMINION

Dominion was Kamelot's second album and the final one to feature Mark Vanderbilt on lead vocals before he was replaced by Roy Khan for the band's next album. With Dominion the band follows closely the template of their debut Eternity. These first two albums can be said to constitute the first era of the band's career and are quite different in style compared to what was to come later. The style is again close to that of Iron Maiden and Vanderbilt's voice reminds heavily of Bruce Dickinson of that band. Still, the occasional presence of piano, synthesisers and acoustic guitars add a dimension foreign to Iron Maiden and similar bands.

Still, as I mentioned in my review of Eternity, there were some hints already on these first two albums of the style that Kamelot went on to develop further with their third album Siege Perilous and then perfect on the brilliant The Fourth Legacy. I'm thinking here of the Symphonic and Neo-Classical elements that I so like about this band. But the progressive elements are admittedly not very strong yet at this point which might explain the low ratings that these albums get on this site. In general, I think that the early albums by Kamelot are underrated. Though, this applies especially to the excellent third album Siege Perilous. Since I posted my review of Siege Perilous here a few days ago, that album has continued to grow on me and I went back to give it another star (from three to four) and also raised my rating of The Fourth Legacy from four to five.

Dominon opens with a short symphonic intro that then leads into the first proper song. What follows is a set of moderately adventurous but appealing Heavy Metal songs, none of which are weak, but also none of which are remarkable. I was previously familiar with the song We Are Not Separate which was later re-recorded with Roy Khan and featured as a bonus studio track on the live album The Expedition. This song has a strong and memorable riff and is my favourite track off Dominion. In Creation a keyboard solo is present.

This album is recommended in addition to the equally good Eternity, though Kamelot's ascension to greatness would really commence with their next album

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