There are "retro" bands (those who mimic the style in an uninspired fashion while adding nothing to the genre) and then there are "retro" bands (those who take enough of an influence from the past yet manage to interject enough originality and/or passion to make it their own) - Desaster are a band that fall into the second category, and one of the best ones at that. Desaster's influences run the gamut of metal - speed metal (Destruction), black metal (Darkthrone), thrash (early Slayer/mid-period Sodom), and good old heavy/power metal. You would think that with such a mish-mashing of styles, the end result would be somewhat less than cohesive and disjointed, but as anyone who has ever heard Desaster can tell you, not only do they manage to pull it off, but they do it so naturally that it seems as if this was always the way metal was meant to be - truly the sign of a great band.

"Hellfire's Dominion" carries on in much the tradition of the other two releases I've heard by the band ("A Touch of Medieval Darkness" and "Stormbringer") - to label music such as this as "black metal" or "retro" (or any other tag for that matter) would be doing it injustice as this really does transcend the barriers of those genres. If I was to use one word to describe Desaster, it would have to be "majestic" (as cliche as that term now is) - everything they do has this certain quality to it that is (unfortunately) rarely seen in metal today. From the melancholy tinged riffs of "In The Ban Of Satan's Sorcery" and "Past... Present... Forever..." to the (early) Slayer-esque "Expect No Release" and "Hellfire's Dominion", Desaster are a band with some serious metal blood running through their veins. My personal favorite aspect of the band is when they incorporate the "triumphant strut" rhythms overlapped with medieval influences, such as on "Thou Shalt Be King", "Teutonic Steel", and the best track on the CD, "Castleland" (which is started by an excellent acoustic intro that flows right into the mother of all triumphant riffs - the bass guitar then begins to soak into your skin like a blood-letting in reverse, and it's all topped off with some Angelripper-meets-Schmier vocals of the highest calibre). Another track which deserves special mention (and the runner up to "best track on the CD") would be "Metalized Blood" - this songs reminds me of an old 80s (and I presume defunct) German band called Vectom (who had a great track entitled "Loudness and Speed" on some compilation or other which I can't remember the name of anymore). A very classy track consisting of a hybrid of thrash and power metal which also happens to feature not only the vocals of Okkulto (Desaster's frontman), but also of Lemmy (no, not *THE* Lemmy, but the ex-Violent Force member), Wannes (Pentacle/Soulburn - one of the greatest vocalists in extreme metal today), and Toto (ex-Living Death, although I could have done without his whiny high pitched contributions - reminds me of why I hated Living Death so much to begin with). Add to all this an excellent outro ("Across The Bloodfields") and you have "Hellfire's Dominion" (well, plus the non-descript intro as well - the low point of the CD). 100% completely and utterly recommended to anyone and everyone. Now to go listen to the other 2 releases by Desaster that I have...ahhh, an afternoon of quality...

© 1999 chorazaim