Rockezine.com interview with Dominium on Oct 05, 2002

with Gethsemane on Oct 05, 2002

Polish Progressive Metal band Dominium recently released their third album ‘Psycho Path Fever’ on Metal Mind Productions. The album combines progressive sounds with aggressive death and melancholic black. We at Rockezine wanted to know more about the how and why of this album.
		How would you describe your music? Our music is evolving all the time. We`re still looking for means of artistic expression. You can find many elements from different music styles on our records (not only metal, also ambient, jazz or ethnic). We don`t want to be limited and we always want Dominium albums to surprise our fans. We don`t want to fall into patterns and record our material the same way over and over again.
		Since your music is very diverse (it contains elements of black, death heavy and progressive metal) what would you call your greatest inspiration? Do you also get inspiration from things outside music like art or every day life? Everyone in Dominium draws inspiration from music of many various artists. Our favorite bands are: Marr (guitar) - Emperor, Morbid Angel, Dead Can Dance & folk music in general. Cezar (drums) - Dream Theater, Sepultura, Metallica, Machine Head, Meshuggah, System of a Down. He respects Terry Bozzio, Dave Weckl, Dennis Chambers and others drum virtuosos. Mariusz (bass) - he adores Death, Cynic, Primus, Type `O` Negative & funky music. Gethsemane (vocalist) - Black Sabbath, Danzig, Nick Cave, Faith No More, Mr. Bungle, Fantomas, Tomahawk, Pantera, Slipknot, Peter Murphy, Alice in Chains. Jaroslaw (Keyboard) - he likes classical music & soundtracks. He studies at the Academy of Music in Poznañ. He wants to be a composer. On the `Stigmata` album he was a regular band member but on the `Psycho Path Fever` he was a guest.
		That`s our musical inspirations in brief. I don`t want to talk for others but I think that art as well as every day life have a great influence on us. For example, I love paintings of S. Dali & Beksiñski, literature and film. I can`t imagine my life without books.
I can`t imagine my life without books.		Where did you get the idea for the saxophone parts? Did you use a saxophone player from outside the band or is one of your members a saxophone-player? The saxophone parts were my idea. Klaudiusz who played that stuff is my cousin. We also play together in other groups (JUDY 4 & QUARTER - www.Vivo.pl). Music of these bands is something between gothic, film, ethnic, psychedelic (mainly), and rock from 70`s. We`ve recorded new material this year. Klaudiusz was a guest on `the Psycho Path Fever`. I hope that we can co-operate in the future on the next Dominium album.
		The last track ‘Nowhere’ reminds me of epic Hollywood-composers like John Williams. Who was responsible for this track and why did you choose this track to be at the end of the album? The last track was composed by Jaroslaw. Classical inclinations derive from his school in Poznañ. We didn`t want to make any ordinary lofty intros like everyone does so we put this number at the end.
		The end result of the ‘Psycho Path Fever’ production is quite good. Did you work with the same producer this time as on the ‘Stigmata’ album? How did the cooperation go along? We worked with the same producer (Szymon Czech) in Selani Studio in Olsztyn and it`s nice to hear that our production is good. We had more time than during the last session and we concentrated on every tone. We`ve come a long way since Stigmata. We`ve become quite experienced in working in a studio. The `Psycho Path Fever` session proceeded efficiently without any special problems. Szymon is a great pal - we really felt like home in Selani.
		Does the title ‘Psycho Path Fever’ have any greater meaning? Can you tell us how you came up with the title? I had a dream about it (the title) before we started work on the album. I wanted to express some kind of psychical state, something between life and death, to be normal or to be freak. The title is also an alternative version of the word `psychopath`. Every track is like a mirror, reflection of a moment. Guys from the band didn`t interfere in my work and allowed me to do everything with the lyrics and words. I must add that I consulted the lyrics with my friend Artur (Mc_Art) who helped me as he could. We`ve spend a lot of time on my writing.
		Your band name has changed, albeit a long time ago. Why was it decided to change the name from Unknown Dimensions to Dominium? Did the music change with the name? The line-up has changed, music has changed and so the name had to be changed. With the past in memory we called the first Dominium album Unknown Dimensions.
		I noticed that your album is also released as an MC. Is the market for Music Cassettes still big in Poland? You are right; our album is released also on MC. I have no idea about the Polish MC market, but I think that someone who wants to listen to our music on this kind of media will have no problem to buy it.
		At the time of writing your website is in Polish only. Will there be an English version online soon too? Yes, there will be the English version of our website soon.
		It seems that there has been put a lot of work in the layout of the album. Do you think it is important to have an eye-catching album? Who is responsible for your artwork? The idea of the layout was mine and I definitely agree that eye-catching graphics are important. The artwork was made by Graal who works for Metalmind.
I treat my writing as a therapy for my tormented soul.		The lyrics are pretty straight-forward in use of language and seem very personal. Are some of the lyrics about personal experiences or are they fictional? My lyrics are definitely personal and describe my feelings and emotions concerning particular moments in my life. I treat my writing as a therapy for my tormented soul.
		The bonus video on the album features a part of the video clip of the song ‘Stranger’. Why isn’t the complete video included on the album? The video was cut because of the lack of space on the CD.
		In the booklet of the album there are four band members, namely Marek, Gethsemane, Mariusz and Cezary.
		Your current line-up if I am not mistaking is Cezary, Marek, Adam, Mariusz and Jaroslaw. Can you tell a bit more about the line-up changes? The most important change was precisely two years ago, when we composed "Stigmata". From the original line up (Bart and Voit) Marr remained. And more changes in line up were necessary because some people didn`t want to work as hard as professionals. We can`t stand still.
		There are a lot of good and well-known metal bands from Poland like Vader, Behemoth, Decapitated, Hell-Born, Damnation, Immemorial and Yattering to name a few. Are there bands we do not know yet but deserve our attention? There are a lot of good bands in Poland worth mentioning like: Sceptic, Dies Irae, Lux Occulta, Hate, etc. People playing in these bands are real artists in our opinion.
		Would you say the Polish metal scene is good or is it really hard to survive and play a lot of gigs? It`s hard to survive because of the financial and personal nature. The truth is that gifted people don`t get the support they deserve.
		You have played on Metalmania ’99 which is a renowned metal festival in Poland. How was it to play on a festival like that and did it help you to get further? We played the material from `Unknown Dimensions` with our first line-up. The gig surely helped us to promote our band.
The truth is that gifted people don`t get the support they deserve.		Are there any plans to do a European tour in which you visit Holland in the future? Which bands would you like to take along on such a tour? We would really like to visit Holland. However, everything depends on our promoters. We would like to play with Morbid Angel, Tool, Cradle of Filth. Ha, ha, ha. That`s the dream yet to fulfill.
		Would you like to add something to this interview that you want the fans out there to know? Spread the word. There is one more guitarist, Mrowa, in our band. Stay heavy metal maniacs. In the dark we trust.
		Thanks for doing this interview. I wish you the best of luck and hope to see you on stage some day soon. Rock on!
(Wilfred de Zoete)