‘Psycho Path Fever’ is the third studio album (all on Metal Mind Records) of this Polish progressive metal formation. Back in 1997 they released their first demo. The current line-up is Cezary on drums, Marek on guitar, Adam on vocals, Mariusz on bass and Jaroslaw on keyboard. Although I am not familiar with their older work, it is clear they are quite experienced musicians with high standards. The music drifts between Dimmu Borgir-like epic black (‘Obsession’ for example) with deathscreams and a hint of progressive metal, catchy death metal riffs with grunts (among others ‘Family Fur’) and emotional clean vocals combined with acoustic guitars (such as the opening song ‘Mouth Like An Open Wound’). It is not completely fair to compare them sec like that as they know how to maintain a personal and constant sound throughout the album. The songs sometimes contain a brutal rage and sometimes are more melancholic. The pace stays uptempo most of the times. The saxophone used in some songs adds a progressive touch to the brutal metal and gives an interesting twist to the album. The last track on the album (‘Nowhere’) has a real epic John Williams-sound (composer of the Star Wars-music), a well-chosen ending in my opinion. The lyrics seem quite personal and deal with subjects like broken families and the loss of loved ones. Sometimes melancholic, sometimes filled with hatred, just like the music (ah, what a surprise). The layout is a real piece of art. It has a professional and appealing touch. The English lyrics are in the booklet along with pictures of the band-members. Alas, the rest of the text is Polish so it is quite hard for people outside of Poland to figure out who plays what instrument; although the meaning of ‘bas’ and ‘gitary’ go without saying. The website ( http://dominium.metal.pl ) is also strictly Polish at the time of writing.

It would have been a smart move to translate the website when considering a career outside Poland. They have enough potential, so that cannot be the limiting factor. The album also contains a video track of the song ‘Stranger’. The video looks quite okay and is a nice bonus. The sound`s atmosphere is enhanced by all kinds of coloration effects and layers of vocalist, clocks and other images. It is a pity though it is only a teaser; nearly two minutes of the song are not on the video. It was probably too big to fit on the CD without losing songs. The production is somewhere in between an in-your-face sound and a more atmospheric approach. The guitars are right there up front. The clean vocals have some difficulties penetrating the wall of sound sometimes. The keyboards give the album extra clarity. In a few occasions there could have been less low end; the vocals tend to pop in spoken parts and in ‘Ghosts’ there are some demanding low end booms. On the whole the sound fits the music perfectly as it has to have the impact on the more brutal songs and the atmosphere on the more black metal-style songs. Dominium is yet another band from Eastern Europe waiting to get out of obscurity and on to the stages of the world. With an album like this there is little to keep them back from breaking new grounds. As I said earlier it would have been wise to keep all texts (I do not mean lyrics; they are already in English) and especially the website in English when looking for a career abroad, but the international language we call music mainly speaks for itself. ‘Psycho Path Fever’ will appeal to fans of aforementioned Dimmu Borgir, Anathema and Opeth, who are not afraid of a combination of progressive yet brutal music with some clean vocals and acoustic guitars.