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Reviewed
by: Darklight
Dominion is the solo project of Andrew Szava-Kovats,
and I thought that this was his first recording considering the fact
that it sounds somewhat amateurish. But I came to find out that this
project has been around for many years, and this is actually Dominion’s
sixth recording.
I don’t know why Metropolis decided to sign this project as it doesn’t
really fit with their roster. While it is indeed electronic, it’s also
quite simplistic, repetitive and dull. I could accept this album as
a first effort, but considering how long Andrew has been recording music
I would expect this outing to be much better than this.
Basically, this is EBM/darkwave hybrid music that doesn’t really do either genre justice. The electronic programming is simple and basic with repetitive sounds and beats playing over typical dark melodies. The speed of the music is mid-tempo never fast enough for clubs, but never slow enough to make you tired. The vocals are decent enough coming off as the usual deep and dreary male style found in most goth bands. Unfortunately, they are not used very often here. There are a lot of instrumentals. And while they are decent, they end up sounding like filler.
The problem with this album is that nothing is really that exciting.
This is fairly straight forward generic EBM/darkwave music lacking anything
to allow it to stand out. Another problem that I have is with the title
track “Only The Strong Survive” offered here three times. While
there are slight differences to each version, there’s not enough to
really make them sound like different tracks. So in the end it feels
like you are given three of the same tracks.
Overall, this is a fairly melodic and enchanting dark electro release.
The one stand out track here is “Supply And Demand”. This is
a great instrumental featuring a lot of stylish electro beats and rhythms
with a dark and sinister edge to it. It’s too bad more of the music
here couldn’t have followed in the same direction.
In the end this isn’t a terrible album, but it’s rather average and
typical as well. If you really enjoy darkwave music with male vocals
and a lot of instrumentals, you might enjoy this. Otherwise, I would
suggest giving Clan Of Xymox
or Diary Of Dreams
a spin instead.
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