The last week of 2023 and we still have some awesome new music being released, aren’t we lucky?! Three awesome albums to check out, although one is cheating a little. Let’s dive right in!
DOMINUM: Hey Living People
The debut album of Felix Heldt’s brainchild released the other day. And honestly, it’s really fucking good. Combining the theatrical synthy feel of Lordi and AOR with his other power metal projects like Visions of Atlantis, it’s a really interesting sound. It’s very European in the best possible way. Dr Dead fronts the band perfectly while his masked, undead band play their parts incredibly well. It’s something that I’m going to have to see live, as I can see it popping off with an amazing stageshow. Their zombie/horror asthetic and themes are really interesting and very well written.
The album is packed full of highlight tracks, too. The opener, ‘Danger Danger’ and the epic, piano-lead ‘We All Taste the Same’ are all fantastic tracks that stood out to me. And another good cover of ‘You Spin Me Round’ is never a bad thing! However, there really isn’t a bad song on the whole album, honestly. What a fantastic way to debut as a band and close out the year! 9/10
Spider God: The Killing Room
A band that I hadn’t even heard of before looking for bands for this list, I was super curious to jump in and see what they were like. It turns out they’re melodic black metal (didn’t even know that was a thing) and clearly very good at doing it. While it’s not exactly my sort of thing, they are clearly very good at what they do, as this sophomore album is objectively great. And tracks like ‘s.p.i.d.e.r.g.o.d.’ and the 10 minute epic title song are definitely worth a listen. The synths add an interesting element that I wouldn’t typically expect from black metal, almost pushing it into post-hardcore territory. If you’re into the heavy stuff it’s well worth checking out, and I definitely wouldn’t turn it off if any of it came on again! 6.5/10
Lord of the Lost: Weapons of Mass Seduction
So, as I said in my Anastacia review a few months back, we typically wouldn’t cover cover albums on this series. However, with this week being pretty light on the ground and this album being packed to the brim with awesome covers, we just had to talk about it.
Whether it’s classic rock anthems like ‘Turbo Lover’ or an absolutely beautiful rendition of ‘Children of the Damned’ (my favourite Maiden track and fuck, they did this justice), pop tracks like ‘Bad Romance’ or Bishop Briggs’ ‘River’, or even their fellow Eurovision competitor’s track ‘Cha Cha Cha’, it’s a massively varied selection of music. And all of it is performed to perfection. Chris’ vocals seem to fit everything amazingly well, and they put their own spin on each track, staying faithful yet still sounding incredibly LotL. I hate to say this as an original artist and attempted songwriter myself, but I think I actually prefer it to their last album this time last year. I simply had more fun listening to it, and am already more likely to gravitate towards it again.
It’s a fantastic double album packed full of enjoyable tracks. Whether they are written by Chris and co. or not, they are performed to perfection and really made their own. It’s an easy 9.5/10 from me!