Dominion

Dominion is the second album on which KAMELOT bound heavy guitars to dramatic melody while weaving in classical ornament more sparingly. Keeping the traditional-metal strength shown on Eternity, it stacks darkness and melancholy more carefully. Under a lineup centered on Thomas Youngblood’s guitar, the band steadily advances toward denser, more expressive writing. It is the last album with Mark Vanderbilt on vocals and marks one turning point for early KAMELOT. On “Ascension,” “Heaven,” “Rise Again,” “Birth of a Hero” and “Song of Roland,” hard riffs and lyrical melody intersect, and the buds of the later grand concept path can be heard throughout. On “One Day I’ll Win,” “We Are Not Separate,” “Creation” and “Crossing Two Rivers” too, traditional-metal drive and lyrical melody are carefully combined. It has not yet reached the finished worldview of later records, but here is a band steadily advancing toward the dramatic — an interesting record capturing a transitional period as KAMELOT searched for its own identity.