DRAGONLORD Dominion

To be honest I can´t remember having heard Dragonlord before, but to my defence it has to be added that black metal haven´t exactly been my main focus in the later years. Howerver, Dragonlord is the black metal side project of Testament guitarist Eric Peterson with Alex Bent (Trivium) and Lyle Livingston (Psypheria, ex-Enthroned) on keys and orchestration alongside him. From what I have read the first two albums were heavily inspired by Dimmu Borgir, but I don´t find that equally evident on this new one even though elements from the late nineties/early 2000 norwegian symphonic black metal wave can still be heard and the track  ´Northlanders´definitely makes me think of Covenant around ´Nexus Polaris´. Ok, so it doesn´t sound very original or innovative, but I still like what I hear and I think ´Dominion´is a damn good album with good variation and a rock solid song material. Peterson delivers some excellent guitar work here and his screaming vocals sounds pretty decent as well. I´m also impressed with orchestration and the atmospheric and quite dominant keyboard arrangements of Lyle Livingston, again not very original but really tasty and epic. somehow I feel that this album might have re-vitalised my symphonic black metal interest, so perhaps it´s time to blow the dust of my old Dimmu and Covenant albums as well. 

Discography

Dominion (2018)

Black Wings Of Destiny (2005)

Rapture (2001)