Got the disc in the mail the other day. Have spun it several time since then. Overall I think it's a good album. I don't like it as much as either of the first 2 albums, but I'm giving it some time, as most albums are not an immediate love or hate for me.
When I first heard "Uncreation" (Benedictum's debut album) I immediately loved it. In fact, I loved it so much it beat out Doro's "Warrior Soul" for my top album of that year (and you all know how much of a Doro fan-girl I am
). When I first heard "Seasons of Tragedy" (their 2nd album), I thought it was good, but it didn't love it the way I did Uncreation. Given some time, I definitely saw/heard that the production and song writing had significantly improved with that follow-up release.
With regards to the new album "Dominion," I did notice a difference in the production quality. I'm no production expert, so I have yet to decide if it's a change for the better or worse. I do hear what someone on here said about the vocals being very stand-out and mostly everything else being kind of muddy, but their are the occasions where I do hear some of the instruments or the drums being brought to the forefront of the songs. If anything that makes me feel like maybe the album was over-produced a bit, but like I said I'm no production expert.
Thus far I can say I really like the first/title track "Dominion," and track 3 "The Seer," but following that the next stand-out song for me (so far) is track 9 "Bang," which is the kind of really kick-ass metal anthem I love and have come expect from Benedictum. This doesn't mean I think the other tracks are bad, just that they have not yet stood out to me the way those 3 did upon my intial listen. I do also really like the bonus track "Sanctuary" and the cover of Rush's "Temple of Syrinx."
This album has the potential to make it into my top 10 for the year, but as I said, I think I still need to give it a few more spins and some time to grow on me. I'll probably revisit this thread once I've had a chance to do that.