That Norwegian recording entity Dominanz is only now releasing it’s third full-length release despite a lifespan now entering it’s fourteenth year must say something of the effort required to construct a release such as Let The Death Enter; For this is surely the sound of toil, perseverance and a burning triumph of will to create and to release only that which honours the name it bears.

That toil is rewarded on this release.

The reviewer does not normally listen to music construed as ‘mainstream’ or ‘commercial’, yet within the parameters of black metal Dominanz seem eminently representative of both terms. And yet, within the music offered by the artist, there is much for the more discerning ear to respond to. Perhaps to start, and therefore dispense, with the obvious we must listen to Echoes From The Moment of Death. Here the artists flirts with art at it’s most flippant and grimly venal. Echoes of Immortal and perhaps Dimmu Borgir will be heard and absorbed according to the taste of the listener.

But even at it’s most obvious there is a satisfaction in the construction and execution of the artists here. At the other extreme of the spectrum one finds the couplet of the orchestral instrumental Occidere Credentes and Ruins of Destruction, wherein the creators seek to meld the two orbits of blackened industrial metal to atonal classical music. Here the artist grasps for – and almost touches – the avant garde, reassuring the listener that more than simple craven lust for notoriety is at the core of the creative impulse. Consequently these are the most refreshing and virile moments of the release.

In essence Dominanz succeed where many of their contemporaries have fallen in the desire to mix artistic need with commercial reality. This is an album that should appeal both to the rude and the sophisticate, and as such must be deemed a success on it’s own terms.

Let The Death Enter is released by Mighty Music on March 22nd.