Sometimes, you know a release is going to be good by the time you’ve heard the first few seconds of the opening song and that’s exactly the case with Fear Of Domination’s Distorted Delusions. Described as ‘shock-industrial metal’ on their Facebook page, it’s impossible to pigeonhole them into a specific style because what they’re doing is incredibly original and unique.
Distorted Delusions opens with the catchy PaperDoll and, as mentioned earlier, grips you right from the first note. The track swiftly builds up from solely electronic/synthesised melodies into a section with the full band and the vocals are top-notch, both harsh and clean. This track has absolutely everything and if it’s not stuck in your head for days on end after your first listen, there’s something wrong.
The album continues incredibly strongly from there. Wicked World has a humongous chorus that’s made for a live environment – the words it’s a wicked world and chanted hey!s are simply crying out to be sang/yelled back at the band and there’s a great beat that you’ll be headbanging along to in no time. Slower track Parasite is a beautiful number, with some stunning clean vocals and huge instrumentation, highlighting the versatility of the band and showing they’re more than just a band with fast-paced tracks designed to worm their way into your head.
II is one of the best of the album, with a massive introduction that leads into a passionate vocal performance backed up nicely by some great instrumentation that has a good, thick tone to it and it even features a stunning and complexly brilliant guitar solo that branches out into a dual solo with the keys – awesome!!
I’ve scrutinised this album with a fine tooth comb over the past few days, looking for something that needs a little bit of improvement or a section of a song that doesn’t fit into the larger picture, but there’s nothing. This is a flawless album and Fear Of Domination have really made a masterpiece here – with releases like this, 2014 is already shaping up to be an incredible year for music.
10/10
