Album Review: Dominia – The Withering Of The Rose (MSH Music Group)

Down a road no longer travelled, where the sun no longer shines, stands the shattered ruin of a place once thought glorious; a house where the beautiful would gather and celebrate the endless fortune that life had brought them. Now rain falls through shattered ceilings and collects in cold, silent pools where bejewelled feet danced on polished marble floors. Forgotten halls dream of their former glories, when a thousand candles brought warmth and magic to rooms now the broken haunts of ravens. Echoes of laughter flicker on the edge of hearing and the memories of passion and obsession flit through the shadows; spirits who can never leave this place, once their one perfect moment of happiness, now their eternal night of despair. Withered roses, shrouded in cobwebs, a last glimpse of the past, spiders feeding in their hearts…

With their new album for MSH Music Group, Russian dreamers Dominia have bound dreams and nightmares in a silken shroud of ancient sorrows and the ghosts of broken hearts. The Withering Of The Rose burns with an eternal passion, with flames of exotic colours that light the velvet darkness.

Building on all their shared experiences over the last two decades, Dominia have created perhaps the ultimate distillation of their vision. It will be released on January 20th 2020.

Wrapping around the mind like a death shroud, Dominia deal in melodic doom throughout The Withering of the Rose. The foundations dug deeply with misery so the band can wallow in their miserableness.

This is not a feel good listen in the conventional sense, however to say it is depressing would imply it’s not particularly listenable. That’s not the case at all as for all Dominia’s doom layers they also deliver so many melodious moments too. A lot of this is picked up by the violin and backed up by cleaner singing that crops up on occasion. The balance between this and many of the chunkier rhythms and riffs is something Dominia nail.

The epic that is The Withering of the Rose is packed full of enlightening passages, morose instrumentation and uncomplicated heaviness. Tracks like My Flesh and the Sacred River and The Light of the Black Sun and deliver the doom whereas the likes of Suprema and The Elephant Man provide emotional and weighty melodies.

The longer this journey goes on, the more and more invested you’ll become. The depth Dominia showcase in every single note, every single growl, every single soaring high and every single dark low is worth experiencing. It’s long, very long but it’s worth every second of investment.

Dominia – The Withering Of The Rose Full Track Listing:

1. I Want To Forget
2. My Flesh And The Sacred River
3. Suprema
4. The Light Of The Black Sun
5. Entombed In Grief
6. The Elephant Man
7. Nomoreus
8. The Withering Of The Roses
9. The Night And The Dark Room
10. The Song That You Don’t Like (Bonus Track)

Links

Facebook | YouTube | MSH Music Group