Where The Desert Meets The Sea is the first full-length album by the band Domino who is self-described as Arabesque hard rock/progressive metal.
That is a very accurate description of this very exotic and unique-sounding album. The lead vocals are marvelously delivered by Erica Bowron and what a voice, Erica’s singing is definitely the focus and most important performance here. Simply magnificent, a true superstar. Her singing and voice are always perfectly suited to each moment and melody with some wonderful harmonies being delivered with fellow bandmates Denis Custovic and Pete Kelly in particular on one of the standout tracks Sevdah, which has one of the stronger Arabic sounds to it.
The whole flavor of the album is wonderfully consistent as the Arabic flavor flows throughout like a fine wine accompaniment, with plenty of middle eastern sounding string instruments and some quite beautiful Arabesque chanting you have whisked away to away another land of enchantment while all the time reminded of the hard rock structure and foundation keeping it all together.
If Erica’s voice is the direction and shine of the album then Simon Owen, Denis Custovic, and Pete Kelly provide the gutsy engine and rhythm to it all, with many of the tracks having a strong groove and even funk to them which firmly plants the album into the progressive hard rock category which is their purpose I think. What I also like about this album is they know the sound they want to create and that’s exactly what they do create extremely professionally. The standouts on the album for me are The Hunter which probably has the strongest metal sound, with a great heavy guitar undertow providing a thunderous backdrop to Erica’s haunting voice. Love the main riff in this song!
The other standout is the pinnacle of the album I believe, Pirate Man. This epic song brings together all the great attributes of Domino, with light Arabesque moments, real emotion and gritty but beautiful singing from Erica, and plenty of great metal riffs and drums to give a full and rich sound.
Great song.
Where The Desert Meets The Sea is definitely a complete album, and by that I mean all the tracks bond well together and combine to create a theme and an overall impression and story.
This is a very enjoyable listen throughout and would have enjoyed more of the sound found in The Hunter and Pirate Man, however, this is not a negative only my great admiration for those two songs in particular.
For those who like some complexity and beauty in their metal music then this is the album for you.
Excellent.
Domino: N/A
Release Year: 2013
Label: self-released
Category: Album
Country: Australia
Reviewed by Chris Rankin
