Salvation Through Infinite Suffering

Infernal Dominion are a death metal band based in Houston that have released one album and one album only in 2000 titled "Salvation Through Infinite Suffering". While it does look to be another mediocre death metal album from the early 2000s, I do feel like it has some really good moments nevertheless.

The album opens up with the track "Rejoice in Ancient Wisdom", which starts right off with the chaos. The guitar riffs sound very heavy and raw, and reminiscent of Blaspherian and early Immolation. While it does lean a bit more in a technical direction, it still has an intense composition that plays some wild riffs. The drumming is also maddening, as its blastbeats are technical and well composed and lead off the riffs well. Even the bass is pretty good, as its sound is deep and follows along the riffs well. The overall atmosphere in the intro is raw, heavy, and blasphemous in nature, and it works very well. Rejoice in Ancient Wisdom is a highlight, but other fantastic instrumentals include "Salvation Through Infinite Suffering", "Embrace Thy Befallen Misery (The Lord Be Dead to Thy Soul)", and "Toward Infernal Dominion" since they also execute their heavy and raw atmosphere just as well. From sick guitar riffs to intense drumming, this album sure does have some sick and deadly instrumentals.

But then we get to the vocals. Mike "Crotch" Swearingen does the vocals on here, and they're okay, but I think more could be done with them. A good example of this is in the track 'Purging Purity", which also follows the same deadly sound like most other tracks. Mike's vocals consist of deep growls with some gurgle effects, which does flow decently with the intense riffs. However, his delivery does slow down occasionally, and his growls don't feel as strong and effective. It doesn't happen too often, but when it does, it does kind of ruin the immersion of Mike being an unreal demon. The flaws aren't the worst, but they are noticeable.

But despite some flawed vocal performance, that doesn't stop the instrumentals from kicking ass. The guitar riffs are great at mixing the Immolation sound with its own brutal sound, and while I couldn't get into the lyrics, its themes of the occult are fitting to this rather blasphemous attitude. While the group is technically still active, they haven't released anything else besides a split with Ophiolatry. Nevertheless, "Salvation Through Infinite Suffering" still remains an intense album that I highly recommend.