Path of Dominion

In eight-and-a-half minutes, Ride for Revenge lays out the template for their entire career. Path of Dominion includes all the characteristics of this Finnish black/doom hybrid: drum-and-bass instrumentation, Harald Mentor's half-spoken growl, electronic/noise effects, and a weirdness that's hard to define yet instantly recognizable.

Recorded back when Ride for Revenge was still a solo project, Path of Dominion shows a couple key differences from all future releases. The bass guitar is played less doomy and more like tremolo-filled Nordic black metal, especially in the first track's surprisingly melodic main riff. The drums are much faster, though still played in a stilted manner for which "ritualistic" is an all-too-common descriptor. They're also much simpler, and not always to the band's benefit - the title track has practically the exact same cymbal-and-snare crashing throughout its entire four minutes of runtime. It's great to hear that early exploration of what would inform The King of Snakes and Under the Eye, but doesn't necessarily make for the biggest appeal when both of those LPs exist. The "Wind of Torment" outro portends the incorporation of theremin and power electronics that would be on practically all future releases - and it's suitably unsettling in its own right. Ride for Revenge has made a lot of noise intros, interludes, and outros; "Wind of Torment" is one of the coolest.

Is this demo required listening for Ride for Revenge fans - or those who dig this mid-fi black/doom? No, I don't think so. That starts with the Ride for Revenge / Torturium split and the track "Justine". But, deep fans of the band and black metal demos will be pleasantly surprised by the first track's melodic nature and the ending outro's suggestion of future noise experiments. Path of Dominion is the start of one of Finland's greatest extreme metal exports, and it's definitely worth your attention should black metal demos be of interest.