War never goes out of fashion in metal, with death metal being no exception. It served Domination Campaign plenty well on their first album, Onward to Glory, and it holds true on their sophomore effort, A Storm of Steel. Formed by Psycroptic guitarist Joe Haley (who plays drums in Domination Campaign) and vocalist Jason Peppiatt (who also plays guitar and bass in this band), Domination Campaign is a significantly more stripped-back affair than the duo’s main band.
At eight songs and 34 minutes, A Storm of Steel is very meat and potatoes in its approach to things. There is more melody present than on their first album but the tight, veteran songwriting is largely focused on mining the same territory as Bolt Thrower, both thematically and in the fist-pumping mid-tempo death metal Domination Campaign churn out.
Domination Campaign know what they’re doing and they do it well on A Storm of Steel. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel, and it’s obvious that the Tasmanian duo aren’t looking to do that here, but it’s a cleanly executed slab of death metal that will make any fan of the genre happy.
A Storm of Steel is out now on Prosthetic.
