The Dogma

A Good Day To Die

Written by: PP on 24/08/2007 01:18:13

Hah. I've been looking forward to writing the review for The Dogma's new album "A Good Day To Die" ever since I had a quick peak at the promo sheet accompanying the release. Although many promotional packs can be overly persuasive about the qualities of the band, this one is beoynd persuasive: it is laughable, and in a little more informal words, it really takes the piss on the reader. But I'll get to that soon, because first you must know what The Dogma sounds like, although with artwork and a title like theirs, you shouldn't spend too much time guessing before you realize it's a goth metal album with symphonic delivery and occasional operatic vocals scattered among clean "true metal" styled ones. Long story short, The Dogma sounds like every single other goth metal band out there, and bring absolutely nothing new to the stale and over saturated genre.

Oh, how much I'm going to love tearing this album apart, ironically helped by the very sheet of A4 paper that's supposed to boost their grade up a notch. It starts out by correctly pointing out that in order to get recognition in today's music scene, it's not enough any longer to just have talent and ambition, describing uniqueness, originality and innovativeness as key elements making an artist stand out "among the everyday fare of faceless acts". As I was reading this well formulated argument, I was shocked to read on the next line that "The Dogma have both", which is clearly the most ridiculous thing they could've possibly written. The marketing team must have been on crack while writing this, because The Dogma are probably the very opposite of anything coming close to the terms "originality", "innovation" and "uniqueness", at least if you have any knowledge to the scene whatsoever. Battlelore, Tristania, Trail Of Tears, Elis, Lacrimas Profundere, WeltenBrand, Theatre Of Tragedy.. I could go on and on and on without running short of bands sounding more or less the same as The Dogma. Nevertheless according to the promo sheet, "they are that rare, sparkling diamond in a big jar full of glass pearls". WRONG. First of all, gothic metal is a genre with only one or two noteworthy bands, and even here I wouldn't go as far as calling them gemstones. Second of all, this whole symphonic heavy metal with themes about death, pain and suffering reached its critical mass about five years ago when Nightwish released what is likely going to be their last great record.

But as if all the aforementioned wasn't enough, and sadly this tragedy tickles my black flavored humor far too much not to mention it, the last song on the album "Christine Closed Her Eyes" is apparently in memory of a girl called Christine, who was a big fan of the band. Apparently she used to write them a poem by email every single day, and one day the poems stopped coming. The band got worried and contacted her family, only to find out that she had apparently been suffering from depression for a long time, and had committed suicide. RIP to her, but I can't resist the ridiculousness of it all: DOES IT SURPRISE YOU SINCE SHE WAS A BIG "THE DOGMA" FAN?? I mean, listen to the song titles: "I Hate Your Love", "Feel My Pain", "Bullet In my Soul". The whole album is even called "A Good Day To Die", and she was probably listening to something by this band in her final moments, which is a horrible thought but unfortunately a very realistic scenario.

I've tried to stay as nice as I possibly could on this review, but when I get told that this album is pretty much re-inventing the wheel for the genre, I can't help but not take it seriously. If you are reading this, The Dogma, I'd advise you to either drop this boring-as-fuck genre completely, or at least live up to your promo sheet and be freaking original! All it takes is a couple of tempo switches, some variating vocal styles, and breaking the whole symphonic cliché with some good old school brutal death metal every now and then. Until then, I'll be pointing and laughing at you and your marketing team.

2

Download: Angel In Cage, A Good Day To Die
For the fans of: Silent Force, Symphorce
Listen: Myspace

Release date 30.04.2007
Drakkar Entertainment
Provided by Target ApS

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