Domination Campaign: Marching Onward To Glory
“I wanted this album to just be simple, predictable and straight down the line. I didn’t want it to be an album where people are like ‘listen to how fast this dude’s feet are!’ or any of that shit. I just want people to listen to the songs as songs and not the individual elements that make it. They’re the sort of songs that you can put on in the background, or when you’re punching the fuck out of a boxing bag. And you can just enjoy the heaviness.” No frills. All fury. We’ve counted the ballots and the results are in. Welcome to the onset of a brand-new aural dynasty – and it’s one of unbridled and unashamed old-school death metal destruction. Ladies and gentlemen – this is DOMINATION CAMPAIGN.
There are many ways in which to pique the attention of your average heavy music listener ahead of an album’s release; whether it be the promise of bowel-shaking breakdowns or it marks the end of a prolonged hiatus. Start chucking phrases like “This is the guys from PSYCROPTIC‘s new side project!” into the proverbial mix however, and both the excitement and expectation hits a new level. Having spent two decades plying their sonic trade in breakneck tempos, slam-worthy grooves and mesmeric riffs, it’s fair to say that the Tasmanian devils have mastered the extreme art of technical death metal.
So when the opportunity arose for an in-depth yarn with vocalist and frontman Jason Peppiatt, Distorted Sound were keen for the tea on this brutal new endeavour – which, as it turns out, had been years in the making. His raison d’etre, Peppiatt had grown up listening to classic old-school DM acts like INCANTATION and BOLT THROWER and twenty years later, he found himself (“I’ve almost felt a calling!”) wanting to get back to the genre’s quintessential -encrusted roots. The enforced downtime that so many bands found themselves in last year due to Coronavirus would subsequently coincide with the DOMINATION CAMPAIGN debut’s writing and mixing process. Could it be argued that these songs almost took on a new meaning, a newfound gravitas if you will, given the slant of the creative process?
“The downtime from touring most definitely got this album moving along a lot faster! With the uncertainty of when touring will be happening again, all of us in PSYCROPTIC have felt the need to keep busy with musical projects and spending time in the studio creating new music,” Jason divulges. “DOMINATION CAMPAIGN basically went from being something that I wanted to do, to something that I had to do. Once we were getting deep into the recording process, I think we both realised that this album would be something people would be interested in and it really started to get taken more seriously.”
And taken seriously DOMINATION CAMPAIGN certainly was – with the originally intended solo project swiftly turning into something of a headbangers ball when Jason wrangled fellow PSYCROPTIC riff-slinger Joe Haley for drum duties. Was this always the plan? “In the beginning I wasn’t really sure if I’d just use programmed drums, but the idea of getting Joe to drum had crossed my mind as he’s a really good solid rock drummer and that was kind of the style of drumming that I wanted,” Jason explains. “When I first started tracking the guitars with Joe, he asked me about what was happening for the drums on the album and when I told him I hadn’t decided, he offered his services and a few months later he was in the studio blasting it out! I found that having a second member in the band really helped through the process too because it always seems to get the best results when you have someone that you can bounce ideas around with.”
These “best results” would go on to manifest themselves as debut album Onward To Glory – an eight-track blitzkrieg of straight-up, fully loaded filth. Scabrous vocals? Check. Bloodthirsty lyrics that will make the listener want to spill their beer while snapping one’s neck? You got it. From the warlike grooves coursing through chuggernaut The Sniper’s Gaze and Death Before Dishonour’s machine gun fire bludgeon to The Domination Campaign’s murderous onslaught of blastbeats and furious grind, the “bone-basic” spirit of the old school is unmistakable. “I wanted this album to just be simple, predictable and straight down the line. I put all my focus on just making the songs catchy,” Jason insists. “I didn’t want it to be an album that people are like ‘listen to how fast this dude’s feet are’ or any of that shit, I just want people to listen to the songs as songs and not the individual elements that make it. They’re the sort of songs that you can put on in the background, or when you’re punching the fuck out of a boxing bag and just enjoy the heaviness.” Self-assured, caustic and absolutely crushing – this is one march any death metal aficionado would relish joining. Destination? Glory.
Onward To Glory is out now via Prosthetic Records.
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