DOMINUM

Sneaking around in the dark like true, predatory brain-eaters, DOMINUM are making it a tradition to release their albums in the disorienting limbo of the post-Christmas, pre-New Year period. Whether this ploy will have any positive benefits is open to debate, but it does give the Germans a free run at this week's release schedule. Fans of boisterous, dark-hearted power metal will find plenty to enjoy here. Like last year's "Hey Living People", "The Dead Don't Die" is bombastic, sonically pristine and myopically zombie-themed, as DOMINUM continue to hammer their theatrical, undead shtick home with a bright-eyed, youthful flourish.

On one level, Bavaria's chief zombie storytellers are the consummate modern power metal band. On songs like opener "We Are Forlorn" and the grimly upbeat "Can't Kill A Dead Man", they conjure a sharp-edged take on the same uproarious, melodic formula that bands have been refining since HAMMERFALL released "Glory To The Brave". On another, DOMINUM hover much closer to the cutting edge of things. Songs like "Die For The Devil" and the disarmingly melancholy "Don't Get Bitten By The Dead Ones" have as much to do with heavy alternative rock and the futuristic, old-school-phobic efforts of bands operating under the (highly dubious) "alt-metal" banner. Those bands might be content to swing the metal door off its traditional hinges, but DOMINUM retain their metal roots, occasionally cloaking them in a radio-friendly fog, but always directly melodic and lethally accessible.

Vocalist Dr. Dead plays a big role: his powerful but gritty tones give anthemic, '80s metal upgrade "The Guardians Of The Night" a timeless feel, while the menacing, gothic euphoria of the title track enables the frontman to scorch through a formidable repertoire of voices, while effortlessly taking the weight of a colossal, hands-in-the-air chorus hook. Dr. Dead, it has to be said, is alive and kicking.

In terms of obvious progress, "The Dead Don't Die" surpasses "Hey Living People" on several counts. Firstly, these songs hang together more neatly, and the sense that a story is unfolding is far more apparent. Secondly, DOMINUM are having more fun second time around: every one of these songs resounds with the confidence of men who hit the target first time around, and who have no doubt that their second album will be another triumph. It takes some balls to drop a cover of SCORPIONS' "Rock You Like A Hurricane", but the Germans pull it off with the same quietly original panache that makes the rest of these songs so instantly likable. Timing-wise, it may still be destined to pass under most people's radars, and has little chance of being celebrated in anyone's end-of-year list, but "The Dead Don't Die" is deadly enough to make its present felt nonetheless.