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After the impeccable Imaginarium, I really didn't know where Swedish Power Metal heroes Morifade were going to take their inventive and unpredictable sound. Luckily, for their third full-length, the ominous Domi<>Nation, the band took us into the future, with a dark and mechanical concept album based on classic science-fiction literature, most noticeably Huxley's ‘Brave New World' and Orwell's ‘1984', which found the Swedes matching the intelligence of their new lyrical conquest with some startlingly creative songwriting.

Bleaker and more progressive than anything they had attempted up until this point, Domi<>Nation shares similarities with its precursor in that there is a great deal of light and shade in atmosphere. The band, as always, continued pushing those ever imaginative arrangements to more labyrinthine places, making tracks like "A Silent Revolution" and the robotic "Panopticon" some of the most complex material the band ever produced. In terms of style, Domi<>Nation isn't too far removed from the speedy-yet-catchy Helloween-esque Power Metal found on their previous records, but there is a greater degree of heaviness to the guitars and a fair amount of anger that had never really been part of the Morifade machine. Although, I attribute this to the crushing Andy La Rocque production, which compared to the dim job he did on Imaginarium, sounds like heavy artillery going off in each ear.

The songs are just as infectious as on Possession Of Power and the aforementioned Imaginarium, with the choruses of "Parallels", "The Second Coming", and the choir-led anthem "The Rising" sticking out as perhaps the album's most memorable moments, giving the futuristic synths of keyboarder Fredrik Eriksson more prominence than they've ever had before, and finding vocalist Stefan Petersson's idiosyncratic wail in its finest role.

While Domi<>Nation is a cracking sequel to the incomparable Imaginarium, and a subtle progression from the melodic sound they created on it, its cold and chilling countenance just fails to outdo its magnificence. But still, by normal standards, this is one of best releases you will ever find idling in the Power Metal spectrum. Get it while you still can.