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Review: Dominus Xul - The Primigeni Xul ( I Condemned My Enemies)
Dominus Xul
The Primigeni Xul ( I Condemned My Enemies)

Label: Picoroco Records
Year released: 1998
Duration: 47:13
Tracks: 11
Genre: Death Metal

Rating:
4/5


Review online: July 10, 2003
Reviewed by: Sargon the Terrible
Readers' Rating
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Rated 3.69/5 (73.85%) (13 Votes)
Review

Now this is what I mean by death metal. This CD is so evil and subterranean that the term 'death metal' seems wholly inadequate. 'Hate Metal', maybe, or something else more vicious, I don't know. 'Death' just doesn't seem to cover it. This is the one and only release from this long-defunct Chilean band, and a more obscure release is hard to imagine, as the band broke up and scattered to other projects before this was even released.

Dominus Xul play death metal the way I like it: low-tuned, evil, and sludgy. The production is veeeery primitive: it sounds like the mixing board had one knob on it with 'bass' at one end and 'treble' on the other, and they kept it turned all the way to the bass side. These guitars are downtuned to at least B, maybe even A, which is ridiculously low, and it's no wonder there is no technical riffing or soloing here. With the guitars tuned this low the strings would be practically hanging off the fretboard. The major influences here are Morbid Angel and Carcass, with a little of that South American sound mixed in – think Krisiun buried in mud. Most of these songs are midpaced with occasional speedy parts, but they never keep it fast for more than a few bars before they settle back to the ultra-heavy slow riffs. Turn this up loud and the lower end will shake the walls, with the riffage so heavy it becomes hypnotic. The vocals of frontman D Grave are almost ridiculously guttural, and I really wish they were a bit more understandable, but they do fit the music very well, the guy doesn't even sound human half the time he's growling so low. Songs like "Dominus (Impurity)", "Polar Son of Lucifer" and the crushing "Chapel of the Bewitchers" come thundering out like the voice from Hell's yawning jaws.

This is some powerfully evil and blasphemous stuff, and it makes most black metal look almost benign by comparison. I can't really express how much hate drips from his album: the growling vocals, the thugging riffs, the sound effects of torture and snarling dogs – it all just oozes blasphemy and evil. The CD cover is pretty primitive (photoshop wasn't as cool back then, I guess) but the interior design is OK, and all the lyrics are here. The lyrics are pretty cool too, despite the language barrier. I read plenty of lyrics by American bands that aren't this coherent. The lyrics are also evil, very very evil; spinning tales of blasphemy, torture, murder, death, evil magics, and sodomizing christ's dead body.

I would love it if this band had more albums, or if more bands were into this kind of extremely subterranean death metal. This would kill your average Gothenburger fan by the third song, and fans of the gayer black metal wankers will run screaming from this. It's a shame Dominus Xul are no more, but this is still a very cool release that scratches that death metal itch like almost nothing else. Grab this if you can, I think Dark Symphonies has a few left, but I'm sure they won't last forever.

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