All in all, it’s an “okay” album for fans, but if you don’t know Arthemis, then I think ‘…Fight’ was much better.

This is the eighth album from Arthemis, and the first since 'We Fight' five years ago. Power Metal is not one of my favourite genres, with a few exceptions, but I loved '...Fight' and it stayed in my CD player for some time, so I was looking forward to 'Blood, Fury, Domination'.

It certainly has some high points, namely Andy Martongelli's superlative playing, which never lets up and never falters, flying from Yngwie Malmsteen-esque rampages along the fret-board, such as in 'Warcry', to some sustained and meaningful riffing, as in 'Into The Arena'. Drummer Francesco "Kekko" Tresco certainly makes his presence felt.

The album also has some flaws too; bass player Giorgio "JT" Terenziani may well have been in the studio, but the production saw fit to hide him somewhere in the mix. However, my real issue is with Fabio Dessi, there is no doubt he can sing, and he can certainly scream, but a vocalist needs to supply emotion and feeling to raise a song from out of the ordinary – really good vocalists (to paraphrase) can "take a bad song and make it better".

Unfortunately, Dessi spends so much time concentrating on screaming, but there is no passion, and the ballad 'If I Fall' is mediocre at best. The voice is good, but it has no depth and shade, high notes fall away, some Vibrato would have added colour. There is a lack of melody too, and some songs have such indistinct choruses it feels as if they don't have any.

That all being said, there are songs on 'Blood.Fury.Domination' that I did love, for example, 'Inner-Fury Unleashed' had some real groove and riff, and felt more constructed than some. I adored the Power Rock Salsa introduction to 'Firetribe', although the melody lost the momentum, a bit more attention and it could have been great. All in all, it's an "okay" album for fans, but if you don't know Arthemis, then I think '...Fight' was much better.

Helen Bradley Owers