Dominici – O3: A Trilogy, Part 3

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InsideOut Music
Produced by Charlie Dominici, Brian Maillard & Yan Maillard

Vocalist Charlie Dominici’s past is well known to progressive metal fans. The original Dream Theater singer who was replaced by James LaBrie after their debut album When Dream And Day Unite.

After that Dominici disappeared somewhat into obscurity, leaving the music business altogether. In 2004 Dream Theater invited him to join them on stage at a special show in Los Angeles marking the 15th anniversary of their first album. Before this he’d not really been actively singing, and this performance gave him the urge to make metal music again. In 2005 he released O3: A Trilogy, Part 1, which disappeared quite quickly and is now out of print.

However, InsideOut Music signed him on a Worldwide deal for parts 2 and 3 of the trilogy in 2006, and Part 2 was released in February 2007 to critical acclaim, earning Charlie some high profile support slots with Dream Theater in Europe. This second installment is much heavier and more progressive than the first part and saw Charlie form a permanent band under the name ‘Dominici’. But as good as Part 2 was, Part 3 betters it.

The trilogy is one of the most audacious progressive metal concepts of all time and the basic story revolves around the title, ‘O3′. O3 means ‘Oxygen-3′ and is the chemical make-up of the ozone layer. This chemical make-up can be altered in such a way that the ozone would become poisonous and wipe out life on Earth. A religious faction believe the only way to save mankind is to exterminate it and recruit and train a young man to bring about the end of the World. The other pivotal character in the story is a police detective who has been pursuing this young man.

Story aside, the conclusion of which requires detailed listening to the album and reading of the lyrics, which Charlie has made available on his website, this is one of the best progressive metal releases of the year so far and it will take a very special album to take that title away from it over the course of the remaining months. Heavy, complex and interesting this third album has everything a progressive metal album needs, all provided by the members of Italian progressive metal outfit Solid Vision.

Vocally similar to Devon Graves in places, Dominici himself performs better here than on the last outing, exploring more styles and different melodies than before and injecting suitable emotion into songs like So Help Me God and Revelation. Musically the band sometimes sound like Dream Theater, and comparisons to them, especially given Dominici’s past, are inevitable, but there are plenty of original ideas in here as well. The band being naturally tight since they all play together with Solid Vision anyway.

For example some very modern sounding riffs open the first of two ten-minute epics Enemies of God and there’s some truly incredible guitar playing in Hell On Earth from Swiss guitarist Brian Maillard. The second epic track, Genesis, is the most remarkable work on the album, moving through countless phases as it wraps up the most movie-script-worthy prog concept story since Operation: Mindcrime.

It’s somewhat unfortunate, given the quality of the last two albums, that Dominici are not getting more opportunities to play live than they currently are. It’s already May and they’ve not played live this year, and have no dates scheduled either. The festival circuit is probably the way for them to get out to as many countries as possible, but it’s a bit late for that this year. Hopefully they’ll get the chance they deserve with these albums.

“ Heavy, complex and interesting ”

Tracklist: King of Terror / March Into Hell / So Help Me God / Liquid Lightning / Enemies of God / Revelation / Hell On Earth / Genesis

Written by Andy Lye
More: Albums, Progressive, Dominici