IQ -  Dominion

Which band can honestly say that they have been active for almost forty five years and have not delivered a single bad album in all that time. Not many, but within our genre we can say that IQ comes very close. Okay, the albums with Paul Menell as singer may not have been the best, but they still contain a few IQ classics that are still rock solid with vocals by Peter Nicholls. It is to the band's credit that these songs are still regularly included in the setlist.

As a big fan of the music of these Brits I of course have all albums on CD and when a new album comes out once in a while, it goes without saying that I eagerly wait to hear what they have made this time. My favourite albums so far are The Wake, Ever, Frequency and The Road Of Bones, but as I said, all albums are just rock solid. I do think that their last album Resistance contains a few tracks that don't do justice to the very high quality of the other tracks.

Despite the fact that it has been six years since Resistance was released, it has now been decided to make a single album and that works out great because Dominion is a very good album. Five tracks and a total playing time of just over fifty two minutes means that there are long tracks ahead. Except for the very short acoustic song One of Us this is accurate.

We start off with the longest track of the album because with more than twenty-two minutes The Unknown Door is  immediately an opening to prog heaven and it is immediately noticeable that this is IQ as we know them. Any surprises? No, not really but after all these years they still know how to create an epic that contains all their trademarks at a very high level. Haunting keys, changing patterns, great solos on guitar and a steady singing Nicholls. His lyrics are not the most easy to dissect but I assume that it is about a world beyond the one we live in. Some acoustic parts provide some moments of rest and Durant is always able to put a thick blanket of keys under the sometimes thin guitar sounds. Indeed, we have all heard it before, but somehow it sticks more and comes in better. This promises a lot for the rest. The following, already mentioned, rather simple song One of Us does not touch me that much and takes away the flow for me, fortunately it only lasts a little over three minutes. This is not where I think IQ is strongest, but I may be the only one in that.

But don't worry, the rest of the tracks are all great and I'm glad Holmes is making his guitar sing again in his very own style of playing. That was a bit less on Resistance. Not necessarily super technical but with its own stamp and a lot of emotion. Not a dime a dozen case. It is also noticeable that the intros are often long and mostly quiet, as is already the case in the advance single No Dominion, but once they get going, the heavy waves of pure symphonic rock come over you like a waltz. Volume up high and sway along. The song The Road of Bones, for example, also has such a structure and it is nice that the time is taken to give the listener the chance to be sucked into a song.

That IQ can also rock out quite firm we hear in the more than twelve minutes long Far from Here And especially in the middle part where the tempo increases considerably and rhythm is changed several times. Well, IQ will never make music that we have to classify as prog metal, which is a good thing, because there is already so (too?) much of that on offer. This is pure symphonic rock.

Also the last song Never Land, no not Neverland as by Marillion, has a typical IQ build-up but remains a bit calmer overall and has a beautiful melody. Both Durant and Holmes make themselves heard and we would be selling "Cookie" and Esau short if we didn't mention them because without a good rhythm section it wouldn't sound so impressive. Losing someone does not mean that they are out of your system and life goes on but coping with loss is not easy. A lyric that we all can relate to because we all lose people.

As far as the lyrical content of the songs is concerned, as usual with Nicholls, much is left to the personal interpretation of the listener. They are often visual and sometimes vague, but there can also be a charm in that. It all comes across as being a more positive look on things, less angry than on Resistance. The cover shows a man that has to look for a future within himself and not seek for it in external elements. This relates to the lyrics and in an interview Pete states that he is in a good place now, you can hear this.

I had very high expectations of Dominion and I must confess that I needed a few listens to fully appreciate this album. It will undoubtedly tempt many reviewers to indicate that there is nothing new under the sun, and in fact that may be true, but the execution of all those typical IQ elements has worked out very well on Dominion. I was less enthusiastic about Resistance because I found that album very intense and especially in the beginning I missed Holmes' guitar as a solo instrument. Of course there are also beautiful tracks on it and IQ just doesn't make bad albums, but I'm more charmed by the IQ on this new album. Instinctively, the melodies are just more beautiful.

So it’s clear that I can recommend Dominion without a doubt, existing IQ fans can extend their collection with a great album and non-existing fans (do they exist?) should give it another try.

By the way, I was able to write this review while listening to the cd that was brought from the weekend in Asschaffenburg in Germany by a fellow IQ fan. Thank you very much Denise!

Music 91

Cover 89