Album Review: Video Nasties – Dominion

Video Nasties are not the first band to exploit the kinship between metal and horror films, but few have done so with the sharp savvy and outright glee displayed by this Scouse quintet.

Arriving with their debut full-length like a hatchet to the head, they blend together the finest of metals – death, thrash, black and the occasional touch of doom – with some classic punk inflections, and they’re catchy with it, as established on romping opener Stay Gold.

And with the goal of each song feeling like a horror film in its own right, they do this stuff very well, no better than on the swirling strains of Red Of Night. It’s a song that practically screams out ‘masked killer on the loose’, while the frenzied Stabbing Nightmare is thoroughly drenched in the red stuff. They also pay respectful homage to horror maestro John Carpenter, particularly on the synth-and-samples title-track, but echoes of his eerie melodies weave throughout the album. Fun, gory stuff.

Verdict: 4/5