Quickly establishing themselves for their brand of zombie-oriented power metal, Germany’s Dominum arrives at their second album in two years for The Dead Don’t Die. Strong anthem-like hooks on both the vocal and musical fronts should align well with their followers – beyond their captivating stage names and haunting imagery. We reached out to vocalist Felix Heldt (aka Dr. Dead) to find out how the band were able to get a quality second album released quickly, the collaborative process and levels of lyrical content at play, video work, the relationship between imagery and music for the band, special thoughts about live shows and their favorite fans, what the band has learned touring with a legend like Bruce Dickinson, special hobbies away from music, and future plans.
Dead Rhetoric: The Dead Don’t Die is the second studio album for Dominum – and a fairly quick follow-up to last year’s Hey Living People debut. Did you feel confident going into the songwriting and recording sessions with where you wanted this release to go, or progress, compared to that previous outing?
Dr. Dead: We were aware of that if you are able to release a second record very quickly, people will pay very close attention to what you are doing. We didn’t stop writing songs at all. We are writing songs constantly all the time. If we would have not done this, that would have been impossible to do. We also have a recording set up on the road, so if we do have some ideas, we either sing it on the phone or immediately record it onto the laptop. If this technology would not exist, we would have been super screwed. It would have been impossible to do another record in that amount of time.
Obviously, there’s some pressure. For the first record, you have your whole life – and for the second record, you have one year. There are many artists where the debut is good and the second record is not so good, so you say, the pressure got ahead of them. If we had that impression ourselves, we would not have given the record to the label. We want the quality to be satisfying and top notch. We did have the impression that this was a great album, so we submitted this to the label, and they were also under the impression that this is a good album. Everyone is happy now! (laughs).
Dead Rhetoric: How does the songwriting process work between the band members? Is there one person who comes up with an idea for everyone else to flesh out, or are there collaborations at the same time between people to come up with the best ideas?
Dr. Dead: Especially on this record, there were many collaborations. For example, Ben Metzner who I worked with in Feuerschwanz, we did “One of Us”, when you have a vibe with someone, it’s an efficient way to write songs. Someone who you have a vibe with, he tells me if things are good or if it’s not good enough. That was really fun to do an experience, this collaborating experience for the record.
Dead Rhetoric: When it comes to the lyrics, there’s an obvious zombie metal framework, but do you try to put another layer of content that may be more relevant to current times or social themes?
Dr. Dead: Of course. Explaining lyrics is a hard thing to do, but we try to serve all the people. Also, the people who just want to have a good power metal show, the people who want to get into the lyrics and get something out of it. You have both possibilities; you can go on this path or that path. It works both ways, that’s the art behind the lyric writing. That you don’t have one layer, you have multiple layers that you can discover. If you want to – you don’t have to. Sometimes people just want to sing ‘one of us’ – and that’s fine.
Dead Rhetoric: Does it become a case as well from taking these songs live on stage in front of audiences that you see what works best in that context to influence your next set of material – or is it just trusting your intuition and your own instincts that drive you creatively?
Dr. Dead: The thing you said last, trusting your instincts, is what we did on the first record. We didn’t have any other choice – it was during COVID-19, and we didn’t have any shows to play. We did our best, but of course when you play sixty shows in a year, this influences you heavily. A show is not a one directional thing to do – you get so much back from the audience, which is very important to us. That had an enormous impact on our songwriting, that’s for sure.
Dead Rhetoric: Discuss the importance of the stage names, the make-up, and imagery when it comes to Dominum? What do you want the followers of the band to understand about the relationship between this and the music?
Dr. Dead: To us, the music is the most important thing. This zombie thing of course, here and there the songs are about zombie business, zombie games, and zombie-ness. In the end we want to write good music, and I am very much of the opinion that the music is what really matters most. You can have the greatest masks, the greatest names, the greatest outfits – if your music is no good, no one is going to pay attention to you. And no one will like you – they will see you have a cool mask, and swipe away and you are gone forever. Music lasts, and music is what connects us to the people. The zombie-ness is just a little gimmick I would say, not a little – but the music would be possible without this, and the masks and outfits would not be possible without the music.
Dead Rhetoric: Is this where you explore the imagery a little bit more through the videos?
Dr. Dead: Absolutely. It’s great fun. We are a zombie band, so we can do so much stuff. We shot a video in a graveyard, a real graveyard in Germany. Which is a challenging thing to do. We have some real bureaucracy going on here in Germany, and we were able to do this. A zombie video in a graveyard is just the most natural thing to do.
Dead Rhetoric: Where do you place the importance of band chemistry and assembling the right team as far as management, record label, promoters, etc. to building the brand of Dominum?
Dr. Dead: This is very important. First of all, I don’t want to talk about myself being a product, but I think the product needs to be very good, and then if someone is interested in you, it’s mainly because of that product. Then, having Napalm Records helps a lot, the Cobra agency, and also our management, to have a good team around us that understands what we want and where we want to go. So, we can all pull with the same force. For a band on our level, the team is very important. The guys on the road, they are lovely guys, and you hang around with them all day. Of course, you play a show on stage for 45 minutes to one and a half hours, it depends if you are a support act or not. The rest of the day, you have to hang around – so they better be good people, or otherwise you will freak out.
Dead Rhetoric: Is it a challenge to juggle priorities, as I know some of the members also work in other bands that are very active in the scene?
Dr. Dead: Let’s put it this way – it’s not making things any easier! (laughs). We try to always find a way to make everyone happy. This is just life – we don’t live in a world without any issues. It’s how you treat the issues, this is the art behind it, I think. In a perfect world without any issues, this just doesn’t happen.
Dead Rhetoric: You’ve picked some intriguing covers over the last two records between artists like Billie Eilish, Dead Or Alive, Midnight Oil, and for this new record – The Scorpions. What criteria comes into play in what makes the final cut to take these songs and pay tribute or redefine them in your own way?
Dr. Dead: On the first record, it was more out of intuition and what would be fun to do. On this record, it was also that – as well as “Rock You Like a Hurricane” turned forty this year, so we thought it would be a nice birthday present to a band like The Scorpions who built such a great foundation for us to build our little band houses on. It’s like Metallica and Iron Maiden – those bands have done so much for us; we thought it would be a nice thing to pay tribute to them.
Dead Rhetoric: You have an impending headline tour across German and the Netherlands as well as a UK tour early next year supporting Gloryhammer and Fellowship. What do you hope to get across to these audiences, and will Dominum continue to add new stage elements or aspects to differentiate things tour to tour?
Dr. Dead: Of course. We are a zombie band, so we can do whatever we want to. This tour with Gloryhammer and Fellowship, we’ve been to the UK before, and we’ve had great fun. This is a perfect power metal package. One big circle of shaking hands. The package with Gloryhammer and the unicorn vibe, Fellowship vibe and the Dominum vibe, it’s going to be a cool package for the power metal audiences.
Dead Rhetoric: What do you think about the state of power metal currently? What excites you, and what changes (if any) would you like to make?
Dr. Dead: I wouldn’t want to change anything. In this power metal world, I feel very comfortable. I am a fan of gimmicks, I like bands like Visions of Atlantis, Warkings, Powerwolf, Sabaton, I like them and the styles of music that surround us. It’s just my cup of tea. I’m in my thirties, and those bands created a zeitgeist which I’m proudly the one that’s supposed to be enjoying that.
Dead Rhetoric: What have been some of your favorite fan interaction stories you’ve had with Dominum so far?
Dr. Dead: We have such great fans. They come to as many shows as they can. We have a fan club here in Germany, and those are the cutest people. They always think of little interactions between new fans that might have joined us, they think of little gimmicks like posting selfies. They will hide some presents in the venues for this new tour for other fans to find – that’s so cute. It’s exactly what we are trying to do with Dominum – we want to bring people together and try to have a good time. It’s great to have such cool fans.
Dead Rhetoric: Being a relative newcomer trying to make an impact in the scene, what do you consider some of the biggest challenges in breaking through in a very crowded marketplace?
Dr. Dead: I would say the consistency. Because you really have to commit. We are just at the beginning. The commitment to do this full-time is the most important thing. If you have too many other things to do, you won’t have enough time for this. If you have a plan B, you don’t have enough time for a plan A. I can feel right now, I’m still producing bands, but it gets heavier and heavier to manage time over all this. Dominum is taking up so much time and space, it’s crazy.
Dead Rhetoric: What are some hobbies or interests that you have away from your musical endeavors that you like to engage in when you have the free time and energy to do so?
Dr. Dead: Wow, that’s a question I’ve never been asked before! Great question. I like cooking a lot. I like all sorts of kitchen gear, which is a weird thing to say. I love pans, I like Italian food, I cook that stuff all the time. I like eating, and therefore I also have to do some physical training to be able to eat a lot! (laughs). It’s the sad truth.
Dead Rhetoric: What do you think you’ve learned so far being on the road, especially touring with artists like Bruce Dickinson and Orden Ogan, that you’ve applied to Dominum to make the band stronger?
Dr. Dead: Never lose the fun. When Bruce Dickinson came out every day, he was always there for soundcheck himself. Just to be good, he wanted his music to be as good as possible. I would say you can learn from him; he enjoys what he is doing. And that’s really cool.
Dead Rhetoric: How do you see the next year or so developing for Dominum as far as activities, touring, recordings, etc.?
Dr. Dead: Obviously we are writing new songs for our next record. We are also planning new shows. North America is always on our list, but for a European band on our level, it can be tough to get there. It’s very expensive to tour there, getting the visa permits and to travel there, your country is very big. But this is on our list, we are trying to make it work as soon as possible.