Review Summary: A genuinely impressive return for Dommin
Most of the time it's easy to work out if a band is good or bad in you mind, but sometimes there are bands that fall into the cracks of ambiguity. Are they good or not? For me, Dommin is one of those bands – a band that unintentionally chops everything down to a binary choice: they're either fantastic or boring, there is no in between. While this might sound like I’m disparaging Dommin and their body of work, it’s actually more complicated than that, because while it’s true each of their albums has its fair share of tracks that drone on for too long or are completely none-descript, when they get the formula right the results are simply spellbinding. Ironically, it is this frustrating dichotomy that has probably led to them enduring on my playlist all these years later. For every “Dark Holiday” and “Next Day Apologies”, there’s a “Without End” and “Rise” to counter it. So, when I recently discovered Dommin had aptly released their first new album in nine years on Valentine’s Day (taking the 2022 collab album with The Oztones out of the equation), I was pleasantly surprised to see their return. After the release of their second studio album
Love is Gone – which got significant traction with hit singles “My Heart, Your Hands” and “Tonight” – they were dropped from Roadrunner a couple years later, which caused the band to go on a hiatus while they aired out some contractual issues with their former label. Since then, the band has released two albums as an independent act and gradually stripped itself down to Kristofer Dommin as the sole member of Dommin.
Now that Dommin is a solo act again (coming full circle to how the band originally came to be), does
The Martyr break the cycle and deliver a consistent record, or is it another volatile release with peaks and troughs? Well, I’d say Dommin retains the odd deep-rooted habit, but it’s inarguably the most steadfast album the band has ever produced. While
The Martyr has the occasionally uneventful moment or pernicious creative decision, the quality of the songwriting is head and shoulders above previous works. It’s hard to really pick one highlight here, because the melodies and music is so strong throughout most of it. I absolutely adore the authentic 80s post-punk vibe on “Change” and “Beautiful as a Stranger”, while the new-wave and gothic powerhouse “Strings” and “Breaking Down” respectively bring out some of Dommin’s strongest material hitherto. The beautifully composed acoustic ballads “Thorn & Roses” and “The Sun Setting” bring some nice variety to the tracklisting, and the blues rock “I Won’t be Here” and quintessential Dommin sounding “Rule to Break” make
The Martyr one of the most entertaining albums of 2025.
The obvious detriment here is that
The Martyr is lacking an editor. Put simply, the record is too long, clocking in at sixty-three minutes. Had “Safe”, “Dreamkiller”, “Shadows of Doubt” and “Upside Down” hit the cutting room floor the album would have been in an even more formidable state. The aforementioned tracks just aren’t up to pare with the rest of the album: “Dreamkiller” is a disappointingly damp way to close your greatest album to date; “Upside Down” is a return to that goofy, upbeat space Dommin have resided in in the past, complete with annoying melodies; “Safe” is an anodyne acoustic track that could have easily been dropped from the tracklisting; and “Shadows of Doubt” is a generic tempo-raising rock track with no distinguishing features to it. There’s also a couple of sloppy and baffling creative plays that unravel what songs are doing so well, decisions that could have easily been avoided no less. A prime example of this is on “Breaking Down” which is a gothic-drenched ballad with great arrangements, a tangible mood, and powerful melodies, however, just when it feels like the song is coming to its logical conclusion at the four-minute mark, Dommin decides to stick another minute-and-a-bit onto it for absolutely no reason. The extra time doesn’t bring anything meaningful to the table, all it does is undermine what was so effectively executed beforehand.
Blemishes and all,
The Martyr is still one of the strongest albums to come out of 2025 so far. For the first time in their career, Dommin’s released a thoroughly enjoyable album that doesn’t give you whiplash. We’re not reaching the heights of “My Heart, Your Hands”, but it’s not far behind that level of excellence; the trade-off here is that we’re getting a more consistent album that maintains a great standard of writing throughout, superseding previous albums which had scintillating bursts of energy, but energy that couldn’t sustain itself for long. Hopefully this is the start of even greater things for Dommin, because this is a fantastic return. One thing is for certain:
The Martyr has made a complete fan out of me.
