Dom Romeo Details Total Dom-Ination of His Integrity Days
BY GREGORY ADAMS
Last year I spoke with Domenic Romeo to get into his playing on the debut album from End Reign, a metallic hardcore supergroup where the longtime Integrity guitarist is joined by folks from All Out War (vocalist Mike Score), Bloodlet (bassist Arthur Legere), Noisem (guitarist Sebastian Phillips), and Pig Destroyer (drummer Adam Jarvis). It’s an arcane rager, rife with gonzo guitar solos that present “two uniquely flavored lead styles: intricately sculptured, neo-classical flurries (Romeo) and stream-of-conscious scatter-shots of chaos (Phillips).” Check out the album, if you haven’t already!
At the time we did the interview, I’d assumed Dom was also working on material with Integrity, whose last full-length, Howling, For The Night Shall Consume, came out all the way back in 2017. Turns out, though, that the Canadian-born six-stringer’s full-time tenure with the hardcore icons comes to a close this month through the release of All Death Is Mine: Total Dom-Ination, a collection of singles, covers, and alternate takes Dom had a hand in as their lead guitarist, from 2014 to now.
“Being in that band for close to a decade was a dream come true,” he says, noting that his last official show with Integrity — his favourite band — was pre-pandemic. There are no hard feelings — clearly, considering they released a whole dang compilation highlighting Dom’s contributions. While he’s content keeping off the road to focus on family and other projects, there’s still a chance he could contribute somehow in the future. “Integrity has been a constantly evolving tale from inception. Sometimes the characters come and go, so I know anything is possible.”
What’s sure is that the past decade saw Dom developing a unique twist on Integrity’s metallic hardcore. While the band had featured shredders in the past — Aaron Melnick’s god-level fretboard lunacy through their ‘90s era inspired many, including Dom — this era tapped into a newfound, phaser-blasted melodicism that owes as much to the watery-toned savagery of G.I.S.M.s Randy Uchida as it did the lycanthropic legato of Ozzy protégé Jake E. Lee. Those players are saluted faithfully through covers found on Total Dom-Ination, in part tracked to ramp up Dom’s own technique. “Most of those recordings were done during a time in my life where I was playing guitar every day, with a heavy focus on self-improvement,” he explains.
Speaking with Gut Feeling, Dom further dives into his guitar playing on the compilation, ‘80s-era inspiration, and how even though the Total Dom-Ination era has come to a close, “Integrity is forever.”
This interview has been edited and condensed.
"BARK AT THE MOON" (Originally performed by Ozzy Osbourne)
In our last conversation, you brought up the massive influence of guitarists like Dokken’s George Lynch — he shows up in your chord phrasing on the End Reign album, for instance. Since we’re dealing with a classic cover, here, where does Ozzy-era Jake E. Lee rank on your ‘80s metal guitar Mount Rushmore?
ROMEO: I’ve always been a Blizzard of Ozz / Diary of a Mad Man guy but Bark At The Moon and Ultimate Sin have also never really left rotation since I was a kid — I love “Killer Of Giants,” it’s one of my all-time favourites. There is a larger-than-life quality to the Jake E. Lee albums that are otherworldly.
My ‘80s Metal Rushmore would be Randy Rhoads, Vinnie Vincent, George Lynch, Randy Uchida, and of course Eddie Van Halen. Jake would be waiting in the sidelines, though, along with Warren DeMartini.
Jake is famously an S-shape player. Did you try to match that sizzle by using single coils on this cover?
ROMEO: I’ve tried so many times to find a single-coil setup that I like, but it has never happened. That, coupled with me being monogamous with gear by design, means it’s always the same guitar, across the board. I used the BC Rich Mockingbird with Lace Drop & Gain Humbucker pickups that I normally used for Integrity and End Reign. The only time I deviate from that on this compilation is when I’m playing acoustic guitar on a Nothing cover.
There are some pretty faithful runs within your solo, particularly that neo-classical back end when you’re climbing the fretboard. You’re even recreating Jake's phaser tone. How important was it for you to try to match those moments, rather than completely re-envision them through the lens of Integrity?
ROMEO: Oh, it was 100 per cent intentional — but adding the phaser was totally [producer] Arthur Rizk’s move. I’m glad he caught it!
The real reason this cover was birthed into existence was that I really wanted to level-up [my technique] and learn how to play it from start to finish. Committing to recording it with Integrity put me in the hot seat, and it forced me to go for it. It’s not totally perfect…I’m way sloppier than Jake, and I deviated the licks a little in places, but overall, I think it’s a pretty accurate tribute to being a kid and being in awe of the “Bark At The Moon” video when it'd play on Toronto Rocks.
What do you remember about playing this at a hardcore fest in Vancouver? Did the kids vibe with the Ozzy cover?
ROMEO: YES! I can’t say many bad things about my time with Integrity, but one thing would be that we only played this song ONCE (…and yes, it was in Vancouver). It went over amazing. I wish we played it more often!
"THAW" (Originally performed by Septic Death)
You mentioned in another interview that these Septic Death covers had been partially tracked by past lineups of the band. How much of a hand did you have in these, in terms of either leads or rhythms.
ROMEO: There are incomplete Septic Death recordings floating around, and I think that they originated from an old bootleg. It was just a few songs missing vocals, with basic drums, bass and rhythm guitar laid down. These recordings were the basis for the different versions of "Septic Death Karaoke" that Integrity have done over the years.
When I got asked to do the versions on the comp, I was excited by the prospect of using modern technology that wasn’t really as accessible as it was when [previous Integrity guitarists] Aaron Melnick or Rob Orr did their versions years ago. And I recorded stereo rhythm guitar tracks over the existing tracks to beef them up. I improvised all of the solos, except for “Sweat Of A Nightmare,” which featured a lead by Darkest Prince of Devil Master fame.
Shred is great and all, but there’s something extremely underrated about knowing how to plow through hardcore power chords, full-speed ahead. Like, “Thaw” starts out extremely fast as it is, but then goes nuclear double-time. It’s a different skill-set…
ROMEO: Absolutely. This was probably harder than recording most solos for a multitude of reasons. First of all, my meter is naturally very sloppy. If I’m locking in with a drummer it’s no problem, but if I’m in free space I just hope to God that it lines up on the track.
I’m not very tech-savvy. I would just look at the track balloon in GarageBand and try to start right out the gate full speed. The whole idea was very spontaneous. I didn’t really have time to prepare, so it was pretty rough. I have arthritis in both of my hands and wrists, too. It's really a luck of the draw as to how a day is gonna go, but thankfully it worked out.
"SCORCHED EARTH"
This is a different mix than the version that was on the Krieg split from a few years back. A lot of that has to do with an extended noise/drone intro, but your lead sections are now absolutely drenched in decay and delay ambiance. The presentation is definitely more effects heavy. What was the reasoning behind filling the comp with different mixes?
ROMEO: We loved the mix on Howling. It was huge, almost orchestral…but [by comparison] the other recordings we did always sounded weaker. This was due to the Phil Spector approach we took on Howling, with 10,000 guitar overdubs. Everything else was done lean cuisine.
“Scorched Earth” was inspired by Misfits’ Earth A.D. album and the Atari 2600 game Galaxian. We wanted the solos to sound like alien missiles falling from the sky, with the vocals coming at you in a similar fashion — a total aural assault! The new version captures that intention a lot better, in my opinion.
What do you like about how your playing comes across on this version?
ROMEO: I like that it sounds more violent and haphazard, which is what we originally intended. Those four songs on the Krieg split were really orchestrated and arranged to be like an apocalyptic sci-fi mini-movie.
"ALL DEATH IS MINE"
Is there any extra significance to this song, considering it ultimately became the title track to the comp?
ROMEO: It came about from Adult Swim wanting a new Integrity song, and it was the last song we wrote together in this formation. At the time, I had a bunch of demos that went in two directions. Some of the stuff was like what you heard on the End Reign LP, which was a concise Slayer-meets-Dokken approach. The rest were an ensemble of deep ‘80s metal and G.I.S.M. influences. “All Death Is Mine” came from that second set of songs.
There were many different false starts, as to what universe the next Integrity record was going to live in. I don’t mean that in a bad way; I just mean that we stepped onto roads we never got to fully realize and explore. Again, the songs on the Krieg split were meant to sound like a supersonic attack ending the world as a whole. But by the time we did “All Death Is Mine,” we were heading in that ‘80s metal direction. I didn’t really know it at the moment, but I’m glad that we ended our time together with that song. It’s one of my favourites.
Since that '80s metal guitar style arguably wasn’t as prevalent in Integrity's music before you joined the band, did you discuss that approach much with [founder/vocalist] Dwid, or just jump right in?
ROMEO: I think it comes from our mutual admiration for the Randy Uchida Group’s Deathly Fighter 7-inch, old Ozzy, and of course G.I.S.M. Early '80s metal is my bread and butter, so I had a huge palette of influences to pull from when putting those songs together. Thankfully Dwid shared the interest and enthusiasm in the musical directions I wanted to explore. Neither of us wanted to make Humanity Is The Devil II: Return Of The Devil.
What do you think people listening to Total Dom-ination will take away from your playing, or even the way the band evolved through this time?
ROMEO: I think no one will ever listen to it as closely or care about it as much as I do.
Integrity transcended hardcore before I was ever in the picture, but I think we took the band to strange new places and made it work. Whatever elements remain in the picture remains to be seen, but I’m grateful to have contributed to the musical DNA, to help the next guys bring their vision to life. Integrity is forever.
All Death Is Mine: Total Dom-Ination is out 2/23 via Relapse Records.
You can order the record here.
You can also read my End Reign interview with Dom over at Guitar World.
END HITS
Cupid & Psyche - Romantic Music
I’ve been meaning to write about L.A. duo Cupid & Psyche’s Romantic Music since it came out last fall, but for whatever reason I’ve been putting it off. Part of it may be that there are sometimes records that I just want to enjoy on a personal level, completely outside the scope of writing. Here we are on Valentine’s Day, though, and this feels like the right time to give this record some love.
Like many, I first found out about Cupid & Psyche members Juan Velasquez and Michael Vidal when they were playing together in Abe Vigoda, a band that caught some hype in the late ‘00s as part of the d.i.y. punk explosion going on at L.A. all-ages venue The Smell — an old band of mine managed to share a bill with them there when we rolled through town in 2007; some of the members of Mika Miko were working the door.
Cupid & Psyche started up in 2020 during early pandemic lockdowns, and marks the first music Velasquez and Vidal have made together since shutting down Abe Vigoda in 2011. All told, their latest band is quite a bit different, hanging onto hooks much longer and deeper than the outward blur of effects that drove Abe Vigoda's earliest bits of manically-paced "tropical punk".
Romantic Music's an aptly-named album with quite a few bow-drawing highlights. For proof, peep the back-masked guitar beauty and echo-thump beatwork of the title track, or Velasquez’s breathy despair throughout the sophisticated, minor key drama of “Angel on the Phone”. I'm also quite partial to the goth-dappled chorus effects and twitched-out retro breaks of “Serenity Pit,” flavoured by the pair’s mutual love of “Appels + Oranjes”/”Perfect”-era Smashing Pumpkins (you can read more about that connection in a recent Bandcamp profile).
Are you spending time with some Romantic Music tonight? I know I will be!
Mineral - "February"
Let's close on another seasonally-appropriate shout-out! Mineral are Texan indie-emo legends, having popped off two all-timer albums for Crank! in the mid '90s. That said, I'm going to highlight "February," a lesser-known A-side to one of their singles for Caulfield Records.
“February” is an elegant bit of pedal-boosted, azure-reflecting emo — sonically sitting somewhere between the slowcore of Seam and the rawer, distorted dynamics of Sunny Day Real Estate. It all starts with long stretches of clean guitar chatter and molasses-drip drum work, but I want to focus on when the beat switches to a mid-song paradiddle. From here, “February” interchanges two similarly bookended four-chord sequences — AGBD and ABGD — that manage to live in totally different worlds. Descending the notes in first phrase gives it an elementally aching vibe; rising to the B note in phrase two gives it a hopeful lift. It's a great, simple songwriting trick. Masterful juxtaposition. Perpetually fascinating.
Fittingly, Mineral recorded this track with Neverland Studio’s Chris Colbert on the last day of February 1996. I guess that kind of explains the chubby cherub on the 7-inch artwork, too.
I’d initially thought about prepping this within a fuller Caulfield Records beginner’s guide, considering the long-dormant label has slowly started uploading the catalogue onto Bandcamp and likewise booted up their own Instagram account at the end of 2023. Maybe I’ll get around to that later on — some of those records scored a good chunk of my teendom.