DREAMS OF DAMNATION is the new home of former DARK ANGEL guitarist Jim Durkin, who joined forces with two (as of yet) unknown dudes named Al Mendez (on drums) and Charlie Silva (on bass / vocals) for another dose of raw old school Death / Thrash. "Let The Violence Begin", their debut offering, is a 6 song mini album that you better not compare to Jim’s former band at all, cause DREAMS OF DAMNATION are still far away from DARK ANGEL’s brilliance. According to Jim’s liner notes most of the songs were recorded live and in almost one take. Well, that’s obviously one of the main problems with this release, cause this is certainly not a suitable production for an album (maybe for a demo?!), as the overall result sounds kinda immature, cheap and sloppy. The pretty average drumming by no means compliments Jim’s intense riff attack (which for my taste ended up too much in the background of the mix anyway) and the growling vocals are not really convincing either – they are lacking too much in an own identity. So, to quote good ol’ Jim one more time: "This is raw, violent, brutal, head bustin’ old school Death Thrash Metal… played with all the hate and anger we could muster!" Yeah right, but unfortunately not convincing enough to succeed on the long run or to step out of DARK ANGEL’s overmighty shadow.