Even as an Integrity fan boy, I had no idea All Death Is Mine: Total Domination was coming out till I saw it appear on Spotify yesterday (January 9th).
The new collection gathers rarities and unreleased tracks from the last 7 years of Integrity's run with guitarist Dom Romeo. Mastered by Arthur Rizk (Power Trip, Sumerlands), the compilation includes covers of Motörhead, Septic Death, and Misfits, among other bands that influenced the Cleveland icons.
Dom just sent me a track-by-track breakdown of All Death Is Mine: Total Domination to offer more context. His thoughts are included below.
Enjoy!
-Carlos
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"All Death Is Mine"
This is the last song I wrote for Integrity before stepping away from the band so it’s bittersweet. We were approached to do a song for the Adult Swim Singles Series and this was the best of the songs we had demoed at the time. Total 1983 US metal worship with a lot of nods to a lot of things. You’ll catch them if you’re wise.
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"Making Love with Devil"
When Integ toured Japan in 2017, we thought it would be fun to play a Zouo cover since we heard Cherry was going to be at the show. All I had to remember this was a little clip on Instagram to remember this by, and it tortured my OCD to not have a proper recorded version of the song,…so we did it.
I love the vocals on this one too. They sound huge.
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"Cradle to the Grave"
We were really really obsessed with the second Decline of Western Civilization movie. I always loved how this Motörhead track kicks things off, and thought it would be fun to cover (although not as fun as "Nuclear Winter"). I wrote my own solos for this one and it was really challenging to fill up so much space without being repetitive.
Dwid does an amazing Lemmy. This was recorded specifically for one of the Halloween packages that come out annually on Organized Crime Records.
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"Bark at the Moon"
I threw this on the table (and Scorpions' "Sails of Charon") with the idea that if we committed to it, I would have to level up and learn how to play it. It came out great, we even played it live once in Vancouver and it was a blast. I wish we had played it more often. I think the bed tracks for "Sails of Charon" are on the reels somewhere.
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"Entartete Kunst (Fast)"
One of the most interesting tracks on Howling for The Nightmare Shall Consume has two different tracks playing in the Left and Right channels and lining up in the center. There’s a lot to unpack in there…it’s two songs happening at once.
We thought it would be cool to let everyone hear what the songs sounded like on their own. This is one of the sides.
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"Skulls"
This was another track we did for one of Organized Crime Record’s Halloween packages. The idea was that the package would include artists interpretations of the Integrity skull logo, hence the choice of songs: "Skulls" by the Misfits.
Usually, when we record it’s me and a drummer but this was a fun online collaboration with Steve Rauckhorst that played on To Die For/The Blackest Curse, Ron Ugritone, the Darkest Prince himself (Devil Master) and with some tough contract negotiations with Hell-Mistress Records we were able to get the Sexman (Justin Ethem) to appear on the track, provided he was able to record at Embedded Metronome Studios. I added a fun little solo to this just to change it up.
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"Rites of Love and Death"
This was originally recorded for the Two Minutes To Late Night session we did with NOTHING. They did an amazing cover of "Those Who Fear Tomorrow" and we did "Rites." Both bands really pulled it off.
This was another situation where I wrote the solo for the song. It’s a real tear-jerker. I knew my time with the band was going to be over soon and I let it rip.
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"Scorched Earth"
This was the first song we wrote after Howling. I was obsessed with Misfits' Earth A.D. album and wrote a grip of songs in that vein but weirder (think Earth A.D. meets Septic Death/GISM). There were enough songs to make a 7” but this was the only one that survived.
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"Flames of the Immortal"
This was a song we recorded during the Howling session that got put on ice. No real reason, there was just too many songs and we figured we’d come back and finish the rest later, which we did. I really like the solo on this one.
Super arrogant…cocky…like if Steven Tyler was really good at pool and was just walking around the pool table strutting….those are the licks that would be playing. I think there is one more unfinished song on those Howling tapes. Maybe one day we’ll get around to it.
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"Sons of Satan"
This was an obscure Vermapyre song which was a side project Dwid had with Rob Orr (the guitar player before me). Rob’s time with Integrity is the most underrated, he wrote a lot of my favorite songs and I wanted to give his era a nod. I
t would be weird for Integrity to cover Integrity…(although would it really?) and I always wished this song was an Integ song so…that was that. I added a solo to this one too. One of my favorites.
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"Document One"
To say we were obsessed with GISM would be an understatement. There was a period all I listened to was GISM, RUG and this '80s Japanese hair metal Sabbrabells. I adore Randy Uchida and just wanted to play another one of his songs since "Deathly Fighter" turned out so great.
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"Entartete Kunst (Slow)"
This is the other channel of the mix from Howling’s "Entartete Kunst." It’s slower, more tribal. I was starting to obsess over Amebix and figuring out a way to get those influences into the mix. I finally figured it out with the End Reign LP years later.
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"Night of the Vampire"
Joshy (Drums) and I would listen to Roky Erickson every time we hung out. One of us commented that "Night of the Vampire" kinda sounded like a riff that would be on [Integrity album} Systems Overload. So we started messing around playing it and trying to make it sound Melnickian.
This was a fun one to record. We played it in Austin after Roky passed away and it was a pretty emotional moment. One of those that just freeze in your memories.
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Septic Death Karaoke: ("Sweat of A Nightmare," "Thaw," "Poison Mask," "Dream Silent," "Change")
We ripped 5 Septic Death covers over some incomplete bed tracks Dwid had. Both Aaron Melnick and Rob Orr had done them in the past and I loved their takes, so I was excited for the opportunity to put my spin on them seeing as technology has improved vastly.
I love the way "Thaw" came out the best. The weird carnival barker part in the middle rules. I remember these had to be done quickly and my wrist was killing me from playing so fast on these without warming up (which takes me forever).
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"All Death Is Mine (Atsuki Remix)"
This was a really cool remix from Japan. It get’s weird, which is always a good sign for an interesting remix to me. Cool way to bookend the album.
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All Death Is Mine: Total Domination is available on LP, CD, and cassette via Relapse Records.
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