Hey Hi and Happy Birthday !! Alright, the classical question with which we always start, can introduce the group and briefly tell us about its history from the last 20 years?
Domain was founded by Bernie Kolbe (lead vocals, bass), Axel Ritt (guitars), Cliff Jackson (guitars), Volker Sassenberg (keyboards) and Freddy Friedrichs (drums) in 1986. Before Domain Bernd Kolbe (this is his original name) and Jackson played in a band called Red Roosters and formed Fagau\'s Epitaph with James McGillvray (guitars) in 1970. Some time later the name was shortened to EPITAPH, the band signed with Polydor Records and after adding Klaus Walz (guitars) released the debut album "Stop, Look And Listen" in 1972. The music of EPITAPH was hard/art rock in the vein of Uriah Heep. Through the years Epitaph released six successful albums, changed their line-up several times (in particular, famous German drummer Fritz Randow (later in VICTORY, SINNER and SAXON) played on three albums of the band) and split in 1982.
After the split Kolbe and Jackson joined Ritt, Sassenberg and Dietrichs to form a new band KINGDOM. The newcomers caught attention of ELOY singer and producer Frank Bornemann, who helped them to record their first demo tape. The tape found its way to the leadership of Teldec/Frontrow company that signed the band. After several months of hard work in Horus Sound Studio (HALLOWEEN, STEELER, GAMMA RAY, VICTORY) KINGDOM released its first album "Lost In The City" in early 1988. It\'s hard to describe the scale of success they got with it! "Lost In The City" was a classic hard rock record with amazing keyboard parts and the band was listed to follow the success of Scorpions, which was something unbelievable for a band with only one album out!
Everything seemed to be perfect but right at that time German singer Lenny Wolf (ex-Lenny Wolf\'s Germany, Stone Fury) released the first album of his new band Kingdom Come in the United States. In order to avoid confusions Kingdom changed its name to DOMAIN and re-released "Lost In The City" as "Our Kingdom" still in 1988. In early 1989 the new song "Hearts Of Stone" written for the second album "Before The Storm" was included in TV-series "BASTARD" and was released in several variants including a CD-single. Albert Boekholt, who worked earlier with DEF LEPPARD on „Hysteria“, MAGNUM on "Wings Of Destiny" and TREAT on "Dreamhunter", stepped into produce the new album to which Dietrichs\' successor Torsten Preker (18) contributed drums.
Especially for promotion purposes "Teldec" released a sample with four tracks from the new album and a huge interview with DOMAIN members in both German and English languages. The third album "Crack In The Wall" produced by Kalle Trapp (BLIND GUARDIAN, SAXON) came out in 1991. Right before the release Preker and Sassenberg left the band and Bodo Schopf (ex-MCAULEY / SCHENKER Group) played all drums on the album. The disc was not that big success mostly due to the fact that the whole rock scene was literally paralyzed by the rising grunge wave in the United States. In 1991 Kolbe, Ritt and Jackson also took part in the recording of the song "Let Love Conquer The World" made by German Rock Project which was a kind of response to Ronnie James Dio\'s Stars thing. In 1992 Domain split up. In order to cash on the band\'s history their record company released a compilation album called "Collection 86-92" with hits, single tracks and an unreleased tune "Walk On".
For many years only guitarist Axel Ritt kept the DOMA

IN reunion deep in his mind. In 1994 he joined the all-star project X-RIDE with ex-members of SIGN and FOXX but it disappeared from the scene really soon. That\'s when Ritt came up with an idea to form his own company Humbucker Music. Finally the dream came true when Ritt announced the long-awaited reunion. People were waiting for the original line-up to get together but it proved to be impossible for other musicians refused to participate (for example, Jackson has now nothing to do with rock anymore and plays country music)
The brand new Domain consisted of Carsten Schulz (lead vocals), Axel himself (guitars), Dirk Beckers (bass), Erdmann Lange (keyboards) and Edgar Schmidt (drums). The new album was symbolically named "One Million Lightyears From Home" and was released on February 15, 2001. It turned out to be a classic Domain record with the typical sound that the band used to have in the 1980s. After a short tour the band went to studio once again to release the mini-album "New Horizons" in autumn same year. A mini-album only? Well, that\'s right if you call seven acoustic tracks with BADLANDS cover "In A Dream" a mini-album. By the way the "lizard only version" of "In A Dream" is Schulz singing the song alone (\'lizard\' is him nickname).
In 2002, DOMAIN released the studio-album follow up of „One Million...“, named „The Artefact“, keeping the typical band sound, but putting more strength to the single compositions. The higher grade of heavyness tapped new cicles of listeners and guided the band more to the Power Metal section, warm welcomed by the fans. After the release, the band made their first big European tour together with Glenn Hughes (DEPP PURPLE / BLACK SABBATH) and Joe Lynn Turner (RAINBOW / YNGWIE MALMSTEEN). Finally, in lately 2002 Domain went to studio to record the new album "The Sixth Dimension" scheduled for release in September.
With their tremendous comeback album “One Million Lightyears From Home” in 2001 DOMAIN managed to form an unseamed link to their successful years at the end of the 80s, when they won the hearts of European metal fans with albums such as "Our Kingdom" (still under their old band name KINGDOM), "Before The Storm" and "Crack In The Wall" and songs such as "Lost In The City" and "Sign From Your Heart". The CD "Artefact", released in 2002 and the tour which followed, together with rock legends Glenn Hughes and Joe Lynn Turner (HTP) cemented the band\'s reputation as one of the most talented melodic metal bands in Germany.

 

The lads behind the guitarist Axel "Ironfinger" Ritt and vocalist Carsten "Lizard" did, however, not wish to rest on their laurels. Just one year later, they released their next album "The Sixth Dimension". Harder, yet more epic than before, DOMAIN delivered a mixture of progressive, melodic and symphonic sounds.
Yet the career of the band, comprising of keyboarder Erdmann Lange, bass player Jochen Mayer (Boysvoice, Demon Drive, Casanova) and ex-Symphorce drummer Stefan Köllner, had actually only just begun. Immediately after the release of "The Sixth Dimension" they took upon themselves the biggest challenge in the band\'s nearly 20 years\' history: the recordings of their concept album "Last Days Of Utopia" based on a story written by singer Carsten Schulz and one which demanded everything from the musicians.

Between Domain and your own productions you seem very busy, how do you manage

all that?
Well, I´m working about ninety hours a week, so you have a lot of time to write and arrange songs ;-) No, to be honest, the last time, I´ve been on vacation, has been in 1987, 18 years ago…

So the Music occupies an important place in your life ?
Yes, indeed ! There´s nothing more in my life than my wife, my animals and music.

Can you tell us about the other bands that you have produced ?
There have been some total different styles, that I´ve produced in the last years. For example Thrash-Metal (Maghazi), Dark-Metal (Luzifer Sam) and German-Rock (Zünder, Reissfest), Actually, I´m producing the new « Circle Of Pain » Album, but most time of the year, I´m working on new DOMAIN-albums.

Ironfinger, where does your nickname come from?
It´s because of my very thick guitar-strings I´m playing, 013-056 in Standard-tuning, I´ve never met somebody who´s able to play that gauge as well ;-). A friend of mine said that you need to have fingers of iron to handle them ;-)

About Domain, can you tell us about Last Days of Utopia? What does this album mean for you?
It´s the actual last step of the musical evolution of DOMAIN. I´m very proud about the result and I never expected that positive reactions from critics and fans.

There is a 10 year gap in your musical carreer, what happened ?
The darkest part in my musical career. Former colleague, maybe friend as well, poured anger, envy, disfavor and broken egos on me. I´ll do my very best to give the fans what they wanted to have, so maybe there will be a re-recording of the old songs.

No tour has been announced in France yet, is it going to happen ?
Yes, finally we´ll be in France as well this year at our European tour which means :
Oldenburg/Germany - April 29th 2005 - "Charly\'s"
Verviers/Belgium - April 30th 2005 - "Spirit of 66"
Aalen/Germany - May 1st 2005 - "Rock It"
Munich/Germany - May 2nd 2005 - "Garage"
Frankfurt/Germany - May 3rd 2005 - "Sinkkasten"
Heidelberg/Germany - May 4th 2005 - "Schwimmbad Music Club"
Eloyes/France - May 5th 2005 - "Espace Culturell"
Pratteln/Switzerland - May 6th 2005 - "Z7"
Wetzikon/Switzerland - May 7th 2005 - "Kulturfabrik"
Bremen/Germany - May 21st 2005 - "Tivoli/Aladin"

The German Heavy Metal is developping more and more, especially thanks to band like Edguy, Blind Guardian and yourself of course.It is taking more and more confidence. Are you happy of this trend?
Yes, of course. The more people you touch with your music, the better you get regarding your personal satisfaction. It´s great that we reach more and more people.

A last philosophical question, what is for you the Spirit of Metal ?
It´s the best musical styles beside the classical tunes, to merge physical power and technical virtuosity.

Thank you for your time, and I let you conclude this interview with a message to your French fans.
I´d like to thank all animal protection organizations like P.E.T.A. a.s.o. who fight for the rights and treatment of all creatures. Stop killing animals and slay the butchers!

Axel “Ironfinger” Ritt