Interview by Ed MacLaren

What’s in a name? With album titles,it’s hard to tell sometimes–the name could just be cool sounding or a clever play on words but in the case of Benedictum’s latest release "Dominion", it sounds simply prophetic.The hard rock band from California strikes hard and fast on their third release. With wall-to-wall power from start to finish, Benedictum unapologetically digs its musical hooks deep in your ears until they rupture. "Dominion" makes a strong case that Benedictum is ready for sovereign rule of the hard rock world. Femme Metal got an opportunity to talk with vocalist Veronica Freeman about the creation of "Dominion", promoting metal in the US vs. Europe and the importance of paying it forward. 

Congratulations on the release of "Dominion"! It’s a fantastic addition to the Benedictum catalogue. Real fist-pumping metal! Just a blast to listen to!

Thanks Ed and thanks for the kind words. We’re all so excited about the new release "Dominion"! It makes us feel great when people really enjoy the music because we have a blast doing it! 

Benedictum really subscribes to the riffing 80s metal formula but you can see a gradual evolution from "Uncreation" to "Seasons of Tragedy" to now. On "Dominion", you take a real leap forward: the guitars sound much beefier and the heavy double-bass drums seem more prevalent.How would you describe the bands musical “evilution” from album to album?

Pete grew up listening to Ozzy, Judas Priest, Metallica, Dio, Black Sabbath – bands like that – and I think it really shows in the way he writes. The "evilution" comes from on-the-job training.(Laughs) We learned so much from Jeff Pilson (Dokken, Dio, Foreigner) and now Ryan Greene (Megadeth, NoFx). If you add into the equation the influences of the other members, Chris Shrum, Mike Pannone and Tony Diaz, you get a natural flow of change. Sometimes it was more challenging for me to adapt to some of the music I was hearing but it really made me step up the writing game too. Also, Ryan and Pete spent a lot of time working on the guitar tones from song to song. Pete used six different amps during the recording of "Dominion". Ryan Greene is a drummer as well as an engineer and producer so he and Mikey hit it off and Ryan has always been known for getting exceptional performances from the musicians he works with.

Guitarist Pete Wells sounds like he’s done some real work expanding the sound of his leads and solos on tracks like "The Shadowlands". "Bang" has a killer bass groove and the Tubular Bells style keyboard intro to "Epsilon" shows a growing maturity. What was your musical goal with "Dominion" and did you achieve it?

That’s my boy Pete! I’ve been listening to him for a long time now and it’s great that others are finally taking notice of how good Pete really is. I really love what Pete and Tony did on "Beautiful Pain". This CD barely scrapes at what Tony is capable of. Chris and Mikey formed one hell of a backbone and really drove this stuff. I’m proud of all my band mates! The only real goal for "Dominion" was to make a great CD that would hopefully show some growth and cause a few people to take notice while maintaining the integrity of what has become Benedictum. It was great to be encouraged to branch out, grow and explore some different sides of ourselves.

You’ve been working with producer Jeff Pilson since your early demos–he looked like he was going to be a permanent fixture of the Benedictum camp. What brought Ryan Greene to the production seat?It sounds like he worked out pretty well…

We love Jeff! We’ve all become great friends. He did have a lot of obligations with Foreigner however, and with new members etc. It seemed like this would be a good time to try someone else out. It was suggested to us that we try Ryan Greene. I wanted to sit and talk with him first so that’s exactly what I did. I went to his house and we chatted–well mostly me (laughs) – and I just felt a real sense of ease. We did a trial run and actually recorded "Dominion" first and then after that experience signed on to do the whole album. He is indeed a taskmaster but we learned so much and really discovered a new approach to things as well.

You’ve also made some major improvements in your vocal technique on "Dominion". You can belt it out with the best of them but the Geoff Tate-style octave leap in "The Seer" raises the goose bumps. Nice job!

Thanks! I really appreciate that – Geoff Tate is one of my favorite singers. Ryan would only let me do so many hours a day of recording. He had a magic number and when we hit it, we were done for the day.I think this process really helped me and let me stretch out a bit.There were definitely a lot of times when I was way outside of my comfort zone I can tell you that!

You can almost hear the history of 80s metal in your voice. There’s some Tate, Vince Neil, of course a little Dio growl… But your biggest vocal influence is Tina Turner! I guess that’s the challenge of a great vocalist–to take your different influences and create something original and unexpected.

Tina is an awesome performing artist who would be amazing to do a song with one day! And as you probably already know, I just love anything Dio! It started with Rainbow; Craig Goldy (Dio, Budgie, Giuffria) introduced me to them and I was so taken by the power of Ronnie that it really swept over me.

Your vocals are a huge feature of the band but it doesn’t take long to figure out the band kicks ass. How much easier does it make your job when you’ve got that kind of a band blazing behind you?

It makes things a lot easier. I can concentrate on what I need to do to get done and not worry about them handling their business. Sometimes I like to just sit back and watch. Like I said, I’m proud of my boys. Let’s face it; I wouldn’t be able to do it without them.

The guest list on your albums read like a who’s who of 80s metal. Goldy, Pilson, Lynch, Sarzo…What do you think it is about your music that encourages these guys to get involved?

Luck! We met Jeff through Craig, Lynch through Jeff and Sarzo through a good friend of ours named Robbie who’s in a band called the Metal Knights – and let’s not forget Jimmy Bain on the Mob Rules from "Uncreation".

How has working with these guys influenced your music? With that said, who’s your dream guest for the next album?

Hmmmmm. It would have to be Dio RIP! Tony Martin would be another. And of course,Tina Turner!

Benedictum covers some pretty classic metal tracks by some very unique vocalists: Ronnie James Dio on "Uncreation", Accept’s Udo Dirkschneider on "Seasons of Tragedy" and now Geddy Lee of Rush on "Dominion". You won’t find a more diverse set of vocalists but you slay each one of them! It’s great to hear a woman with the balls to tackle these kinds of songs.

Thanks so much. I really want to try other things now and then and push myself a bit and it does seem to have become a tradition of ours to include a cover tune on each CD.