"For fook’s sake!” blurts the figure to our left in a passable northern English accent. His one good, crystal-blue eye roves frantically across the pipes and vents just out of reach through the bars of the cage we’re currently locked in. The other eye is milky white, with a vicious-looking scar crossing the socket. To the other side, a tattooed and dreadlocked entity with a face like the Devil’s scrotum is trying to decipher a clue left on a scroll by the dastardly puppeteer who has us trapped in this dismal steampunk dungeon.
We were informed on entering that we only had an hour to make it out or we’d join the Puppet Master’s show forever. A quarter of that allotted time has already ticked away and we’re still stuck in the part of the room we were first ushered into.
“Don’t worry, once your blood is removed and your veins filled with oil, it won’t hurt anymore,” giggles the disembodied voice of our unseen guide, who introduces himself as ‘Pinocchio’.
“For fook’s sake,” shouts the one-eyed figure again. “Now you’re just threatening us!” His name is Dr. Dead and you might hope that a self-proclaimed mad scientist would have the perfect cracked-yet-methodical mindset to guide us through the fiendish puzzles blocking our way to freedom.
“You’d think so wouldn’t you?” he grins, with a gleam in his eye. “But no, it turns out we’re just really bad at this.”
Thankfully, we haven’t fallen into an unlikely Saw-style scenario and we certainly hope that no one is actually going to replace our blood with oil if we fail to get out in time.
There are no other zombie bands because it’s a complete nightmare.
Dr. Dead
Instead, Metal Hammer is at Finest Escape, an escape room in Nuremberg, along with Dr. Dead and his undead minion, Tommy Kemp – vocalist and guitarist respectively in rising zombie-metal band Dominum. Neither have done an escape room before, but when we meet at the impressively atmospheric venue on an otherwise ordinary weekday morning, they’re more than up for the challenge.
“It’s always good to try something new,” smiles Tommy, or Jochen Windisch as he’s known to his flesh-and-blood parents. He’s not yet ensconced in his dead skin mask but does have swathes of black and white makeup covering his face and neck.
“He’ll wear that all the time,” shrugs Felix Heldt, the man behind the Dr. Dead persona and the mastermind behind Dominum. “The rest of us will scrub ourselves clean and he’ll be scurrying round a festival like a raccoon.”
Dominum may not be A-list famous outside their native Germany just yet, but that could well change with their just-released fourth album, Night Is Calling. It’s the kind of classic Euro-metal with a killer conceptual gimmick that has served the likes of Sabaton and Powerwolf so well. The transformation of Felix and Jochen into Dr. Dead and Tommy Kemp is a reasonably involved process but the pair whip through it in about 10 minutes.
“I know why there are no other zombie bands – it’s because it’s a complete nightmare,” the singer laughs. “To get the look, and to find a way that you can take it on tour and not look cheap. And be quick with it too. Like when you have to do social media stuff and you get asked ‘Can we do this thing real quick?’ And Tommy was like, ‘Sure, give me three hours so I can do the make-up.’ We had to speed it up.”
Once the pair are fully transfigured, Ralf, Finest Escape’s manager, nods in approval. “You could be scary actors in our escape rooms,” he says.
He’s a little worried about them overheating in their full horror regalia but the pair are used to performing in sweltering conditions.
“When we played [Belgian metal fest] Graspop we had masks that weren’t as tight as the ones we have now. It was so hot that sweat was just pooling in the chin,” nods Tommy.
“It’s not only the mask but the costumes and layers,” adds Dr. Dead. “And we’re all sweaters. Some people come offstage and you’re like, ‘Did you even play?’ We look like we just got in a washing machine. But you don’t realise that too much when you’re into the game. It’s just the eyes of the boys are getting redder and redder, because I can only see their eyes during the show.”
Back in the escape room we now have the additional worry that we’re locked in quite a small space with two self-confessed heavy sweaters.
"There’s pirate bands, there’s werewolf bands, there’s a lot of Viking bands, why is there no zombie band?”
Dr Dead
Fortunately, we finally make it out of the cage when Dr. Dead hurls a missile into a target at the other side of the room with impressive accuracy.
“I never had you pegged as one-hit wonders,” cackles Pinocchio, as a pneumatic tube delivers a key with a jump-scare clatter.
Even while their plans for world domination were still being drawn up, Dominum’s last album, 2024’s The Dead Don’t Die, was a Top 10 hit in their homeland.
“We were very happy because having a Top 10 record as a band that had existed just two years back then, that’s a wild thing. We’re very grateful that people seem to like this crazy thing we do, so this is what drives us,” smiles Dr. Dead.
The mad scientist’s talkative if somewhat less madcap alter-ego Felix and his quiet compatriot Jochen have played together for years, but Top 10 albums and huge festival crowds were not previously on the cards.
“You’re just happy that you have a gig, and then you drive 1,200 kilometres and play in front of 30 people. That was our band, but we loved it,” Dr. Dead recalls as we enter the escape room proper.
The germ of Dominum came from Felix’s role as a producer. He’s worked with the likes of German power metal band Warkings and folk rockers Dartagnan, but it was when he set sail with Austrian pirate metallers Visions Of Atlantis that something clicked into place.
“You drive to the studio and you feel like a pirate and go ‘Yarrgh!’ all the time, and then you drive home and think about everything. I watched The Walking Dead and I was thinking, ‘OK, so there’s pirate bands, there’s werewolf bands, there’s a lot of Viking bands, why is there no zombie band?’”
Lots of reasons really, but at the same time none at all. Leeds thrash lunatics Send More Paramedics actually got there first, but the nascent Dominum had spotted a gap in the market that they sank their rotting gnashers into. With the zombified Patient Zero installed on bass and Victor Hiltop on drums, their infection started to spread.
Appearances at Graspop and the main stage at Wacken followed, as well as a couple of UK jaunts that resulted in Dr. Dead picking up his frequent ‘For fook’s sake’ expulsion. The zombie metal idea had legs as well as teeth, it seems. Their popularity continues to grow like an undead plague but there will always be those quick to dismiss them as nothing more than a gimmick.
“We committed to this zombie thing but I think a band can only be persistent and last longer if the backbone is good,” Dr. Dead says as he and Tommy work their way through the puzzles of the next two rooms.
We’ve been asked not to give too many of the escape room’s secrets away, but suffice to say there are secret panels and hidden devices and – naturally – a terrifying metallic doll.
“Please take me with you,” it wails, causing the good doctor to hastily thrust it at his reanimated companion.
“I hope that the quality of the music and art helps us to not get drowned by the ‘whatever-metal’ tag,” the Doctor continues. “Ghost don’t say that they’re ghoul metal or Pope metal, it’s just Ghost. The bands that are successful, it’s not really about the masks. It’s just a way to tell the lore and to entertain.”
As we pass the halfway mark the tension genuinely starts to grow. Metal Hammer is here primarily as an observer, but we’re also roped into searching the rooms and helping to decipher the odd clue.
“I can put my stick in but I can’t do anything with it,” Dr. Dead states at one point, as he kneels by a chair occupied by his bandmate. Before anything smutty can pass our lips,
Pinocchio gets there first. “It’s not only about putting it in, it’s also about pulling it out,” he giggles.
It’s the hint they need to unlock the final room and at last meet our sinister guide, Pinocchio, who turns out to be a two-foot-tall metallic figure of the puppet of the same name.
“It seems like the circus must be in town!” he shrieks as we enter.
He’s obviously done a bit of research, The Circus Is In Town being both the lead single and opening track on the aforementioned Night Is Calling. It’s a twisting, shouting Grand Guignol fanfare of a song and the perfect teaser for an album filled with theatrical excess.
“I think if you combine Ghost and Sabaton, that’s an idea of where it’s going, because it always has a dramatic component to it. It’s emotional but it also wants to be epic all the time,” says Dr. Death.
“When you see the masks you think this must be a brutal death metal band, but we’re not death metal guys. We like melodies and he likes Taylor Swift,” he adds, pointing to his guitarist.
Everywhere I go, I get mangoes
Tommy Kemp
Dominum’s most hardcore fans, the Doctor explains, are known as the Living Dead Squad and their ranks are growing all the time.
“When we play a headline show, the front row is all in make-up; it reminds me of The Rocky Horror Show. They bring us strange gifts sometimes. I’ve had a few Dr. Death voodoo puppets and I’m glad I have them so no one can stick a pin in. Tommy gets lots of mangoes,” he chuckles.
“I mentioned it on an Instagram Q&A and now everywhere I go I get mangoes.” Tommy elaborates. “It’s cool though, because they’re expensive.”
Now isn’t the time for fruit-based discussions. Time is ticking, and there’s still one last puzzle to solve. It involves Tommy setting a series of dials while Dr. Dead deciphers instructions via a vintage screen and set of steampunk goggles. The pair suddenly become increasingly frantic, speaking in panicked German. Eventually there’s a heavy clunk and the last door swings open. Freedom!
It’s a good job Dr. Dead and Tommy made it out of the escape room in the nick of time, given that Dominum are due to play their biggest UK headlining shows later this year.
“It will be good for the world because there’s a lot of crazy stuff going on with very crazy people in high positions,” Dr. Dead says. “This is where we come in, because once a zombie bites you, you’re infected. And you know what? We all taste the same.”
Night Is Calling is out now via Napalm. Dominum's UK tour begins on December 12.
