It’s A Ritual At The Orpheum Nightclub On 11/4

All Photos By Travis Failey Photography

It was Tuesday night at the Convent of DOGMA at the Orpheum nightclub in Tampa to witness a visual spectacle of an up-and-coming band that’s been getting a ton of publicity since its inception in 2021. This was the third show of their US Tour, as a couple of shows were cancelled due to members being switched out of the band. Did they leave or were they removed by management? I’m not sure, as there are always three sides to every story and the fans and the media were only given two of them.

The three members who are no longer with the band stated that DOGMA had become “a brand rather than a band” with their management stating that DOGMA is bigger than any individual. It’s an artistic concept that doesn’t have a fixed lineup.”
I will not speculate on who is right or wrong but usually when multiple members leave the band, tours get postponed or cancelled, and thankfully for the crowd at the Orpheum, the show went on.

There was only one opener in FRAYLE, which was a welcomed change as usually there are multiple local bands opening, whereas the headliner doesn’t go on until midnight. With FRAYLE taking the stage at 8:15, it was played out to be an early night.
FRAYLE is a 4-piece band playing live from Cleveland that was created by vocalist Gwyn Strang and guitarist Sean Biloveckyin 2017. They cite their influences as BLACK SABBATH, KYUSS, BJORK etc and in my opinion, their sound is a mix of doom-sludge metal with a haunting type of mix as they add a lot of tracks over the top and in the background before and during the songs.

Drummer Jon Vinson handles the skins and the computer and plays a very interesting kit which I haven’t seen before. His three main symbols have pads underneath that muffles his sound. There are also audio cables that run from the pads into his computer, then into the soundboard. It works for the band but to me it really takes away from the live show sonically. He would smash his crash cymbal, and you wouldn’t hear much.

I also think the band’s audio as a whole was much lower than it should have been as it was difficult to hear Strang perform her vocals throughout the set, but it also looked like she wasn’t pushing her voice at all. This could also be an issue with the Orpheum as a whole but DOGMA didn’t seem to have that during their set.

They played a 9-song show with the standout song being “Boo” where the crowd interacted with the band by shouting the title when prompted. FRAYLE also performed a Lana Del Ray cover in “Summertime Sadness.”

Overall, the band looked great, appearance-wise on stage with Strang geared up with a funeral-type motif and the other members with cool masks, but their sound is just not my thing. To me, it came off as a cross between In This Moment and the Deftones. Most of the songs sounded the same but I can understand the draw that they have with their fans in the States and abroad. There is a market for them and their material as they have played huge festivals and with the DWP fests around the corner, it would be huge for FRAYLE to get added to the circuit.

After an hour break or so, DOGMA then took the stage and took it they did. The five band members include Lilith (vocals), Lamia & Rusalka (guitars), Nixe (bass) and Abrahel (drums). These are obviously not their real names but the characters they play on stage and behind the scenes. Sort of like what GHOST has done with Tobias and the Nameless Ghouls. The five of them are dressed in nuns’ habits with each of them donning their own face paint/masks and their sound blends melodic rock/hard-rock and heavy metal with heavily theatrical, ritualized visuals.

DOGMA started their set with “Forbidden Zone” and from the start, the nuns were all over the dimly lit purple & red stage minimal in their setup except for two backdrops of naked men and women performing salacious sex acts. The band members knew how to play up to the crowd and to the photographers, especially Nixe and both guitar players in Lamia & Rusalka.

They continued with “Feel the Zeal” and “My First Peak” both from their debut album and after looking at their set after the show, they played the self-titled album from start to finish. There was only one exception which was the inclusion of the Madonna cover in “Like a Prayer” which was mixed in between “Feel Yourself” and “Bare to the Bones”.

DOGMA pulled this off in spades with the only caveat being their singer Lilith not being confident enough at this point with the band, but you can’t expect perfection from any of the three members that just joined recently. With that being said, the song still sticks in my head as I write this. Not sure if this is because of how the nuns performed it or if it just the stellar song it is as a whole.

What I really liked about their performance and the songs were the diversity in them and how much the band really enjoyed performing them. Smiles all around and really engaging with themselves. It seems like there is great chemistry with these five at this point at least on stage. Both guitarists were really great sharing leads especially on “Made Her Mine” and my favorite song of the night in “Pleasure and Pain”.

The back line of Nixe & Abrahel were fantastic providing not only a great show on bass and on drums but were at the forefront of “Pleasure and Pain” as Abrahel had the double bass kicking in what seems to be triple time.

The crowd fed off their performance and were vocal with applause and chants of “DOGMA” throughout the show and prior to the band concluding their set with “Father I Have Sinned” & “The Dark Messiah”.

There was a brief moment of silence after “Father I Have Sinned” where a fan stated “Father I Just Sinned” followed up with “Boinnnggg” and the Orpheum erupted with laughs. It was timed perfectly and damn funny especially to a crowd of 90 percent men.

After the show concluded with the “The Dark Messiah”, all five members of DOGMA moved to the center of the stage and took a quick bow, then departed. The fans called for an encore and were a bit disappointed when it didn’t happen.

DOGMA has a legit shot for continued success, but they need to keep this lineup together and get stronger as a unit and try to win back the fans they have lost due to the departures and alleged “interesting” moves by their management team.

They are a fun live band and like GHOST, who I covered on their early club tours, DOGMA will need to continue to write quality catchy satellite radio friendly songs and tour continually, especially in the States and in Europe, to show off their musicianship and not be known as just a gimmick or niche band.

They are continuing their US Tour until the end of November and if you want to see a show like you probably have never seen before, join the nuns at their Covent at a venue near you.

For tour dates and all things DOGMA: https://officialdogma.com/

Check out some more photos from the show!
All Photos By Travis Failey Photography