BIND/RNDC - Why do my subzones work and my actual zone doesn't?

[aguywithathing]

Anyone come across this before?



Here is my named :

view    "external"
{

        match-clients           { any; };
        match-destinations      { any; };

        recursion no;

        allow-query-cache { none; };


        zone "<DOMAIN>" IN {
                type master;
                file "<DOMAIN>";
        };
};

and my <DOMAIN>

$TTL 86400
@               IN      SOA    <DOMAIN>     <DOMAIN> (
                        2010111501
                        28800
                        7200
                        864000
                        86400
                        )
                IN      NS      <DOMAIN>
                IN      NS      <DOMAIN>

@                       A       <IP>

$ORIGIN <DOMAIN>

@               IN      A       <IP>
<DOMAIN>  IN      A      <IP>
catch           IN      A       <IP>
mail            IN      A       <IP>

<DOMAIN>  IN      MX      10 <DOMAIN>

ns1             IN      CNAME   catch
ns2             IN      CNAME   catch
*               IN      CNAME   catch
<DOMAIN> works fine 

ashfajkshfjkashfjkahskfjhasjkhfajksf<DOMAIN> works fine 

<DOMAIN> doesn't work

any ideas?