Voices Of Destiny - Crisis Cult (2014)

I guess it says a lot about an album if you listen to it three times back to back and you still cannot really remember it.

Such was the case with Voices of Destiny‘s second full-length album, Power Dive, due to be released January 27 via Massacre Records. As I am always on the lookout for new female fronted metal, I was looking forward listening to this once I received a review copy from the record label. In the end, as I said, I listened to it three times in a row and can barely remember a single line of lyrics or anything special about it at all. And it’s not because I have the flu! And believe it or not, I hate being a Negative Nelly!

Following up their 2010 release, From the Ashes, I couldn’t help but be reminded of Nemesea’s The Quiet Resistance while listening to the intro. Both intros have a creepy, horror film-esque thing going on in them which confused me, as did Nemesea’s, since I didn’t see how it related to the content of the rest of the album. I can see how it relates to the album cover, but other than that…not really.

The list of things I dislike about this album is short but simple. For starters, vocals. I didn’t care for the vocals of female lead Maike Holzmann. That is a personal taste thing to be sure; other people may like her voice and that’s great. I personally did not. Also, the growls done by keyboard player Lukas Palme are not fantastic. I dislike growls to begin with, I’ll freely admit, but these were cheesy in the way Alex Krull’s (love you Alex!) are. The two vocalists combined here were too much to bear. They grated on my nerves.

The album does have it’s moments. There are some catchy choruses. ”Dreams Awake” is a good example and probably the strongest song on the album. That song has a lot of power and good headbanging moments, and some nicely executed symphonic elements. But the rest of the album failed to impress me and I thought it quite mediocre – like Nemesea’s The Quiet Resistance.

On the upside, this is a very young band -they’re all in their early 20s – and I have to give them kudos for making the splash they did with with their previous material that garnered them the attention of a label like Massacre Records. I don’t think they are untalented at all; in fact, they are very polished for their age. From the Ashes produced a single, “All Eyes on Me”, and an accompanying video. I liked that song better than anything on Power Dive.

I just found it perhaps too polished, too radio-friendly, and too accessible for my personal tastes. While I wouldn’t describe it as “poppy” the way Amaranthe is poppy, there was just an unshakable sense of blandness with this album, much like the one from Nemesea I keep comparing it to.

I’m not sure I would categorize VoD as symphonic power metal, either – not that that matters at all, though I tend to be persnickety when it comes to labeling, especially when it misses the mark in my mind. I personally had a hard time seeing how that label applied. The music, while melodic, wasn’t melodic enough to my ear to warrant the categorization. The symphonic elements are rather minimal, but the power metal elements are definitely there. It was bombastic but not as grandiose as others in the genre tend to be. But that’s just me and my persnicketyness.



Band Members

Klaus Ackermann : Drums
Ada Flechtner : Vocals
Jens Hartwig : Bass
Lukas Palme : Keyboard
Christopher Gutjahr : Guitar



Discography

From The Ashes (2010)
Power Dive (2012)
Crisis Cult (2014)



Crisis Cult (2014)



1.Intro
2.Wolfpack
3.The Easy Prey
4.To The Slaughter
5.21 Heroes
6.At The Edge
7.Stormcrow
8.Under Control
9.The Great Hunt




Genre: Heavy
Subgenre: Symphonic Heavy Metal
Bitrate: 320 k
Size: 103.80 MB
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