VOICES OF DESTINY - review added 4th March 2010
Album Review: From The Ashes (2010)
For fans of: Gothic Metal
Voices Of Destiny - Maike Holzmann on vocals,
Chris Gutjahr on guitars,
Lukas Palme on keyboards and vocals,
Jens Hartwig on bass, and
Erik Seitz on drums - hail from Germany. From The Ashes,
their debut full-length album, was produced, mixed and mastered by Andy Horn at the Red Room (Edenbridge, Rob Rock). The cover artwork is by Mattias Noren (Sabaton, Illdisposed).
The band can trace roots back to early 2004 when guitarist Chris and bassist Jens founded a group in Ludwigsburg, Germany. The first line-up featured vocalist Patricia Riegraf, but by the end of 2005 Maike had joined. The band was soon touring, and Lukas Palme started adding shouted vocals to create the sound we hear today. After the Dare to Reach EP in 2009, the band got to work on From The Ashes. They clearly have no intention of hanging about.
The sound is a combination of your typical epic/goth female-fronted symphonic band with a few of their own flourishes. Think along the lines of Within Temptation with added death metal howls and a much more operatic lead vocal. When I say much more operatic I mean it. Maike's voice is clearly very impressive - some of the sounds she makes are amazing - but it makes the album way too formal and unexciting for me. She has a stratospheric tone that's often at odds with the pounding nature of the music. Sometimes this sort of contrast can work beautifully, but here the result is disappointing. Neither the music or the vocalizing lacks skill, but there isn't enough of a cohesion between the two. There are moments of brilliance on the album, but there are many that make me cringe.
Some people are going to love this, but I'm afraid it only occasionally floats my boat. Good musicianship, good singing and good production normally make for a good album. All credit to Voices Of Destiny for trying something (a little bit) different, but they've got caught in the void between opera and death metal and I have no idea if or when they might escape.
Check out... This if you REALLY like the Within Temptation style of music making.
Track List:
01. Ray Of Hope
02. Twisting The Knife
03. Return From The Ashes
04. Relief
05. Icecold
06. Apathy
07. Endeavour To Live
08. All Eyes On Me
09. Bitter Vision
10. Hour Glass
11. Red Winter’s Snow II: Blood and Stone
12. Not The One
Label: Massacre Records
Artist's website(s): Voices Of Destiny | MySpace | Facebook
