Voices of Destiny – Power Dive (2012)

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Almost two years have passed since Voices of Destiny’s excellent debut album titled “From the Ashes”, this 2012 they return with “Power Dive”. In their sophomore release, the band delivers nine very well crafted tracks (plus intro and outro tracks) that will surely be a complete hit with fans of the band. Continuing where they left of with “From the Ashes”, the band focuses their sound around Maike’s excellent vocals and the over the top symphonic arrangements that Lukas Palme provides.

“Power Dive” is an excellent release that if you don’t mind it sounding very similar to their first album, it will be one of your top 10 albums of the year. However, if you are looking for some evolution in the band’s sound, you will not be finding it. There are a few changes here and there, like more complex guitar lines and a bit more elaborated orchestrations, but the formula of success is still the same as on “From the Ashes”.

Opening with “Power Dive”, you get that déjà vu feeling from listening to their first release. The keyboards are excellent and the guitars are pounding, but the angelic vocals of Maike are used in the exact same way as before. We will give Voices of Destiny a pass, since most Gothic/Symphonic Metal bands take 2-3 albums before starting to develop their own sound, but be aware that this is a continuation of their last album mostly.

“My Separation” and “Dreams Awake” are pretty much like anything on the first release, but on “Kami” we have a bit of more experimentation into the Power/Progressive Metal side of things for a bit, and shows some interest from the band to sound a bit different. The use of growls and tons of arrangements are again very well handled and on tracks like “Untouchable” they are excellent. The melodramatic “Being Worth” is our favorite song in this release because of its emotional vocal performance and powerful guitars. The symphonic arrangements are nicely contrasting and help enrich the sound of this song very nicely.

After the closing track “Red Winter’s Snow” the outro nicely rounds things up, but for super fans, the bonus track of certain versions of this release titled “Smoke and Mirrors” will give you that extra four minutes of music that some of us might need. In general, the band is clearly talented since the music is very powerful and well crafted, but they need to change things up a bit in order to not get stale. The music is at least a bit more complex than before and we are grateful for it. If you love Gothic/Symphonic Metal and haven’t heard anything from Voices of Destiny, drop whatever you are doing and check out some of their songs, you will immediately fall in love with their sound.

Band: Voices of Destiny Album: Power Dive
Label: Massacre Records

Release: January 27th, 2012

Oficial Site myspace
Genre: Gothic/Symphonic Metal

Country: Germany

Rating: 87/100
Year: 

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