Review Summary: The Dark Times of Gothic/Symphonic Metal, Part 15
In this series, I've often mentioned the hundreds of generic bands overcrowding the symphonic metal scene. Of course, centering the series on such bands would be too easy, so I've decided to only review the most notable ones. Today's subject, Voices of Destiny, are not the worst of their kind, they might even be one of the most enjoyable second tier symphonic metal bands. But while their debut album "From the Ashes" has potential, I still have my issues with it.
In fact, the album's flaws are already made apparent in the first track, "Ray of Hope". The song has a heavy riff and some pretty good keyboards, but the vocals come in and all hell breaks loose. Maike Holzmann's voice is what truly keeps me from enjoying Voices of Destiny's music in general: she's one of those typical sopranos that sometimes use an operatic voice, and sometimes not, but unfortunately, her voice has a slightly whiny and nasal tone, and often feels like she's not sure how to use it and hit her notes, often singing off-key. It also doesn't really have the power needed for Voices of Destiny's rather energetic brand of power/symphonic metal. Lukas Palme's growls aren't very good on this song either, with their raspy, cartoony sound.
However, he can be heard more on other songs, where he sounds better. He's also the band's keyboardist and songwriter, which is why the keyboard parts are pretty well-played and catchy. The guitars are pretty good too, like on the nice solo and heavy riffs in "Relief", other powerful tracks like "Endeavour to Life" and "Return from the Ashes", which also features a pretty good back-and-forth between the two vocalists. "Hourglass" uses a slightly too similar riff, but it has a pretty catchy chorus performed by Maike and a choir. Honestly, there are some pretty good tracks on this album. Even Maike, when she uses a lower and less overwrought singing style, can sound pretty good, like on "Twisting the Knife", or on the generic but nice ballad "Bitter Visions".
But there are many mediocre songs. "Apathy" has a sort of pseudo-nu metal intro, and uses that same effect through the rest of the song, mixed with the more typically symphonic metal track. I'm making it sound entertainingly terrible, like something from Lacuna Coil's "Shallow Life", but it's too boring to even remind me of that. "Icecold" is a ballad turning into a heavy track, with a chorus that sounds like a slower version of "Ray of Hope", and again, Maike's shaky, high-pitched voice. Her vocals can even ruin good songs like "Relief".
But all the worst things about this album are compiled in the first song I heard from it, "All Eyes on Me": the bad growls, whiny not-exactly-operatic singing, the riffs that sound just like others on the album, the not very catchy chorus and the failed attempt at bringing any kind of intensity to the song. The keyboards are the only good part of the song. Talk about a disastrous first impression.
The whole album turned out to be at least better than my first impression, but it was not exactly great. Can I really say I hate an album, if I mostly dislike the vocals, but will admit the music is pretty good? The problem is that the album is too uneven in terms of quality. Yes, there are some pretty good songs, but also many bad ones. I can't say I even enjoyed the good songs that much. Of course, it was their first album, they were pretty young when they wrote this. Again, I don't love this album, but as long as there is potential, I can forgive a lot of beginner's mistakes. Did they improve on their next albums? We'll see.
