Review Summary: Destine Fails To Move At The Speed Of Light
Holland isn't known for Pop Punk. It won't form the next Blink 182 or You Me at Six. However, add five aspiring muscians and a lucky chance to the break and you have Destine. In many other countries they remain unknown, even with two classy-named albums to their name. The first of these is the contrasting Lightspeed (as nothing here moves at the speed of light) The band have released twelve songs in the hopes of re-writing the forumula and making it big across the world.
The album itself does none of these things... Lightspeed stutters and stumbles at times. It fails to capture a strong winning personality but equally dosen't represent anything immature, It seems to have little meaning and still takes the listener on a ride of nicely polished tracks. Accompany that with decent lyrics and some impressive guitar work and it's hard to see why Destine are still at the bottom of the food chain.
"In Your Arms" does well to capture a snippet of how far this band aims to go - With a strikingly good performace from Robin Van Loenen as lead vocalist. Although Robin will be favoured through Lightspeed - His bandmates do well at keeping up with the action. "Burn" "Stars" And "Spiders" all copy the album opener in this retrospect - With big hooks and more heart accompanying Robin's vocals. Everything seems too safe from the starting gate though, and this is one of the biggest downfalls of Lightspeed, something that would have got it rapidly noticed a long time ago.
The band are obviously talented but they don't push themselves to the next level. Even with so much time to blast in a guitar solo or a nicely done drum pattern, Hubrecht Eversdijk (lead guitar) and Jordy Datema (Drums) don't go beyond the norm. They make the songs ebb and flow but don't bring anything remarkable to the table. The songs themselves become tiresome as the album wears on because the vocalist dosen't have a great range or adds changes to his voice.
Maybe it was a mistake to name the album Lightspeed or release it before the band could find a footing. Despite this, Destine have released something that can stand along it's peers - even with the flaws, Lightspeed proves itself through pure innocence.
