Vision Divine – Destination Set To Nowhere

Releasedate: 14-09-2012; Label: Earmusic
By: Martine Goffard

The Italian group Vision Divine has released its 7th album called “Destination Set To Nowhere”. Not far from the previous album the concept here is to leave Earth for a better world and future, except that human nature can’t avoid repeating the same mistakes over again, so that the spaceship eventually sets its next destination to nowhere.

The intro is a musical disaster. It is terribly retro – new age and sounds like a wellness commercial message. Then the Italian text passes to an English countdown initializing the departure of the spaceship. The album itself is a rollercoaster of speed tracks and slow ones like the melodic “Message To Home”. The technique is impeccable. The talented band delivers its usual flawless performance. We have excellent guitar work, energetic riffs, frenetic drums, well written lyrics and the fabulous flights of lyricism of Fabio Lione. Now, the atmosphere is inexistent. The music, heavy as a bulldozer, is not appropriated for a journey in space. There is no magic, no ethereal sounds or dreamy fantasies, just basic heavy power metal. There’s a huge lack of subtlety, the band limiting its effort at producing a big mess of (good) sounds without distinctive brilliant solos. In the same way, the terrible lack of innovation leads to a cosmic boredom. Though there are enjoyable tracks like “The Lighthouse” and “The Sin Is You”, not a single time do you feel your heart beat faster of enthusiasm. It’s a sad statement because “Mermaids From Their Moons” had the potential to be a great success. This album will probably satisfy the power metal fans but will leave frustrated the ones looking for more elaborated material.

Line up:
Olaf Thörsen – guitars
Andrea “Tower” Torricini – bass
Alessio “Tom” Lucatti – keyboards
Alessandro “Bix” Bissa – drums
Federico Puleri – guitars
Fabio Lione – vocals

Tracklist: 1. S’io Fosse Foco 2. The Dream Maker 3. Beyond the Sun and Far Away 4. The Ark 5. Mermaids from Their Moons 6. The Lighthouse 7. Message to Home 8. The House of the Angels 9. The Sin Is You 10. Here We Die 11. Destination Set to Nowhere

Links:
Vision Divine Official