{"id":22512,"date":"2014-10-24T00:00:11","date_gmt":"2014-10-24T00:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=22512"},"modified":"2014-11-23T18:55:37","modified_gmt":"2014-11-23T18:55:37","slug":"album-review-voices-of-destiny-crisis-cult","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-voices-of-destiny-crisis-cult\/","title":{"rendered":"VOICES OF DESTINY – Crisis Cult (2014) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

VOICES OF DESTINY
Crisis Cult<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nMassacre (2014)<\/span>
Rating: 7\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Crisis Cult<\/em> is the third album by a band that can best be described as Southern German epic Goth metal.<\/p>\n

Now, I\u2019ve said it before and I\u2019ll say it again: I\u2019m not a big fan of a lot of contemporary metal \u2013 especially the sort that exudes so much modern melody to the point of a clinical coldness \u2013 and there are times within this experience that I\u2019m left clutching my ears in pain as the whole fire and ice avalanche becomes too much to take. <\/p>\n

Even so, I\u2019m always willing to stay with records and try to fathom if they can win me over. First and foremost Voices Of Destiny is a female-fronted band, Ada Flechtner (ex-Coronatus) having joined the combo in 2013. Her tones put one at ease and seem to contradict the sounds which rage behind her because although this quintet is very much of modern design, it also offers up a degree of heaviness too; Klaus Ackermann (drums), and more so Chris Gutjahr (guitar) and Jens Hartwig (bass) can be held responsible for this weight. <\/p>\n

The metallic nature of the band means that Voices Of Destiny combines a clanking, mystical power metal with high doses of progressive metal which for the most part are graced by the almost pop-edged melodies of Flechtner, meaning that the likes of \u2018The Easy Prey\u2019 become more than just direct slabs of grinding metal. Whether this is a good thing though, I\u2019ve still yet to decide.<\/p>\n

Although completely different by design, I recently heard a fabulous opus (Shallow Grave<\/em><\/a>) by an Australian band named Temtris who, although more straightforward in their metal approach, offered by a dual vocal attack which worked \u2013 clean vocals battling it out with gruffer sneers \u2013 and that\u2019s the aim of Voices Of Destiny. But do you know what? I much prefer these guys as a more forceful, aggressive combo and so each time Flechtner comes wafting on the snowy breeze I\u2019m left gagging for the guttural growls of Lukas Palme, who incidentally is also responsible for the impressive atmospheric keys. That\u2019s not to say that I don\u2019t like Flechtner as a frontwoman; she\u2019s clearly the smooth to add to the rough giving this mighty opus a subtle touch to weave between the jagged edges and snow-capped climes. <\/p>\n

Flechtner replaces Maike Holzmann, who bestowed a more haunting, operatic magic upon the sound. In a sense, Flechtner lacks the ability to sprinkle her stardust over the symphonic, driving groove; instead, it\u2019s more a case of Flechtner adding a stability and a consistency with her flatter tones. Where she does succeed as a greater force is on the chugging drive of \u2018To The Slaughter\u2019 and ballad \u2018At The Edge\u2019. Nevertheless, there\u2019s still that lack of tenacity within the pipes, but that doesn\u2019t mean that Crisis Cult<\/em> fails. In fact, after several listens I can appreciate this composition as a well thought out chunk of Gothic rock that offers enough weight throughout and also flashes of dramatic speed. To get my point across though, check out \u2018Stormcrow\u2019; good for the most part, it nonetheless lacks the overall bite needed to take it to the next level. That\u2019s something which may hinder Voices Of Destiny, and prevent them from becoming a tour de force within the metal realm.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VOICES OF DESTINYCrisis Cult Massacre (2014)Rating: 7\/10 Crisis Cult is the third album by a band that can best be described as Southern German epic Goth metal. Now, I\u2019ve said it before and I\u2019ll say it again: I\u2019m not a big fan of a lot of contemporary metal \u2013 especially the sort that exudes so […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,1503],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-voices-of-destiny"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22512"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22512\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22518,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22512\/revisions\/22518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}