Destiny's End - Transition

Rodrigo

Heat in 7
Apr 17, 2001
883
3
18
Southern California
Destiny's End - Transition
Metal Blade Records - 2001

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Right now the power metal genre is over crowded with plenty of mediocre bands. Destiny’s End has come out with Transition; an album that they hope sets them out from the rest of the pack. I don’t think that they have been able to achieve that with this latest effort. Sure, the twin guitar attack by Dan Delucie and Perry Greyson (who has left the band after the recording and has been replaced by Eric Halpern) is heavy and melodic but it offers nothing new. The singing by James Rivera at times is good but he does not use his incredible range very often. The drumming of Brian Craig is boring and the bass playing of Nardo Andi is not really impressive either.

It is really a shame because the album starts off really strong with the first two songs, “Transition” and “The Watcher”. The title track begins with an intro where a robotic voice begins talking; it’s pretty cool. The same voice appears once again in the middle of the song. But what is so great is the fast pace of the song. The latter part of the song features plenty of great leads. Everything about the band in this song sounds fresh, new and exciting as well as in “The Watcher”. This song is my favorite from the album. It features some powerful double bass drumming. The chorus is very cool and catchy; James really shows off his range in this part. Unfortunately, no other song really captures this same ingenuity. Some songs have some really great parts like “The Suffering”. The middle part of the song features acoustic guitars and then the song goes into a faster pace. But you can only get to this part after listening to some really slow and tedious music in the beginning. The chorus is pretty terrible as well. “From Dust to Life” is another song that had some potential to be better. The chorus section is loaded with guitar harmony leads; the solos are also pretty cool. Also, James once again shows his range because the song ends with some tremendous high pitched soaring vocals.

However, that is about all the positives I can really talk about regarding Transition. The rest of the album is filled with boring, slow and unimaginative music. If Destiny’s End would have just carbon copied another power metal band (like HammerFall), they could have had come out with a more enjoyable album. If you are looking to buy a good metal album by a US band, I would strongly advise in avoiding this album and spending your money on something more worthwhile and noteworthy like the new albums by Onward and Magnitude 9.