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Power Prog Records
Words: Craig Hartranft
Added: 18.05.2016
Cost Rica isn't the first country I think of for heavy metal. Some really tasty coffee? Oh yeah. But power metal, largely in the European tradition? No so much. But Wings Of Destiny arrives from the small Latin American country with their second album, Kings Of Terror, released worldwide by Power Prog Records.
My first and immediate observations about this album is two-fold. First, this very aggressive power metal, mostly from the blistering pace in many songs and the powerful and abundant twin guitar riffage that borders on traditional thrash. So call WoD's heavy metal power thrash metal. There's some volatile assertive metal with United We Stand, We Bring The Night, and Holy Innocence. But it's not without its nuances. The keyboards give colorful accents, notably a symphonic feeling as within Kings Of Terror, Angels & Demons (which feature's vocalist Fabio Lione), and the pair Sea Of Oblivion and Siren's Song. The former is an instrumental, the latter features female vocalist Rebecca Malavassi and sounds much like cinematic power metal akin to Lione's Rhapsody Of Fire. Which, I'm also thinking, has some significant influence upon the band and its principal songwriter, vocalist Anton Darusso.
But that's where the comparison ends, and leads to my second observation. Like the music, Darusso has a very assertive vocal style. Mostly he's melodic and strong, but will range from cleaning singing to screamo to near dirty death vocals. Some would simply say that he has a variety of range. Others, meaning me, would say that he seems all over the place, not not knowing how he wants to sound from one song to the next, most often within the same song. For me, I still haven't decided whether I like his voice and style. Nevertheless, if you like your power metal bolder, more aggressive, even touched with fiery thrash, you'll have some interest in Wings Of Destiny's Kings Of Terror. Did I mention the abundance of ripping and roaring guitar solos? I just did. Some good stuff.
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If you like your power metal bolder, more aggressive, even touched with fiery thrash, you'll have some interest in Wings Of Destiny's Kings Of Terror. Did I mention the abundance of ripping and roaring guitar solos? I just did.
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