As album titles go, Destination Set to Nowhere is pretty ripe for easy mockery at the hands of pomp metal antagonists, but you can bet your bottom dollar it was conceived with entirely straight face by the leader of Italy's prolific Vision Divine, guitarist Carlo Andrea Magnani -- aka Olaf Thörsen. No, really. After all, while his band's name remains relatively unknown to mainstream audiences, this happens to be Thörsen and partner in crime Rhapsody of Fire singer Fabio Lione's seventh studio release since departing former band Labyrinth over a decade prior, so they are obviously committed to their vision. This, to be more specific, entails blasting their favored sympho-progressive power metal creations deep into space with the help of a few strong-limbed, fleet-fingered, but ultimately expendable henchmen; their mission: to spread run-of-the-mill songwriting gimmicks spiked with science fiction lyrics far and wide across the galaxy. Like missionaries peddling, not religion, but music you didn't really want or need to begin with. Not that there's anything technically amiss with the group's ability to churn out melodic metal at both light- and ludicrous speeds ("The Lighthouse," "Here We Die"), as well as balladic weepers like "Message to Home" (ground control to Major Tom!) and the title cut, but remove those sci-fi themes and very little is left that you'd call exotic ("Mermaids from their Moons," anyone?), never mind innovative. In fact, the surprises pretty much start and stop at the Italian-narrated intro piece, "S'i Fosse Foco," and with the strobe light-like synthesizers window-dressing dystopian tales such as "The Dream Maker," "The Ark," and others, in every other respect the music of Destination Set to Nowhere pretty much represents its title rather well.
© Eduardo Rivadavia /TiVo