Dawn of Destiny is a symphonic power metal band from Germany and this is their first disc. Their approach is similar to Nightwish’s poppier songs when Tarja was with them as well as older Lunatica, though Dawn of Destiny is much higher energy than either of these bands. The songs are generally fast and guitar-driven with accessible melodies and pervasive extremely heavy, almost thrashy, power metal riffs and drumming. Like Nightwish and Lunatica, the song-writing is epic, melodic, upbeat and very enthusiastic with catchy, memorable poppy choruses. The keys are a bit sparse and mostly backing, serving mostly for creating a lightly symphonic atmosphere.

Their female vocalist, Tanja Maul (Svenja Mills), has a beautiful soaring, and quite penetrating, soprano style, with just a slight operatic touch. She is very emotive and enthusiastic, even playful at times, and seems to me to be a perfect choice for music like this; she is easily able to stay out in front of it in spite of its epic heaviness and crunchiness. They also have occasional death vocals and somewhat harsh clean male vocals, both of which add a nice touch of additional aggression to the already quite aggressive rhythms.

In my experience straight-up fast power metal can be monotonous, relying too much on generic riffs and song-structures, but Dawn of Destiny does not suffer from this at all. There is an incredibly enthusiastic fervency and freshness about these songs and Tanja/Svenja pours out her heart in singing them. Indeed, it is a rare listen that I am not completely swept up in the epic excitement the band brings to their song-writing and singing.

For more information visit the band’s MySpace site http://www.myspace.com/dawnofdestiny or http://www.dawnofdestiny.de

8.5 / 10