REVIEW : DESTINIA --- Metal Souls (Frontiers Music s.r.l., July 2018)

If you are a fan of the classic DIO, Loudness, Whitesnake, Y.J. Malmsteen or even Allen/Lande and Lords Of Black, then you have to check out this new release by Frontiers Music s.r.l. Nozomu Wakai is a new, at least for me, shredder that comes from the land of the rising sun and with his brand new project, DESTINIA, comes to put a wide smile upon the face of every guitar freak out there!!

This new super-amazing project consists by Nozomu Wakai on guitars (with music composed / written / produced by Nozomu himself), Ronnie Romero (Rainbow, Lords Of Black, CoreLeoni), Marco Mendoza (The Dead Daisies) and Tommy Aldridge (Whitesnake). With this breathtaking line-up nothing can be wrong!

Nozomu describes the musical direction of DESTINIA as 'classic modern' heavy metal. 'The music goes beyond the authentic hard rock and heavy metal in the same vein as Rainbow, Whitesnake and Dio - it is completed with the contemporary, modern sound styles. I am confident that I can create new music with these musicians.'

The first couple of tracks of this new album, "Metal Souls" & "Rain", 'smell' pure and classy melodic hard rock/metal that includes powerful vocals (by the one and only Romero), huge guitar work, solid arrangements and inspired melodies that rocket the final result to heaven. "The End Of Love" has this early Malmsteen-esque vibe in it that I truly love to hear while in "Promised Land" the band delivers yet another powerful track in the vain of Jorn's works. At this point, allow me to say that Nozumu's riffs and solos really smoke here and this guy apart from his shredding abilities knows how to perform as a band member (if you know what I'm talking about). 

"Take Me Home" is a more hard rocking tune, "Raise Your Fist" (this one reminds me of DIO....) will make you turn up the volume on 10 and "Be A Hero" is among the highlights out of the new album. Up-tempo and 'punchy' with a killer chorus line "Be A Hero" is just perfect!!! "Metamorphosis", the heavier "Cross The Line" and "Judgement Day" are all three very good songs and they all include strong arrangements, powerful performances and, of course, excellent guitar lines. The song that closes this impressive album is called "Ready For Rock". I'm damn sure that you all got the picture of how this track sounds!!!! Anthem!!! 

For sure, Destinia's "Metal Souls" sets the candidate for the best melodic metal album of the year, period!! The line-up (Romero, Mendoza and Aldridge) is fantastic, the songs are well-crafted, well-performed and the new guitar hero is called Nozomu Wakai!!! Excellent album with killer songs that will be warm welcomed by any fan of the classic melodic hard rock/metal sound!!! Buy or die!!!

Rating : 10/10