If anyone is approaching their limit of sub-par In Flames rip-offs, Destinity’s return will ensure you hit it. The melodic death metal riffs are competent enough, if absolutely nothing that hasn’t been done a thousand times before, and that Dark Tranquillity did miles better some 15 years ago.
Everything else is a litany of shite. The occasional attempts at shred are downright sloppy and the leads completely out of keeping with the atmosphere, ranging from completely ineffectual attempts at Insomnium-esque melancholy to more optimistic twists that make bizarre use of Dragonforce’s guitar tone. But, most unforgivably, there’s no balls or grit to it, even before the wet clean vocals replace dull screams and pour cold sick on everything.
The worst example is the beige Can’t Stand The Sight, which delivers the chorus ‘Can’t stand the sight of you/You make me so sick’ so woodenly it makes Orlando Bloom’s wettest moment in Pirates Of The Caribbean look like one of Bruno Ganz’s Hitler rants in Downfall.
The buttock-numbingly dull Resolve In Crimson is a chore and that’s at a mere 42 minutes long.
