Modrigue
One of ELOY's best cover art for... their worst album. What a deception!
For sure, in 1992, during the grunge and rap explosion, space-rock was not very popular. However, why does the music sounds like it was recorded in the 80's? ELOY recovers its old habit of being a few years late. And... what happened to Frank Bornemann's voice? This record showed great promises though: The participation of Klaus-Peter Matziol (the bassist of the band's "golden era") on some tracks, a real drummer, Nico Baretta, and the usage of the flute, a new instrument in ELOY's universe. All these interesting elements do not prevent the lack of inspiration of the compositions. So, is "Destination" a total fiasco?
Weakened by its awful percussions and vocals, the opener "Call Of The Wild" can be described as flavorless ELOY. The incursion of the flute is quite useless. Not much to say about "Racing Shadows" either, it's a rather flat song. Same goes for the title track, sounding very late 80's and boring.
Now comes the (only) interesting part. "Prisoner In Mind" is a surprisingly 80's heavy rock song. While not transcendent, the music itself is quite refreshing and enjoyable. The space metal track "Silent Revolution" is even more ferocious. Rarely has ELOY been this agressive. Wow! Best moment of the album, it features musical changes and a nice finale with a choir. Our heavy metal stop is now over.
Back to the oceans of mediocrity. "Fire And Ice" is average but not very original, while "Eclipse Of Mankind" is rather transparent and dull. The most progressive track of the record, "Jeanne d'Arc", is one of the band's worst song. Although trying a different style, the melody is insipid and the "operatical" passages are barely listenable.
Destination: the middle of the album, as it is only part showing new approaches. The rest is just forgettable in the German band's discography, these tracks won't be played often at concerts. It would have been interesting though to hear their space-rock if they had turned more "metallic". Don't worry, ELOY will recover (a piece of) its lost inspiration in the next opus...