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Italy's Vision Divine has been cranking out progressively-tinged Power Metal albums since 1998 and Destination Set to Nowhere is #7. I've read many laudatory things about this band and though I couldn't understand the big deal with 2005's The Perfect Machine (my previous exposure to the band) I can now see what the fuss was about. Destination Set to Nowhere is a concept album about space farers looking for a new and better world. The songs are a good mix of faster, aggressive tracks, like "Lighthouse" and "The Home of the Angels," and slower, more melodic songs like the title track and "The Sin is You." There isn't anything particularly new on Destination Set to Nowhere but when everything is written and played this well that hardly matters. It took a few spins to sink in, but once it did, I was hooked and singing along with almost every chorus. Singer Fabio Lione's English pronunciation is a work in progress, making it a bit distracting. Since he undoubtedly speaks better English than I speak Italian (that is to say, not at all), I cast this stone lightly.

I've changed my opinion of Vision Divine, based on Destination Set to Nowhere, and I would rank it right up there with some of the best from bands like Mob Rules, Sonata Arctica (early) and Pagan's Mind. Fans of those bands and well-done Power Metal, in general, need to pick this one up.