Wings of Destiny

I do not know too many Aussie heavy metal bands, to tell the truth. Dungeon has been my favourite one for many, many years now. Then Pegazus descended before me and told me to sit on its back. The winged horse promised to get me to my destiny. Alas, the truth was nothing that thrilling.

The sophomore album and still the band's music bathes in tediousness. The riffs just do not manage to command me to raise my horns up to the sky. The riffs often tend to be totally simplistic, bland and forgettable. Plus annoying; The first of these abominations come already 10 seconds into the album! This is the original sin of this album. Guitar leads and solos are far better and manage to enliven the music.

However, the musical influences are quite varied. Certainly that alone cannot make any album rule. There is more epic (which is not very epic in Pegazus's case, though) songs, such as the opener and 'Witches Hex' which has one of them gem choruses on the album. Then there are rockers, such as 'Cry out' which flirts with early Iron Maiden, and rock 'n' roll piece 'The Werewolf'. While the latter at first sounds like it was out of place on the album, it actually does work; it is a catchy song, which the album generally misses. Yes, there are many catchy parts throughout the album, but hardly any single composition manages in that.

However, it is the instrumental song 'Life on Mars' which in a huge debt to these British legends; it's a very much like a Maiden instrumental such as 'Transylvania' or 'Genghis Khan' and borrows very heavily from songs such as 'Phantom of the Opera'. 'Braveheart' is not inspired by 'The Clansman' (Bravehart was a nickname for Scottish king Robert the Bruce anyway), but is a take with dragging pace on true metal. But yeah, it certainly has its Maiden moment during the guitar solo part... But enough of that influence. Also Judas Priest and Black Sabbath influences can be heard, on riffing and vocals lines, like example 'Mother Earth' shows. While 'Wings of Destiny' is more of a heavy metal album, it has quite a bit of power metal stuff in it. Sadly we also have a ballad closing the album. Piano and cheesiness alert!

While the band's performances can be energetic, the production does its best to bring it all down. This sounds simply powerless and rather thin. The guitar tones aren't rabid or fleshy, the drums are not loud (exept for the snapping snare), but at least the bass sounds like it should. But there could be so much more punch in the sound department, gnenerally. The vocals are rather good. Sometimes clear, sometimes with grit, and with quite a wide range. They are somewhere between Eric Adams (Manowar; the screams, especially), Rob Halford (Judas Priest) and Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden), but far powerless and with not that good vocal lines, generally. Some are, but the vocals suffer from the same problem as the rhythm guitars. The lyrics are both fantasy and reality, and are okay in all their childishness. This I expected from guys whose mother tongue is English.

Pegazus feel like they are a lite-version of something bigger. That bugs me, but also can posses certain charm to it. The albums seems to works at times, but others it can get boring as hell. As I wrote: lightweight.

(Originally written for ArchaicMetallurgy.com)

Finding an interesting or novel concept on this album is almost as hard as finding a polar bear in the outback. With laughable cover art that perfectly captures the lameness of most of its songs, Wings of Destiny is a disposable old school-styled heavy metal album made entirely out of ingredients that are years past their expiration date. Full to bursting with derivative and unimaginative guitar leads and vocals that range from decent to irritating, there’s no reason to choose this over a Powerslave or a Painkiller.

Something that immediately stands out about Wings of Destiny is that it doesn’t sound especially metallic. Imagine a fence that separates metal from rock and know that Pegazus is just barely on the metal side. Half the time, it sounds more like Boston than Judas Priest or Helloween, which wouldn't necessarily be bad if the album wasn't marketing itself as a traditional/power metal affair. Almost every song on Wings of Destiny simply lacks that vicious bite that makes this genre fun.

None of the individual components that make up this album’s familiar sonic brew are especially good. The singer sounds a lot like Geddy Lee, though his voice isn’t quite as annoying. Gang vocals used during some of the disc’s more simplistic choruses aren’t irksome on their own but feel weirdly out of place. Most of the rhythm guitar parts, meanwhile, sound like they were stolen from a trashcan outside K.K. Downing’s house. They carry the songs along but don’t dazzle or even engage most of the time and, coupled as they are with equally bland leads and solos, end up feeling like a rehash of ideas that haven’t been fresh since the early eighties.

This adherence to classic metal doctrine works out a few times on this album. 'Life on Mars' is a fun high-speed instrumental and the only cut here that sounds truly inspired. 'Werewolf', meanwhile, is a fun, simplistic number with a cheesy chorus that makes singing along hard to resist. Sadly, these are the album’s only gems, with the rest of Wings of Destiny offering some of the least exciting power metal the land down under's ever produced

Every kind of lousy traditional metal song is here: ‘Braveheart’, the mid-paced snoozer, is so boring it’s hard to believe the band didn’t scrap the piece in the middle of writing it. The weak attempt at an epic is here and its name is ‘Enchanted World’. And what crappy old-school-styled metal album would be complete without an insufferable ballad (album closer ‘Destiny’)? Sometimes Wings of Destiny makes you tap your feet but for most of its runtime it leaves you wondering how the band was proud enough of this to release it.

Often overshadowed by German Speed Metal veterans Gamma Ray and Swedish Power Metal outfit Hammerfall, Australian Traditional/Power Metal outfit Pegazus has been keeping the old ways of metal live since its unfortunate fall from the top in the 1990s. When a band completely rejects the mediocre and muddy riffing style of Alternative Rock posers like Silverchair and creates hymns worthy of the founding fathers of the NWOBHM, they are obviously worthy of much praise. Any lack of originality in this band is completely cast aside when one takes into account the quality of the work found on “Wings of Destiny”, which is the band’s sophomore effort.

Most of the material found on here reaches back to the early days of Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Riot, Fates Warning, Manowar, and a few others from the early 80s. The guitar riffs and solos are high reminiscent of both Mark Reale and K.K. Downing, with perhaps a bit of a hint of Dave Murray. Bassist Dave King is among the more active bassists in the genre and mostly emulates Steve Harris, such songs as “Enchanted World” and “Witches Hex” containing the most active bass parts. Vocalist Danny Cecati (who exited the band after the next release) is a rather interesting mix of John Arch and Vince Neil, which seems odd as the former was known for ridiculing bands of the same image as the one the latter fronted.

Most of the music on here is textbook Iron Maiden worship ranging from the debut up to the “Piece of Mind” release. The straight forward rocker “Werewolf” sounds like a slightly jazzier version of “Running Free”, while “Cry Out” has a good deal in common with “Invaders” off the Number of the Beast. Instrumental track “Life on Mars” is quite a bit similar in structure and riff development as “Transylvania”, although there are some odd guitar effects jumping in and out of the mix that give it a sort of otherworldly atmosphere. “Mother Earth” is a fairly powerful rehash of “Children of the Damned” that carries some small remnants of “Strange World”.

The highlights on this album are where the band veers away from the strictly Maiden influences and take on some other sounds. “Wings of Steel” is your quintessential “Screaming for Vengeance” era Judas Priest homage, loaded with solid riffing and active solos. “Enchanted World” and “Witches Hex” are both drawn out epic tracks, the former having a lot of fancy bass work and plenty of atmosphere that reminds of Maiden’s classic “To Tame a Land”, while Witches Hex starts off with a dreary atmosphere befitting Maidens “Hallowed be thy name”, but then morphing into something a bit similar to the more rocking material off Fates Warning’s “Awaken the Guardian”. “Brave Heart” is a more blues driven rocker with hints of both Manowar and Judas Priest influences, it’s a bit slow but it gets the job done.

Our one weak link on this album is the closer “Destiny”, which is an extremely underdeveloped ballad with a very dull vocal line. The intended goal was obviously to vary the sound, but here it doesn’t really accomplish much other than spoiling the ending of what is otherwise a solid traditional metal album. The lyrics are also extremely cheesy, even when compared to the slapstick words found on “Werewolf” and the cliché images depicted on the Indian warrior track “Braveheart”.

All in all, this is a good listen if you like all of the bands mentioned above. It was released the same year as such highly successful Power Metal albums as “Somewhere Out in Space” and “Glory to the Brave” and probably doesn’t quite shack up musically to them, but it is miles ahead of the garbage that all of us had to endure in the Alternative Rock scene. When I listen to it I picture Kurt Cobain sitting in a medical quarantine cell in Satan’s palace screaming in agony as this album is blasted through speakers in the walls at full volume, knowing full well that he never could have created anything as musically apt, entertaining, and good as this.