Knights sent to the late seventies in a time machine - A review of Chevalier's Destiny Calls

Chevalier's Destiny Calls has gotten a few amount of attention these days and seems to be all the rage. My verdict of this debut record of the Finnish quintet is that it would have been great if it had been released four decades earlier. The current hype is however unjustified.

On the negative side, the production sounds extremely muddy as if it had been recorded with cheap equipment in a basement forty years ago. The drum sound is particularly canny and nerve-firing. The narrative passages sound awkwardly distorted as if inspired by second-rate occult rock bands. A few acoustic guitar passages randomly creep in and out of the production in an attempt to flirt with psychedelic rock and krautrock fans. The songwriting is lazy as the epic tracks always start with moody and slow-paced passages somewhere between space rock and doom metal and pick up pace to evolve towards heavy and at times speed metal reminiscences. Four tracks out of ten are short instrumental fillers that provide unnecessary atmospheric transitions since the longer songs themselves already have extended instrumental passages.

On the positive side, Chevalier's Destiny Calls oozes with mysterious occult atmosphere. The band already has a refined style and manages to keep it going coherently from start to finish. The band reminds me of a mixture of Black Sabbath, Blue Oyster Cult and Rush. The bass guitar play is vibrant, playful and domineering and overall the outstanding instrument in this band. The female lead vocalist makes me think of Geddy Lee and I initially thought she was a man with a slightly high-pitched voice. Since there aren't too many vocalists of this particular style, she certainly manages to stand out even though it might not be everyone's cup of tea.

In the end, Chevalier's Destiny Calls is most recommended for fans of early heavy metal and psychedelic rock music of the late seventies. The band has a clear and coherent style, the bass guitar play is excellent and the singer stands out. On the other side, the band sounds hopelessly old-fashioned, suffers from a muddy production and has already predictable songwriting. This album is overall above average but certainly not as phenomenal as some people make us believe.

Final rating: 60%