My first encounter with Crystal Eyes was back
in 1999 with World of Black and Silver. Back then, I bought everything power metal and that was all I wanted
or needed. The good thing was is that WoBaS is a really good disc. It has a bunch of great songs and that quirkiness
and sometimes awkward songwriting that makes some debut discs great. After that, the next 2 discs were decent but never
had enough character to keep me interested enough to play them after the initial 'novelty' phase of a new CD.
Fast forward to today. As almost all who follow power metal know,
Daniel Heiman, ex-Lost Horizon, sings on this disc (he sang one song on the previous disc and all but the last song on this
one) and this is a tremendous plus. It helps Crystal Eyes return with a disc with some character. The songs themselves
are typical Crystal Eyes type power metal. What is that you ask? Well, Crystal Eyes has never been considered
heavy, at least no on their discs. They forgo the heavier, crunchier sound (prevelant in today's power metal world)
and focus heavy on creating catchy melodies and end up with that 'lighter' sound. Add the above formula to Daniel's
great vocals and you'll make most fans happy.
The songs themselves were obviously not written for Daniel as he seems
limited in the way he sings... definitely a different style than the slightly over the top style of LH. He sounds more
reserved on this disc although his voice to the vocal melodies written for the original singer (now guitarist only Mikael
Dahl) is a nice change..no offense Mikael. The guitar work has some really nice melodies and some enjoyable solos.
Overall, a nice disc but I don't think it will top WoBaS....where's the quirkiness?
Favorites: Confessions of the Maker, The Terror, White Wolves, Charioteer
81 / 100
