Confessions of the Maker

The post-Helloween era of European power metal is replete with examples of bands that started out one way, and the entrance of a new vocalist at the behest of an overworked vocalist/guitarist in the mold of Kai Hansen to ease his workload ends up changing the band’s entire paradigm. In this sense, Crystal Eyes might be seen as just another statistic in the continuing succession, but some intrigue comes into the mix when considering who the new vocalist is. It is often pointed out that Dan Heiman’s presence on this album sparked interest in the band for people who had never heard of them (as did his guest slot on the previous “Vengeance Descending”), and has brought about a rather odd situation for the band. While it’s easy to see why some might call this album a letdown in the context of Heiman’s previous work, I actually find his presence here to be the least consequential aspect of what makes this album both good yet a step down from 3 brilliant and horribly underrated predecessors.

To dispense with the obvious, the vocal performance on here by the man formerly known as Ethereal Magnanimus bears little resemblance to the raging fury of vocal gymnastics that typify his work with Lost Horizon, or even Heed for that matter. A closer analogy could maybe be made to his more measured guest slot alongside Jan Grefstad on the title song of Highland Glory’s debut release “From The Cradle To The Brave”, where Heiman’s input on the melodic architecture of the songs was likely also absent. It is a solid, above average display of powerful notes in line with the tradition of bands inspired by the likes of Iron Maiden and Jag Panzer, but those expecting to be riveted by a super-dramatic exploitation of a 5-octave range on par with “Highlander (The One)”, or is otherwise looking for songwriting as epic as the contents of “A Flame To The Ground Beneath” is not going to have their expectations met. Crystals Eyes is a band more steeped in traditional 80s practices, and generally doesn’t labor under any illusions of being forward-looking or progressive from a stylistic standpoint.

Nevertheless, it is also worthwhile to point out that this album really marks the first musical flirtation with a more slowed down, heavy metal oriented take on the power metal sub-genre in line with the Grave Digger/Running Wild side of their influences. Right through the anthems of glorious exploits that are “The Charioteer” and “The Fool’s Ballet” shines a band that is more of a fanfare based mold, particularly of a mid 80s Accept with a much cleaner singer and busier riffs. Even when going back a little bit to the more quick-paced feel of “Vengeance Descending” on speedy cruisers such as “Revolution Of The Shadowland” and “Panic”, there is still a strong element of a slower, more restrained feel that veers away from the late 90s sound typical to a number of Swedish and German bands from said period. This isn’t quite as slow and stripped down as Sabaton, but this actually does flirt with their sound a little at a few points.

This is an album that marks yet another established name of power metal coming to a stylistic crossroads circa 2005, when the rising AOR and hard rock based sound of Masterplan was really becoming prominent in other bands. But this album, in spite of the radical different in vocal character, is still mostly in the band’s older paradigm, mostly due to the continued presence of Jonathan Nyberg, whose old school, Adrian Smith approach to soloing was an important ingredient in Crystal Eyes’ signature guitar solo sections, which were pretty strongly altered and downplayed when he left on “Dead City Dreaming”. But at the same time, the only song where the band really looks back completely at their older glory days is the closer “Silent Angel”, where Mikael Dahl’s signature acoustic ballad style and Kai Hansen-like vocals chimes in to provide an atypically beautiful ending to what is otherwise a pretty standard, though solid album. It’s a worthy pickup, though unfortunately a bit hard to come by, possibly due to the negative press it garnered from Lost Horizon purists.