### Crystal Eyes: Chained

#### 04/11/08 || Euthanatos

I’ve been hearing or seeing things about Crystal Eyes ever since I first got into power metal with Blind Guardian and Grave Digger, but never gave them the time of day. First of all, while I loved (and still do) some of the power metal bands, I knew that even then, like every style that goes popular, there were a lot of bandwagon acts that simply weren’t that good. I always thought, for some reason, Crystal Eyes was one of those. I had no empirical evidence to back this up, I guess I simply hated their name, which is truly atrocious.

So the band is now on their sixth album, and ironically it’s up to me to review “Chained”, without having ever listened to any of their previous stuff. The overall idea here is exactly what you would expect, cheesy power metal with no creativity whatsoever, but with some decent hooks and a solid line-up performing the songs.

While the opener, “Ride the Rainbow”, has an insanely cliche title (what is the deal with these bands and the rainbow? I mean, unless they’re all gay, what the fuck is so appealing?), it has a catchy chorus and vocalist Søren Nico Adamsen shows he has the stuff needed to keep this thing afloat. Because if there is one thing that can make or break a power metal band for me, it’s the vocals.

“The Fire of Hades” has some great heaviness to it, with some sluggish riffs plowing away mid-song, even though it kind of drags on for too long. “The Devil Inside” is a bit more cheerful, with a “don’t wait for the devil tonight” chorus which immediately reminded me of Stryper. Not bad.

When “Waves of War” comes around, I’ve got “Chained” pinned down like a priest would have a ten year old boy from the congregation. Crystal Eyes has everything you need in a good band, except good song writing. No, the songs aren’t terrible, as a matter of fact, if this was playing as the background music at a party or a bar, you wouldn’t mind it at all. The problem is, you really wouldn’t pay any attention to it. Yeah, it’s metal, yes, it’s neatly produced, played, packaged, but you can’t tell the difference between Crystal Eyes and a dozen other bands. So is there really any point to listening to it? I think not, unless you’re a collector of 90’s memorabilia.

The cover: Hands and a chain. Ok, then.

5 crystal teary eyes watching the rainbow out of 10.

- Information
- Released: 2008
- Label: Metal Heaven
- Website: www.crystaleyes.net
- Band
- Søren Nico Adamsen: vocals
- Mikael Dahl: guitar, keyboards, vocals
- Paul Pettersson: guitar
- Claes Wikander: bass
- Stefan Svantesson: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Ride The Rainbow
- 02. The Fire Of Hades
- 03. The Devil Inside
- 04. Waves Of War
- 05. Dying In The Rain
- 06. Fighting
- 07. Shadow Rider
- 08. Lonely Ball Of Fate
- 09. Guardian