The early days of the long standing yetlargely underground Swedish power metal institution known asCrystal Eyes were marked largely by frustration. For those who wereversed in metal media circles at the time, Mikael Dahl seemed a bitunhappy with the way the band´s earliest works had been realized, aview that the author of this review disagrees with. Along withinthis frustration came a move toward so-called greener pastures,thus a new production team was tapped and Dahl himself was involvedin the process, resulting in an album that still bears a strongresemblance to the first two from a general standpoint, but a lotof specific points have been altered and a lot of older ideas havebeen jettisoned, chief among them Dahl´s former fixation with themelodramatic excursions into musical expressionism that typifiedhis sort of avant-garde ballads, unfortunately enough. For asimilarly masterful album art toting as it´s predecessor,"Vengeance Descending" proves to be a fairly different beast oncedealing with the actual contents. The songwriting is still epic inscope and loaded up with stylistic nods to Helloween and IronMaiden, but there is a greater degree of rock/metal influences thathint at a greater infusion of Hammerfall and Running Wildinfluences. This results in a number of songs that go the route ofaudience and scene praising such as the extremely unsubtle "ChildOf Rock" and "Metal Crusade", a couple of largely mid-tempobruisers that have a bit more of a bluesy character and hint atwhat would become the band´s dominant sound come "Dead CityDreaming". However, the production quality and mixing of theinstruments definitely has a familiarity with the 80s character ofprevious works, though with a greater level of clarity and polish,thus increasing it´s appeal while slightly surrendering a level ofits mystique. The general departure from exclusive fantasy basedstorytelling doesn´t merely find the band utilizing a few metalpraising anthems, but encompassed most of this album. The wittyspeeder "Mr. Failure" with its almost punk rock character and happytone ranks as one of the more overt eviscerations of uppity rockcritics who are dismissive of or at downright enmity with metalmusic, thus providing a negative reinforcement on the metalpraising front. At the same time, greater emphasis is placed ongeneral themes of personal conflict and triumph, particularlycoming to a head on the galloping series of melodic wandering"Dream Chaser", which also features Dahl getting a little bitgrittier in his vocal attack while still not quite becoming asdirty and nasally as Kai Hansen. It´s actually a bit interestinghow largely mundane lyrics normally reserved to thrash metal bandson one end and Dragonforce on the other can function in a similarlycomplex musical context to the epic storytelling that was heard on"In Silence They March". The only two songs on here that really actas throwbacks to Crystal Eyes´ former days of fighting wars withthe undead in a bygone age or against alien forces beyond the starsare actually the high points of the album. "The Wizard´sApprentice" features the vocal handiwork of the famed Lost Horizonvocalist Dan Heiman (who has since sworn off the metal world sadly)and his presence functions in much the same way that MichaelKiske´s did on a few rerecorded songs from the "Helloween" EP,radically changing the dimensions of the arrangement and coming offas slightly closer to the lofty visions that Dahl was convinced hecouldn´t reach on his own previously but actually did. One isn´tnecessarily better than the other, but they are quite different,and it´s easy to see how many who were not big on this band weretaken in by Heiman´s presence since he fit the dramatic vocalpersona that became more popular in the early to mid 2000s."Oblivion In The Visionary World" sees Dahl returning to the epicballad realm again with even more acoustic guitar mastery, andwhile the creepy dissonant elements have been removed to reveal apoignant ballad with a lot of atmosphere, it functions quite well,save the goofy 3 minutes of silence followed by a hidden 20-30second joke polka-like song that wasn´t really necessary norfitting. For most who have now come to know this band, this iswhere the career actually began, and it all terminates on Heiman´spresence on one song here and his eventual employment as a fulltime session vocalist on "Confessions Of The Maker" after thedemise of Lost Horizon. It shows a band that, like many others inthis style circa 2003, had parted ways with the Sci-Fi/Fantasylyrical underpinnings of the style in the name of conforming to agrowing trend of rock-infused players that entered the scene thanksto albums like the Masterplan debut and Edguy´s "Hellfire Club",not that it wouldn´t have been a welcome addition to the scene hadnearly everybody not jumped onto the bandwagon. I still find myselfpreferring the previous 2 albums, but this one stands as thestrongest since their release, largely because it still has a lotof the same musical characteristics. Guest vocals on "The Beast InVelvet" by Gerd Salewski of Chroming Rose fame.

Track list:
1. Vengeance Descending
2. Highland Revenge
3. Mr.Failure
4. Child of Rock
5. Dream Chaser
6. The Wizards Apprentice
7. Metal Crusade
8. The Beast In Velvet
9. Heart of the Mountain
10. Oblivion in the Visionary World

Condition: nm

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