Crystal Eyes - In Silence They March (2000)

Crystal Eyes' second album is certainly an improvement as far as the raw vocals of guitarist/main songwriter Mikael Dahl coming through the mix is concerned and, again, there are some good melodies here with the likes of the opening "Time Flight", "The Grim Reaper's Fate", "Knights Of Prey" and the semi-haunting closer "Winternight", but, as before, there's not enough high quality material to justify the record's length of around an hour, so it's not as satisfying as it could have been.
The topics take us through various battles and destructions as the walking dead conquer all who stand before them ("In Silence They March" - it's those chaps on the cover), as do the Vikings ("Sons Of Odin") and pirates ("Adrian Blackwood"), while witches and warlocks get burnt at the stake in "Witch Hunter" and Death himself faces his doom in "The Grim Reaper's Fate" - "Years of lies to collect and build your own paradise, where you thought you could be safe/But all your plans were crushed when God found out/Liar! Now you shall burn in the fire..."
There's something for everyone.
But the songwriting needs more consistency in quality, and a bit more variety would be nice too, or at least shorten and tighten things. The results might then be better.

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