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After Requiem's savaging of this CD, I was prepared to hate it, or for it to bore me to death, but I wanted to hear it for myself, as the samples I heard actually sounded good. Well, I find myself pleasantly surprised, as Crystal Eyes' 4th full-length CD is a damned fine album.

"Confessions" biggest selling point has been the much-anticipated appearance of one of metal's very finest singers in the vocal spot, as after Daniel Heiman's stellar performance with Lost Horizon, we know we can expect nothing but the best from him, and he does not disappoint here. The vocal lines here are quite different from the kind of stuff he sang with LH, but there are some great melodies here, and he powers out the lines of opening stomper "The Charioteer", the power-ballad title cut, and the speedy killer "Northern Rage" with the swagger and balls we expect from him. His vocal work here is far less showy than on either of Lost Horizon's albums, but no less well-done for all that.

What surprised me was how good the rest of the band was, especially the inventive and tasty riffing Mikael Dahl and Jonathan Nyberg. This is all very much in the Swedish Power Metal school, with that sharp, bright guitar tone and the highly melodic riffs, but it is very well written and played. I was hoping for simply a decent Power Metal album with Heiman's stellar vocals adding to it, but actually this album is a much more solid effort than that, and would be a good disc even without Heiman. Old singer Dahl even provides the vocals on the album closer, the ballad "Silent Angel", and it's one of the songs on here I really like.

If you are expecting some kind of continuation of Lost Horizon here, you are going to be disappointed. But if you want some catchy, hooky Swedish Power Metal in the vein of Cryonic Temple or Hammerfall, then this is an album not to miss. "Confessions Of The Maker" is not a great album, but it is a very, very good one. Not groundbreaking, but catchy, memorable songs with solid riffs and great vocals add up to a very enjoyable album.