Firstly, I want to state that I'm a Melodic Hard Rock fan and a Power Metal one as well. Axxis is one of the rare bands that combine both successfully for more than a decade.
Eyes Of Darkness makes a great start with the album entitled song, which is a power epic tune with great atmosphere, overwhelming vocals by Bernhard Weiss and one of the catchiest riffs I have ever listened to. Sadly, the only song of the album that lives up to that promising start is the One Million Faces that is filled with powerful guitars, strong bass lines and catchy riffs. These two songs are so good that they compensate us for having to listen to the colorless Battlefield Of Life and the ultra boring ballad Lost In Love that comes as a bonus track (bonus? ha!).
The other strong cuts of this albums are the Brandnew World, a power ballad that strongly brings 80's to mind especially when it culminates in the end; the Angel another ballad that is dedicated to Weiss' daughter; the melodic At The Crack Of Dawn; the When The Sun Goes Down, a fast power song with cool lyrics that only the German scene can provide (Rhapsody, must be a bit jealous for not having written a song like that yet) and finally the Larger Than Life that also shows clearly that Axxis come from a country with great tradition in Power Metal.
The Four Horsemen came as a big surprise to me, cause I couldn't believe that Axxis wrote a hippie - 70's song. Imagine how surprise I got later, when I learnt that they have made a cover on a song that was written from the Greeks Aphrodite's Child (Yes, the old band of Vangelis Papathanassiou and Demis Rousos!!!!).
The rest of the songs (Wonderland, Shadow Of The Light, Keep Flying) sound just OK. Yes, they got melody, they got catchy guitar grooves but sadly they luck feeling.
The digipak version contains a videoclip of Shadowman and a game called RockMine which I can't tell what it is about since whenever I was trying to install it my poor ol' PC was crashing.
In conclusion, the album has some great moments that are a bit overshadowed by some mediocre ones. If you are able to surpass those moments, then you'll realize that is good release that certainly worths your attention.