LOOKING FOR MYSELF

At just about the same time as I intended to buy this album I read a review about it in a Dutch prog magazine that ran this one into the ground. At the end of the negative review they stated that it wasn't that bad at all just not original. Well, ok I thought and since I'm a pigheaded person I bought it anyway. One of the big criticisms was that the lyrics weren't original, so many times bands had already written about a person who was looking for himself etc. Actually I don't really care what lyrics are about. Perhaps shallow of me but alas. I'm just interested in the music and that's ok with this band and album if you ask me. Sandstone is another fine band from Poland and even their native country was almost enough for me to have a go at this since I simply adore bands like Collage, Satellite and Riverside. And another reason was my will to check out new unknown bands especially in the neo prog and the prog metal styles.

So what is Sandstone like ? I can't really think of a much resembling other band, Sandstone is pure prog metal, not too rough, it's melodic and progressive with some long instrumental solos, so that means really according to what I like a bout this style. Are there downsides ? No significant ones for me, it's just that they aren't as brilliant as Dream Theater or Threshold for instance. But then we are talking about the very best in the scene so that's not quite fair I would say.

Sandstone is simply a very nice prog metal band and to me they made a very fine debut. There's even doubt about the rating whether I will give it 3 or 4 stars. I will let my gut feeling do the job and give them an encouragement round up to 4. Keep growing, guys !