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: : Looking For Myself : :
Sandstone are a band hailing from Poland, a country that quite suddenly
seemingly has become a hotbed for producing new and promising prog
bands. "Looking For Myself" is Sandstone's debut album, and they were
signed to Progrock Records shortly after the album was finished.
When listening to the album, it soon becomes clear that these guys, as
so many others, are familiar with Dream Theaters earlier releases. But
unlike many other bands, Sandstone manage to a greater extent to
establish the foundations for a sound of their own. Although the song
structures, guitar riffs etcetera are familiar, Sandstone has chosen a
much more polished sound for their album.
The guitars are slick and doesn't dominate the soundcape, and the
keyboards are given more room instead. The vocalist utilizes his
somewhat limited range to convey emotions, and does a good job doing so.
No big vocal dramatics on this record (and a big thank you and amen to
that). Some listeners may have a problem with his accent; but for me at
least that wasn't an issue. Rhythm section works okay, good drummer and
competent bass player.
The end result is a well polished, slick album. The overall mood of the
album is positive and appealing, and the overall sound is - to my ears
at least - even radio friendly.
But when that is said,
there are weak points to this album as well. The songs come across as
somewhat anonymous, and in my opinion both the first two tracks of the
album as well as the ballad "Youth" were too slowly paced in some
passages.
The title track and the last two tracks are much better in that respect.
None of them excellent overall, but all of them good, solid songs. The
title track has several passages that are brilliant, but best track
overall is "Birth Of My Soul", in my humble opinion.
My conclusion is that this is a promising debut from a promising band.
It'll be interesting to see how they develop.
Rating: 7 (out of 10)
Reviewer: Olav Björnsen
: : Visit the Artist’s Website : :
: : Discography : :
Looking For Myself
(2006) |
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