Band : Sandstone
Album title : Purging The Past
Label : Limb Music Products
Distributor : Hard Life Promotion – Suburban
Release date : 30/10/2009
Release : CD (re-mixed, re-mastered)

“Sandstone…? Ooh, ooh, gimme, gimme…,” I pleaded with my editor-in-chief, while snatching the (download) promo copy of the album from his hands! Yeah, me and Sandstone have a love relation which goes back a few years (from when they released their debut album Tides Of Opinion through Casket/ Copro in 2006, actually) and I wasn’t about to let anyone get between me and a new album by this great Derry, North-Ireland based Progressive Rock act!

“What? Through LMP?,” I went, and then things slightly started to dawn on me…because the guys had released this very same album in February of this year through Casket, see!? And I gave it a blisteringly perfect rating as well! After a little research, I found out I wasn’t the only one to support the quartet’s latest outing, as it got great reviews from magazines all over the globe (for more details, or to check the reviews out, check out sandstonerocks.com, or the blogs at myspace.com/sandstonerocks.
Working their way up to announcing in early October that they had signed onto the LMP roster for no less than 5 (five!) albums, the band re-mixed their album during August, after which Uwe Lulis (formerly of Gravediger, now of Rebellion) mastered it.

Meanwhile, it’s been 1 ½ months since the European re-release, and the band have gathered some of the most positive reviews they came across in that time, put ‘em in another blog at their MySpace. With marks ranging from 8/10 to one perfect rating of 15/15, I am confirmed in my belief in this band’s capacities! So, what’s the difference between the album on Casket, and this one? Musically speaking? None, because nothing’s been re-recorded, and everything (musically speaking) that’s there now was already there to begin with! Soundwize? Perhaps, but to these ears which are fine-tuned to make out good music no matter what, it really doesn’t make much difference. Of course, possibly the musicians themselves have wanted to have some adjustments made on details they only found out about once the album was done. So…IS there a difference? Sure is, because this re-issue only has 12 songs on its tracklist, with “Sleep”, “Skuldakin”, and “Critical” missing (kept aside for the Japanese release and/or limited editions, perhaps?)…and the remaining songs have been jumbled about a bit, possibly to fit a better overall view on the material.

At any rate, here’s one full of joy that this “one-of-my-favourite” bands of the latter years has finally found a home and a team to back ‘em up in conquering the rest of the world (they already won over my heart, remember!). Now let’s see this band do a big European tour first, eh? My rating remains the same, in spite of the couple of songs I’m missing!

100/100

Tony.