With the brand new album "Delta Viridian", North Ireland's SANDSTONE successfully provide for their fourth release, a perfectly elaborated music with an obvious flair when it comes to blend several sub-genres to create their Metallic alloy in their own specific and unique way.

The clever blend of Power Metal elements and Progressive Rock's inherited structures, along with the high crisp compositions embellished by a robustness in the melodic density, it's clearly I believe their main sound signature, which leads to comparisons with bands like contemporary FATES WARNING, VANDEN PLAS , CIRCUS MAXIMUS and SIAM - principally because of the evident similarities between Sean McBay's thin voice that's always recall, the great founder of SIAM: Sir Tony Mills (ex-SHY / TNT / SERPENTINE).

In fact, this concept-album's story is related and freely inspired by the sci-fi book "Cat's Cradle" written by US author Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. in the 60s; it's musically an updated version of 2010's "Cultural Dissonance", which if it was also suffering back then of the same imperfections but wasn't so mature, nevertheless, from time to time SANDSTONE seems to experience passively a relative lack of clarity, mostly in their most adventurous moments and audacious numbers: losing the focus and getting caught in between some unnecessary, over-arranged orchestrations, however sometimes it works perfectly, like with the recommended "Red Mist", great. But the core of the album is much more attractive and catchy, with some freshness in the melody, more characteristic to the 80s Heavy Metal and even some NWOBHM's like headbanging straightness in the riffage of cuts as "King Of Cipher", "Winter", "Promise Me" or "Fortress".

Their impressive second disc "Purging The Past" (2009) was also in the same duality, a bi-polarity which is their strongest asset but also their weakness, a paradox that is finally quite frequent in the melodic Prog Metal genre. Finally I can state that, it's their best release yet, as a bright example, in the quest for a new melting alchemy perfection it's their future Anthem like song "Monument". The closing track is an epic title over nine minutes "Vitruvian Man" that features a great guest-vocals appearance by ex-JUDAS PRIEST, and American screamer supreme: Mr. Tim 'Ripper' Owen (DIO DISCIPLES / ex-ICED EARTH / ex-YNGWIE MALMSTEEN).

This is also a good summary of the hit and miss of this album, the perfect balance between technical rigor and progressive convoluted propensity is reached for a good three quarter of the tracklist, but concerning the future 2013 rewards, mainly because the superiority of the other contenders, it's not enough. Despite all and in order to do justice to "Delta Viridian", I pushed up the evaluation rating of 1 point; I have to recommend in a friendly tip manner this CD, to the open minded melodic Prog Metal enthusiasts.