Generally, I love nautically-themed prog/power metal. SOLAR FRAGMENT's seafaring-themed "In Our Hands" was a superb prog/power outing that managed to capture a sense of adventure, as was WUTHERING HEIGHTS's "Salt" and SERENITY's "Death & Legacy". ATLANTIS CHRONICLES, HAMFERĐ and SULPHUR AEON and have managed to make full discographies of awesome ocean-based music, while GOJIRA managed to very nearly make saving the whales sound cool on "From Mars to Sirius". It is into this legacy that SAILING TO NOWHERE, formed in Rome, Italy in 2013, hope to enter. With one previous album - "To The Unknown" in 2015 - under their belt, the band released "Lost In Time" on April 14^th this year.

The keyboardist Alessio Contorni deserves credit for driving the 'prog' aspect of this prog-power band. The vocalists have some decent melodies, but the keyboard alternates between melody and harmony and performs well in both. The otherwise uninteresting "Fight For Your Dreams" has a great intro, with guitars and keyboard moving in to complement an enjoyably grubby lilting bass line. The guest keyboardist Mistheria deserves credit for the opening to "Suffering in Silence", which changes from passable to solid once the keyboard comes in, and remains sustained by said instrument. The saxophone part on "Start Again" did a lot to improve the song, so kudos to whoever played that.

"Our Last Night On Earth" is probably the most prog song on here and therefore the best. The guitars are more progressive here, and the choice of chords on the bridge and chorus strikes a good balance between progressive and power metal. "New Life", by contrast, is probably the most power metal song here except for one delightful departure into Latin percussion, flamboyant bass flourishes with a flowing keyboard solo and backing by a didgeridoo of all things. I cannot express how much I want to see more didgeridoo in metal. This is by a massive margin the best part of the entire album.

I think the problem may be the production. It's not thin, but it certainly is unsubstantial. Nothing really punches the listener hard, and maybe that's the intent. "Ghost City" is instructive. Most of the constituent elements are good, including a couple of interesting chords that put me in mind of SILENT FORCE. The chorus is pretty reminiscent of BLIND GUARDIAN, even in a vocal sense. That being said, every powerful element in the song is watered down, which means it starts sounding pretty forgettable unless you're listening closely. Most of the album is like this; it makes the band sound less like they're sailing and more like being slowly carried out by an ebbing tide.

The album serves as a decent microcosm of progressive power metal. This genre done right is perhaps my favorite kind of music, but most of the time it turns out sounding like this; a decent idea undertaken so timidly as to come off largely uninteresting. SAILING TO NOWHERE clearly are trying; they variegate their music in some basic ways that most bands wouldn't bother exploring beyond a token outing. They clearly have the chops to be a really interesting group, so it's a pity they didn't fully exercise them here.