Beyond the Labyrinth
Castles in the Sand
Rating
Style: Progressive Classic Rock/metal
Release date: November 30th 2008
 

After taking 11 years time to write the songs for this concept album, Beyond the Labyrinth, or should we say Geert Fieuw finally made his dream come truth. Geert did the song writing, the keyboards and the guitars. Jo de Boeck is responsible for the vocal parts, Genry Versteken (bass), Bruno Goedhuys (drums) and Danny Focke (keyboards) completes the band at the moment.

Since their first album 'Signs' back in 2005 they have been opening act in Belgium for bands such as Riverside, Jon Oliva's Pain, Doro and Sonata Arctica. After that, several members left the band, including vocalist Jo. Somewhere in August 2007 Jo came back and things started rolling again; the result is 'Castles in the Sand'.

Fortunately Geert has the ability to write rather good songs. This progressive classic rock album with some metal influences has nice arrangements, lovely melodies and good singing lines. Jo is a good singer, however you can hear by his accent that the band is not English. That is a little minus, the other little stain on the album is the production. I feel that on that part there is still something to gain; the guitar a bit more in front, improvement of the drum sound and a little more bombast.

Musically they find their roots and inspiration in bands such as: Savatage, Journey, Dream Theater, Asia, Marillion, Queen, Kamelot and Queensr˙che. I could have mentioned many more, but with this lot you should get the picture I think. As some other bands they decided to release the record by their own established label.

Final conclusion is that Beyond the Labyrinth made a good melodic rock album, but not a real classic.


Tracklist
01. The Curtain Falls
02. Solitary Dancer
03. Pure Sabotage
04. The Enemy Within
05. Draining My Energy
06. Beyond The Labyrinth
07. Castles in th Sand
08. For Eternity
09. Caught in the Game
10. Caged
11. Time to Fly
12. No Place For a Dreamer
Label: Incommunicado
Provided by: Lugga Music
Distribution: www.beyond-the-labyrinth.com
Reviewed by: Reinier de Vries
Date: February 8th 2009
Website: www.beyond-the-labyrinth.com