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Genre: heavy metal

"Purging the Past" is the second album by the Ulster band Sandstone, and on this album the Londonderry boys offer quality melodic heavy metal.

There is a lot of melody on this album, so it might not appeal to every single metalhead out there, but if you do not mind influences from melodic hard rock, then there is plenty of good stuff here. I certainly think that we are dealing with quality music here.

Although melody is ubiquitous on the album, Sandstone are not slushing buckets of sappy power ballads around; there is a lot of variation on the album and a lot of hardhitting tracks.

"Anymore Lies" is a groovy affair with a lot of melody and heavy riffs, and "Hiding in the Shadows" is a ballad which is slightly reminiscent of some of Fates Warning's softer tracks, which also applies to the more interesting track "Karma". "Son of Carthage" is a power metal-esque uptempo tracks with guitar harmonies galore, fast riffs and drums as well as catchy and melodic vocal lines (and a grrovy 70s rock surprise too!) "The Road to Guantanamo", "Division", "DOA", and "Enigma" are all quality tracks that draw on various types of metal, such as 80s classic metal, hard rock, power metal and modern groove metal.

Recommended to fans of traditional metal and melodic hard rock.