Band:	Sandalinas
Album:	Fly To The Sun
Style:	Melodic progressive metal
Website:	http://www.sandalinas.com
Release date:	January 18, 2008
A review by:	Jeff

01. Fly To The Sun
02. Never Seen Before
03. Bad Dreams
04. Back From The Light
05. No Matter What
06. As The Rain Falls
07. Double Cross
08. Ring Of Fire
09. The Wrong Side Of Me
10. Shadows In The Rain
11. The Healer Talks
12. Seasons In The Sand

The name of Sandalinas just comes from the first name of the main compositor and guitarist of this Spanish band, Jordi Sandalinas. After a first album, "Live On The Edge" released in 2005, this Spanish "project" is back with a new release "Fly To The Sun". Nothing really new here but at least it's good melodic music and definitely, Jordi Sandalinas is a good young guitarist who knew how to convince some great musicians to play with him, it's probably not a bad thing don't you think?

"Fly To The Sun" is well done but if I thought at first that this album was a Progressive release, I was a bit disappointed in the end. Of course we have some complex guitars and keyboards soli but all in all the music of Sandalinas is too conventional to surprise us. Rick Altzi (At Vance) sings on this release, and in the end the music of Sandalinas is not so different than the one of his own band. We're in front of complex but classic Melodic Power Metal, it's catchy and everything and we have fast like mid-tempo songs but you'll probably have a feeling of déjà-vu when you'll listen to the album. That's a bit sad, it seems that it's really hard nowadays to be original, even if we have some good ideas?

Produced by Mr Andy Larocque at his Los Angered Recording studios in Sweden, "Fly To The Sun" is really well recorded and mixed. Plus the fact that some great guests like Andy of course but also Chris Caffery or Derek Sherinian plays on this release is a good addition. They all give something else to the music of Sandalinas and it's never boring anyway to listen to such artists on an album. We have a really high musical level here and definitely this is just the fact that nothing is new here which kill a bit this album. Good music, good musicians but not really original music compose "Fly To The Sun"?

Jordi Sandalinas is a good compositor but he will have to write something a bit more original in the future if he really wants to become famous. His music is good but something is missing and I think that it could be a good idea to develop a bit more the little Progressive aspect that we are able to find on "Fly To The Sun". The quality is here but not the originality, that's up to you now but don't worry if you like melodic Power Metal I'm sure that you'll pass a good moment while you'll listen to "Fly To The Sun".