Band:	The Hourglass
Album:	To The Land Of The Free
Style:	Heavy metal
Release date:	March 2004

01. Pilgrimage
02. Trapped
03. Holy Rage
04. Planet of Cockroaches
05. Of Revenge and Glory
06. Ancient Hope (Part 1 - Denial)
07. The City of Evil Ones
08. Final Departure Stamp
09. Deceptive Light
10. Risen
11. The Land of the Free

The Hourglass are a relatively new heavy metal band all the way from Syria. This album, "To The Land Of The Free" being their first full-length album release from back in 2004. The presentation of the album is nice and very professional looking, the booklet especially with all the lyrics and usual information inside.

The two-minute introduction track leads nicely into the first song of the album "Trapped", a mid-tempo song that lets us get used to the sound of the band and their particular style. The band play a bit more of an aggressive form of heavy metal, not too aggressive at all but it has a bit of punch to it, which is always good to hear. You can hear the influence of such bands as Iced Earth or Dio, or maybe even early Helloween in here with the guitar, drums and also singing. As we approach the forth track, "Planet Of Cockroaches" we get to the song with probably the best pace of the album. This track shows us the talent that this band has, thundering drums and wild guitar especially. It shows us a complete and solid band that are so eager to get their music out there and heard by people. "Deceptive Light" is also another track that as soon as it starts grabs your attention with an early "New Wave Of British Heavy Metal" kind of guitar riff.

The production of the album is up to standard, you can clearly hear the vocals, every drum, the bass and of course guitar as you would want to listening to a heavy metal album, it's just maybe it doesn't sound as polished as the albums of most of the bigger names do, but I am sure these guys wont have money to throw around and so have done a brilliant job on the production side.

The main negative things I can think of are that at some points in the album my attention did keep on seeming to wander. Around the middle point in the album mostly with a few tracks over six and eight minutes. This may have been because of a lack of punch in the songs or that they were a bit too long. The singer also has his moments on the album, he definitely can sing but at times especially during the title track of the album he sounds a little unattractive to the ears.

The Hourglass have provided a good, solid first album and have proven that heavy metal is everywhere - Syria is definitely not the first country that comes to mind when you think of heavy metal so it has been a delight hearing something from so far away from where I am and central Europe. This album shows promise for the future of the band indeed.