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 Queensrÿche. 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.