TOWARD THE SUN

This debut album by Druid is per se a classic in Progressive Rock. Released in 1975 with Neil Brewer on bass, Andrew McCrorie-Shand at keyboards, Cedric Sharpley on drums and Dane on guitars and vocals. The album opens with Voices, where the band shows instantly what they came for. Perfect intrinsic moods at the introduction with a powerful bass line backed up by layers of Hammond and Mellotron, fading into beautifully constructed guitar solos still backed by esquisite keyboards, from there into vocals and piano layers. The seduction is complete and the sensible listener is hooked for life ! After the intro track they progress into Remembering, a more mellow tune where vocals prevails on harmonic layers of bass, drumms and keyboards. At the end of the track more skillful guitar solos. The following tracks, Theme leads us into the full skills of the band. Here they show all the clichés that good progressive rock has. Mutating moods, perfectly inserted vocals and vintage keyboard playing, this track leads into the Title track Towards The Sun, a breathtaking masterpiece per sí. Red Carpet For An Autumn, Dawn Of Evening and Shangli- Lá closes the album where we are left with a sensation of fulfillment, the soul has been feeded. Red Carpet has a piano intro of rare beauty. The lyrics are of excellent quality, handcarved into the fine instrumentation. Many critics compared Druid with Yes, and thats ok too, a reference is always a good parameter, but calling this band a Yes-clone is absolutely wrong. Yes has qualities and Druid's Toward The Sun is superior to a lot of Yes material. Neil Brewer's powerful bass-line can resemble Squire's fantastic bass playing. Druid had same aestetic values as Yes once had and making such a fine album is indeed an accomplishment. Now if you like Yes, You gonna love this album. Towards The Sun is a must have in any progressive rock collection and a fine reference from the progressive music scene 30 years ago.