CZAR

Czar were kind of an obscure band, released their self titled album in 1970 and soon broke up. Listed here under eclectic prog is definitely a mistake, they belong better in the heavy prog section. The band's sound is a heavy mix between guitars and mellotron, but actually nothing special in both departments, although the guitar has it's moments with some good solos. rhythm section doesn't shine too much and is pretty usual. Vocals seems to be the one element they put an extra effort in, and are done ok with some backing vocals too. It seems they drew their influences from bands like The Beatles and The Moody Blues regarding the vocals, but the music reminds me more of Beggars Opera or some Deep Purple at times. The songs are not bad but are quite simple, following a clear line and does not evolve too much, except for some moments the band is not trying to be progressive. Potential is definitely there but it was not fully fulfilled. As many times as i listened to this, the music just never seem to grab me, and left me mainly unimpressed.

The album opens up with two of their best songs which are also their progiest. 'Tread softly on my dreams' and 'cecelia' are quite good and shows the band is capable of writing some interesting songs and can produce a powerful sound. The first has a progy riff and some good vocals, the guitar has a good solo, sounds very hard rocking 70's stuff, i love it. The second has a wicked start really terrific with some great keys and more powerful guitar, may be the best cut out of this album. The rest of the album is pretty uninspired and sometimes boring, it seems they lost their punch in places they should have used it, the melodies are not so good which leaves the songs to be nothing more than some plane 70's rock songs, even the last 8 minute song which was supposed to be another prog song, contains nothing special inside. I found out i enjoy their music mainly when the guitar by Mick Ware is soloing which seems to lift the song a little bit., but this is hardly enough.

It is a real shame this album turned to be a flop, since i did enjoy the first couple of songs, the rest of the album has some nice moments but nothing that i was impressed by. For you who likes heavy prog there are far better albums in this genre. Another thing is the front cover, horrible to say the least. My rating is 2.5 rounded down to 2 stars, again the songs are not bad, but i don't like them and have no desire to listen to this again. I'm sure some of you would like this better than me, the potential is there.