STARCASTLE

Way too many Yes nuances for me to take seriously. On their debut album, Starcastle mine all of the positive qualities Yes brought to the music scene and use them to make ''the album that Yes never recorded''. Right from the first bass guitar sounds of ''Lady of the Lake'', you could really smell the Yes in this group. Vocally, STARCASTLE fails in most regards; Terry Lutrell is a decent singer on his own, yet when the group does harmonies, they get annoying. The diddits in ''Forces'' are among the worst vocal thing I've ever heard.

''Lady of the Lake'' and ''Sunfield'' have some nice proggy touches, but neither get put on repeat for the blatant Yes copying as is the rest of the album. Side 2 begins and ends with duds for instrumentals that really don't serve any purpose. Nothing more than a novelty album that sounds like Yes.