YESTERDAY'S FUTURE, TOMORROW'S PAST

Together with a promo copy of The Promethean Syndrome, Azureth send me a copy of their debut album - released three years earlier in a different line up. The album clearly shows what the band was already capable of right then. Even though the album is not as progressive as The Promethean Syndrome, it deserve judgement on it's own merits.

What is clear on this album from the first instant is that we are dealing with skilled musicians who take their job seriously. Wake the Dragon contains very well performed keyboard, guitar and bass work - supporting a well sung, Grendel like (?) story of a dragon. It is followed by the ballad-like Searching, which is more of a mainstream rock song, with clean and/or acoustic guitar work. Man on the Moon, the third track, is pretty much a guitar driven rock song, with some very nice keyboard and bass work in the background. Too bad the lyrics revert to "lalala" at some point. The 36 minute (!) epic The Grand Design covers tracks 4 through 9 on the CD. Listening each individual track give the impression that the album is a mix of prog and non-prog tracks, combined they definitely show a clearer prog picture. Most striking for me was in track 6, Shadow of a Man, which clearly shows late 60s and early 70s influences. A bit of Beatles, a bit of Pink Floyd (around the time of Wish You Were Here) and even some Moody Blues influences in the vocals. After the epic, we are treated to three more tracks. The first one, Timeless Moments in Sherwoods is strongly keyboard driven, and reminds me of some of the keyboard intermezzo on later Styx albums. The Lathe of Heaven is a bit off on the album, like searching, it is more of a pop/rock song with a vocal melody that brought the line "The captain of her heart" to mind... Afterglow closes the album in a rock ballad like manner, which doesn't do much for me - even though it contains a nice guitar solo.

All in all, Yesterday's Future, Tomorrow's Past is certainly far from a bad album, but it clearly shows room for growth. Growth that has since taken place - the list of keyboards and emulations used by keyboardist Stephen Rivera is amazing, but nowadays it sounds a lot more coherent and complete than on this album. Azureth is definitely a band to keep an eye on - lurking in the background of the prog stage.

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