TITUS GROAN – TITUS GROAN – 1970 (UK) hard rock/heavy progressive

Although named after the main character of Mervyn Peake's gothic fantasy novel, Titus Groan played music definitely lacking in originality. Since all the tracks are over five minutes long, there is room for elaborate instrumental developments, which almost get exciting, but fall short from their goal. Their early progressive style is laced with large parts for wind, which at times makes for interesting listening, but ultimately the meagre compository skills make the wine too watery. By far the best cut is Hall Of Bright Carvings (title taken from Peake's novel as well), which is versatile and passionate, although at 11'50" inevitably too long. A few spins may be rewarding enough, more of this will probably bore you. Jim Toomey had earlier been in Jon, wrote What Did We Miss for Still Life with Stuart Cowell and was later in The Tourists. He also did some session for for Uriah Heep's Ken Hensley at the end of the '70s.

Stuart Cowell (keyboards, guitar, vocals)
John Lee (bass)
Tony Priestland (saxophone, flute, oboe)
Jim Toomey (drums)
1 It Wasn't For You 5:35
2 Hall of Bright Carvings: a) Theme b) Dusty High-Value Hall c) The Burning d) Theme 11:37
3 I Can't Change 5:41
4 It's All Up With Us 6:07
5 Fuschia 6:18

First two tracks are very good but so far the rest of album i think is just ok

Highly recommended!
Rip from CD 256@ (full artwork included)
Download link
http://link-protector.com/314174/