ELOY (1971)
Eloy was one of the most successful and best-known progressive rock bands to ever come from Germany. Their dreamy and atmospheric symphonic progressive rock brought them many fans far outside the borders of their own country, and their popularity would last for long into the 80's. Their first release is however one of the least representative debut-albums in progressive rock history. No symphonic prog here but instead average and raw early 70's heavy rock. You can maybe hear some VERY slight progressive tendencies in the piano/organ-dominated ballad "Isle of Sun" and in the structure of "Something Yellow" but most of the album sounds more like Black Sabbath than what you usually would expect from Eloy. The two earlier mentioned songs are along with the title-track and the opener "Today" decent hard rock tracks, but they completely lacks the sophistication and atmosphere of the later albums, making the record of interest to Eloy-completists and collectors of early 70's hard rock only. But the gimmick-cover was interesting as you could open the lid of the dustbin and take a look inside of it.
Today - 5:56 – 6:10
Something Yellow - 8:15 – 8:14
Eloy - 6:15 – 6:33
Song of a Paranoid Soldier - 4:50 – 4:57
Voice of Revolution - 3:07 – 3:12
Isle of Sun - 6:03 – 6:09
Dillus Roady - 6:32 – 6:33
INSIDE (1973)
Guitarist Frank Bornemann became the leader and singer of Eloy when Erich Schriever left after the debut. Eloy took a turn for a much more progressive direction under Bornemann's leadership, and would establish them as one of the leading German progressive rock bands. Drummer Helmuth Draht was replaced by Fritz Randow, and this line-up made Eloy's first truly progressive album with "Inside". The album was made up of quite rough and spacey progressive rock, similar to many of the underground krautrock bands of that time. The first side of the album was taken up by "Land of Nobody" and should satisfy anyone out for energetic jams with lots of spacey organ, heavy guitar and good riffs. This was also the first track by Eloy where Bornemann's notoriously accented vocals could be heard. He had also a slight similarity to Ian Anderson in his voice here, but not as much as many people claim. The title-track is a gloomy song with a simple but good organ-theme. The two last songs on the album, the mostly acoustic "Future City" and the complex "Up and Down" are both of a more psychedelic kind. Personally I think that "Inside" is the best of Eloy's earliest albums, and well worth having.
Land of No Body - 17:14 – 17:24
Inside - 6:35 – 6:41
Future City - 5:35 – 5:37
Up and Down - 8:23 – 8:27
FLOATING (1974)
More personnel changes took place on the third album, as Luijten Janssen replaced bassist Wolfgang Stocker. "Floating" isn't bad, but it still felt like a weaker blueprint of "Inside" and revealed a slight degree of stagnation in the band. Here you get more of the spacey, energetic and psychedelic progressive rock that made up "Inside" but with weaker and less distinctive songs. The 14-minute "The Light from Deep Darkness" features good instrumental passages with lots of the obligatory spacey organ and guitar, but the vocal parts are based in riffs that sound somewhat tired and uninspired. The rest of the album is fairly good, but it won't offer you anything that you already could hear in stronger form on "Inside". "Castle in the Air" is a nice, psychedelic progressive rock song with a lengthy mid-part where Bornemann's wordless vocals and guitar melts together in a way that actually reminds me of Andy Latimer. "Plastic Girl" was yet another attempt to re-create what they had done on "Inside" and sounds decent enough. The title-track is a short instrumental, while "Madhouse" is a straightforward hard rocker that could have been taken from the first album. I wouldn't regard "Floating" as essential Eloy, and you should better pick up "Inside" first.
Floating - 3:59 – 4:01
The Light from Deep Darkness - 14:37 – 14:40
Castle in the Air - 7:13 – 7:16
Plastic Girl - 9:05 – 9:11
Madhouse - 5:16 – 5:18
POWER AND THE PASSION (1975)
Eloy got an additional guitarist when Detlef Schwaar joined them in 1975. "Power and the Passion" was their first concept-album, and it showed that the band went in a more polished and symphonic direction. This change felt necessary after "Floating", but it also made "Power and the Passion" mainly a transitional record. The lyrics told about the son (Jamie) of a scientist who had been experimenting with "time-eroding drugs". One day Jamie took some of these drugs and suddenly found himself in Paris back in 1358 where he met Jeanne, daughter of a mighty landlord who wants to marry Jeanne to the neighbouring landlord's son. Jamie and Jeanne became very close friends before they meet a magician who takes Jamie back to his own time again. The music was more symphonic than earlier, and the keyboard-arsenal had been broadened considerably, and featured now Mellotron, piano, organ and various synths. The material on the album is varied, going from mighty and complex symphonic progressive rock in "Mutiny" to rough heavy-prog in "The Zany Magician" and then to atmospheric, spacey and laid-back beauty in "The Bells of Notre Dame". The lengthy "Love Over Six Centuries" includes lots of spoken dialogues between Jamie and Jeanne that becomes a bit tiresome after a while. And "Daylight" is just a cheap re-use of the riff from "Land of Nobody". "Power and the Passion" was important to Eloy's musical evolution, but it's still the weakest of the four concept-albums that they made in the 70's.
Introduction - 1:10 – 1:13
Journey into 1358 - 2:55
Love Over Six Centuries - 10:05 – 10:08
Mutiny - 9:07 – 9:58
Imprisonment - 3:12 – 3:13
Daylight - 2:38 – 2:41
Thoughts of Home - 1:04 – 1:05
The Zany Magician - 2:38 – 2:35
Back into the Present - 3:07 – 3:08
The Bells of Notre Dame - 6:26 – 6:40
DAWN (1976)
Eloy broke up after "Power and the Passion" but Frank Bornemann quickly gathered together a completely new line-up that would become the most successful Eloy ever had. The outstanding Jürgen Rosenthal became the new drummer; Detlev Schmidtchhen was the new man on keyboards, while Klaus-Peter Matziol got the job of delivering the bass to Eloy's new sound. "Dawn" was another concept-album, and left no doubt that the new line-up was perfect for the symphonic kind of spacey progressive rock that Bornemann now favoured. The lyrics had become more or less impossible to understand, and reminded a lot of Jon Anderson's lyrics. They even sing "Nous Somme du Soleil" in "Gliding into Light and Knowledge" and the title-track! The music sounded now even spaceier with tons of floating and pleasant keyboards that make a very big and impressive sound. The highlights include "Between the Times", "Return of the Voice" and the energetic "The Midnight Flight". Some parts and passages sound maybe a bit too much like each other, and the album as a whole is a little bit messy. But the beautiful arrangements and atmosphere more than makes up for it. "Dawn" is actually one of the most spacey symphonic progressive rock albums I've heard, and worth having for just that.
Awakening - 2:38 – 2:41
Between the Times - 1:50 – 1:50
Memory Flash - 1:55 – 1:56
Appearance of The Voice - 1:12 – 1:12
Return of The Voice - 1:08 – 5:22
The Sun Song - 4:55 – 4:55
The Dance in Doubt and Fear - 4:27 – 4:26
Lost!?? (Introduction) - 5:15 – 5:22
Lost?? (The Decision) - 5:51 – 5:01
The Midnight Fight/The Victory of Mental Force - 7:18 – 8:07
Gliding into Light and Knowledge/The Dawn - 11:04 – 10:57
OCEAN (1977)
This classic concept-album about the rise and fall of Atlantis is for many people (including me) Eloy's best work. The album consisted of four lengthy tracks where the band better than before had managed to combine their atmospheric sound with really strong themes and melodies. The opener "Poseidon's Creation" is one of Eloy's best tracks ever, stuffed with a heavy organ-riff, atmospheric moog themes, a melodic vocal-part and a very majestic end with a choir. "Incarnation of the Logos" has the usual sci-fi atmosphere of Eloy, with a beautiful instrumental theme in the middle. "Decay of the Logos" is a very dynamic track with lots of typical 70's German-sounding keyboards. The first part of the 16-minute "Atlantis Agony at June 5th - 8498, 13 p.m. Gregorian Earthtime"(!!!) sounds almost like Klaus Schulze with narration. The track builds up in the middle to yet another very powerful and majestic progressive tune. "Ocean" remains Eloy's finest moment, simply because it features some of their best material and atmosphere and they had managed to make something completely of their own that reminded of no other progressive rock band. Along with Novalis' "Sommerabend" and Gröbschnitt's "Rockpommel's Land" this is one of the essential symphonic progressive rock albums from Germany.
Poseidon's Creation - 11:38 – 11:44
Incarnation of the Logos - 8:25 – 8:27Üdü Wüdü
Decay of the Logos - 8:15 - 8:18
Atlantis' Agony at June 5th 8498, 13 P.M. Gregorian Earthtime - 15:35 – 15:39
LIVE (1978)
Poseidon's Creation - 11:37 (OCEAN)
Incarnation of Logos - 8:46 (OCEAN) – 8:48
The Sun Song - 8:30 (DAWN)
The Dance in Doubt and Fear - 7:36 (DAWN) – 7:34
Mutiny - 9:56 (POWER AND THE PASSION) – 9:59
Gliding into Light and Knowledge - 4:24 (DAWN) – 4:16
Inside - 6:34 (INSIDE)
Atlantis' Agony... - 20:54 (OCEAN) – 20:56
SILENT CRIES AND MIGHTY ECHOES (1979)
This album proved to be Eloy's best-selling record ever, but there seems to be rather mixed opinions about it. Some people think it's one of Eloy's very best albums ever, while other says it's nothing more than a complete Pink Floyd rip-off. Personally I belong to the first group of people, as I think only "Ocean" can rival "Silent Cries and Mighty Echoes" as Eloy's best album. And I think most of the similarities to Pink Floyd are limited to Bornemann's guitar-playing on the first side of the album. The opening track "Master of Sensation" has an instrumental intro that sounds very much like "Shine on You Crazy Diamond" and the track itself is drenched in atmospheric background-effects that sound like something from "Meddle". But the track is still a very good up-tempo track with some great synth-solos in the middle. "The Apocalypse" is 15 delightful minutes of slow-paced and atmospheric symphonic progressive rock dominated by Bornemann's Gilmour-influenced guitar-playing and lots of the usual dreamy keyboards from Schmidtchen. The Pink Floyd-influences are more or less absent from the second side of the album that seems to be more in the vein of "Ocean". "Pilot to Paradise" is an absolutely outstanding track with a great organ-theme and a beautiful synth-break in the middle. "De Labore Solis" is a very laidback song based in another very nice and typical Eloy-theme played on the moog. The closing-number "Mighty Echoes" has a much more sinister theme and feel. This and "Ocean" are Eloy's most essential albums.
Astral Entrance/Master of Sensation - 9:03 – 9:02
The Apocalypse - 14:54 – 14:58
Silent Cries Divide the Nights
The Vision - Burning
Force Majeure
Pilot to Paradise - 7:01 – 7:07
De labore solis - 5:12 – 5:11
Mighty Echoes - 7:16 – 7:14
COLOURS (1980)
Eloy entered the 80's with a new line-up again. Musically they had also changed and "Colours" marked a move into shorter and more compact songs with gradually more 80's-sounding arrangements. The album also tried to fuse their symphonic style with driving hard rock-riffs, and "Illuminations" and "Child Migration" are the best examples of this. There are also several songs here in the 3-minute range and all of them are surprisingly good. The opener "Horizons" combines a complex rhythm with a nice melody sung by a female choir. "Impressions" is a nice song with a flute-solo, and "Giant" is the track here that reminds most of 70's Eloy. The closing instrumental "Sunset" reminds me a lot of the Japanese new age-artist Kitaro! "Colours" is an original album that proved that Eloy was one of the few progressive rock bands that could evolve and change without selling out but instead still remaining progressive.
Horizons - 3:20
Illuminations - 6:19 – 6:21
Giant - 6:05 – 6:07
Impressions - 3:06 – 3:11
Child Migration - 7:23 – 7:20
Gallery - 3:08 – 3:10
Silhouette - 6:57 – 6:58
Sunset - 3:15 – 3:10
PLANETS (1981)
Introduction - 1:58 – 2:00
On the Verge of Darkening Lights - 5:37 – 5:37
Point of No Return - 5:45 – 5:44
Mysterious Monolith - 7:40 – 6:12
Queen of the Night - 5:22 – 5:18
At the Gates of Dawn - 4:17 – 4:18
Sphinx - 6:50 – 6:23
Carried by Cosmic Winds - 4:32 – 4:34
TIME TO TURN (1982)
Eloy released the albums "Planets" and "Time to Turn" that both had a common concept about the planet Salta in the solar system Hel and the planet's inhabitants, the Ikareens. "Planets" is supposed to be the better of the two albums, but I haven't heard it yet. "Time to Turn" showed however that Eloy now had become a cleverly produced 80's symphonic progressive rock band with a more futuristic and modern sound, but in a tasty way and still keeping the warmth and atmosphere of the classic Eloy-sound. "Behind the Walls of Imagination" has some very interesting use of clavinet as the instrument is the main part of the track's rhythmic foundation, and is maybe my personal fave of the album. "End of an Odyssey" is with its 9-minutes the longest track on the album and features lengthy passages with lots of spacey keyboards that make sure you won't miss the typical sci-fi atmosphere that usually is one of the most important things on an Eloy-album. The title-track is a strongly melodic tune with a very nice female-chorus. The opener "Through a Somber Galaxy" and "Magic Mirrors" are both well-structured tracks with good melodies and more great atmosphere. "Say, Is It Really True?" is on the other hand one of the rather few acoustic-based songs of Eloy. The only really weak track here is "The Flash". A rather uninspired song that becomes even worse because of the awful synths in the instrumental mid-part.
Through a Somber Galaxy - 6:00 – 6:05
Behind the Walls of Imagination - 6:25 – 6:25
Time to Turn - 4:32 – 4:29
Magic Mirrors - 5:25 – 5:28
End of an Odyssey - 9:25 – 9:16
The Flash - 5:34 – 5:35
Say, is it Really True - 4:45 – 4:47
PERFORMANCE (1983)
In Disguise - 4:29
Shadow and Light - 5:17
Mirador - 3:44
Surrender - 5:38 – 5:43
Heartbeat - 6:26 – 6:31
Fools - 5:10 – 5:15
A Broken Frame - 8:10
METROMANIA (1984)
Escape to the Heights - 5:03 – 4:55
Seeds of Creation - 4:28 – 4:30
All Life is One - 6:28 – 10:12
The Stranger - 3:59 – 4:00
Follow the Light - 9:37 – 9:36
Nightriders - 4:39 – 4:52
Metromania - 6:10 – 6:08
CODENAME WILDGEESE (1985) (Original soundtrack)
Patrol - 2:47 – 2:51
Hongkong Theme I - 3:32
Hit and Run - 1:38
Queen of Rock'n'Roll - 2:36 – 2:42
Destiny - 4:34
Discovery - 0:50
Juke-Box - 1:58 – 2:02
Deadlock - 1:30
Cha-Shoen - 3:35
Sabotage - 1:20
On The Edge - 3:30
A Long Goodbye - 2:13
Face to Face - 1:47
A Moment Decides - 2:07 – 2:11
Revenge - 1:13
Hongkong Theme II - 1:07
RA (1988)
Voyager of the Future Race - 8:54 – 9:02
Sensations - 4:46 – 5:08
Dreams - 8:03 – 8:44
Invasion of a Megaforce - 7:42 – 7:45
Rainbow - 5:24 – 5:23
Hero - 6:54 – 6:53
RARITIES (1991)
Daybreak - 3:39 – 3:40
On the Road - 2:30 – 2:32
Child Migration - 4:03
Let the Sun Rise in Your Brain - 3:28
Silhouette - 3:30
Horizons - 3:20 – 3:21
Wings of Vision - 3:50 – 3:52
Sunset - 2:56 – 2:59
Time to Turn - 4:33
Through a Somber Galaxy - 5:16 – 5:17
The Stranger - 3:59
Wings of Vision (12'' version) - 4:14 – 4:15
DESTINATION (1992)
Call of the Wild - 6:49 – 7:01
Racing Shadows - 7:11 – 7:12
Destination - 7:41 – 7:41
Prisoner in Mind - 4:26 – 4:27
Silent Revolution - 7:55 – 7:56
Fire and Ice - 5:10 – 5:13
Eclipse of Mankind - 6:29 – 6:28
Jeanne d'Arc - 7:36 – 7:37
CHRONICLES I (1993)
Poseidon's Creation '93 - 11:28 (OCEAN)
The Apoclypse '93 - 11:02 (SILENT CRIES...)
Silhouette '93 - 3:10 (COLOURS)
Mysterious Monolith '93 - 6:10 (PLANETS)
Sphinx '93 - 6:22 (PLANETS)
Illuminations '93 - 6:19 (COLOURS)
End of an Odyssey '93 - 9:45 (TIME TO TURN)
Time to Turn '93 - 3:33 (TIME TO TURN)
Spirit in Chains '93 - 5:49 (prev. unreleased) - 5:51
Say it is Really True '93 - 4:25 (TIME TO TURN)
CHRONICLES II (1994)
Escape to the Heights '94 - 5:10 (METROMANIA)
All Life is One '94 - 6:29 (METROMANIA)
Nightriders '94 - 4:37 (METROMANIA)
Follow the Light '94 - 9:47 (METROMANIA)
Rainbow '94 - 5:16 (RA)
Voyager of the Future Race '94 - 6:28 (RA)
Fire & Ice '94 - 5:09 (DESTINATION)
Call of the Wild '94 - 7:00 (DESTINATION)
Prisoner in Mind '94 - 4:26 (DESTINATION)
Eclipse of Mankind '94 - 6:28 (DESTINATION)
THE TIDES RETURN FOREVER (1994)
The Day of Crimson Skies - 5:02 – 21:43
Fatal Illusions - 9:22 – 9:18
Childhood Memories - 6:22 – 6:16
Generation of Innocence - 6:10 – 6:05
The Tides Return Forever - 6:40
The Last in Line - 4:01 – 3:56
Company of Angels - 9:45 – 9:41
THE BEST OF ELOY VOL.1 The Early Days 1972-1975 (1994)
Inside - 6:35 (INSIDE)
Future City - 5:35 (INSIDE)
The Light from Deep Darkness - 14:37 (FLOATING)
Castle in the Air - 7:13 (FLOATING)
Madhouse - 5:16 (FLOATING)
Love Over Six Centuries - 10:05 (POWER AND THE PASSION)
Mutiny - 9:07 (POWER AND THE PASSION)
The Bells of Notre Dame - 6:26 (POWER AND THE PASSION)
Daybreak - 3:40 (from the 1970-single) – 3:42
Journey into 1358 - 2:55 (POWER AND THE PASSION)
Last two titles only on US-Edition!
THE BEST OF ELOY VOL II - The prime 1976-1979 (1996)
Awakening 2:39 (DAWN)
Between the times 6:08 (DAWN)
The sun-song 4:53 (DAWN)
The midnight-fight / the victory of mental force 8:09 (DAWN)
Decay of the logos 8:17 (OCEAN)
Astral entrance/Master of sensation 9:02 (SILENT CRIES)
The apocalypse 14:53 (SILENT CRIES)
Silent Cries Divide the Nights
The Vision - Burning
Force Majeure
OCEAN 2 - THE ANSWER (1998)
Between Future And Past 2:43 – 2:44
Ro Setau 7:09 – 7:09
Paralysed Civilization 9:28 – 9:28
Serenity 3:09 – 3:11
Awakening Of Consciuosness 6:03 – 6:02
Reflections From The Spheres Beyond 12:59 – 12:59
Waves Of Intuition 4:56 – 4:56
The Answer 11:19 – 11:19