Eloy - A retrospective, part 1

It seems that every year I find myself going into a progressive rock mindset. It almost never ceases to fail. The winter comes and I find myself listening to more and more progressive rock than at other times during the year. I'm not sure what it is, whether the music just fits with the cold and snow, or if I am just more willing to take the artistic side of the music and nestle on in with a good tale spun to a lengthy piece of music.
More times than not, the band I usually spend the most time with is German legends Eloy. The Mighty Eloy, as a lot of us fans refer to them.
For this year the launch of my progressive infatuation came when my daughter bought me the second part of their The Vision, The Sword and the Pyre concept albums. 7 sides of the history of Joan of Arc told through music. While this might not sound like the most enjoyable listening experience for some people, for fans of progressive rock and Eloy, there is a chance that this is a form of Heaven on Earth.
For me, it re-launched my Eloy love.
I first got hooked on Eloy way back around 1988 or 1989. Maybe even 1987. The exact year is now fuzzy. I believe that the most current album from them was Ra, which many consider a particularly rough time for the band. But we will get to that later.
I can't say it was instant love. One of the issues many people have with Eloy is Frank Bornemann's voice. Frank is the main man, the driving force, behind Eloy. He sings in English, but his German accent is extremely thick, and Frank doesn't really have the most beautiful voice one will ever hear.
But, in all honesty, through the year I have found that weak, or annoyingly overly dramatic vocals are a standard within progressive rock. If there is going to be something to turn people away from prog, more than the lengthy composition times, it is usually the voice.
But, I digress.
In the early days of my spending time with Eloy I was also guilty of struggling with Frank's voice. But over the years, I have found, that each subsequent time I return to Eloy I grow more and more find of Frank's voice. It gets to a point where it is an endearing quality to the band. One of the aspects of the band that one needs to hear. Indeed, when the recent album, The Vision Part 2, reached its final song and a voice other than Frank's started singing, I was heartbroken. The years are getting on, Eloy is not a massively successful band, there is obviously a chance that this is the final album from the band. The idea that the very last bit of new Eloy music I am going to be hearing for the last time is a voice other than Frank kind of brought me down a little bit.
My plan here is to do a little retrospective on all of the Eloy releases. Starting from the beginning and wandering on up to the most current release. One of the unique things about Eloy is that they have been a perpetual revolving door of members. The line-up has rarely been the same, with only two members being the actual key to the sound: Frank Bornemann (vocals and guitar) and Klaus-Peter Matziol (bass). Yet, even with the constant changing of members and constant changing of styles, the Eloy sound has remained incredibly consistent. Digging through some interviews with the Frank Bornemann I think I understand how it is that the band has remained consistent, and exactly how they operate.
In an interview with Bornemann he states the importance of the band, and everybody in the band contributing and being an actual band. The comment made me realize that for Bornemann it truly is about being a band. I get the impression that he hires people to being in the music, with somebody contributing an idea, and then everybody building on the idea. Then, considering this is Eloy, and Bornemann's project, he then "tweaks" everything into taking on what we all know as the "Eloy sound." He adds the touches to make sure it all starts to take on the sound that we come to expect.
Due to the many changes the band goes through, the idea here will be to tackle this retrospective in chunks. The first one will just look at the first album. This needs to be addressed on its own due to it being completely unlike the rest of the albums.
The next group will be the second and third album, mainly for stylistic reasons.
I am going to lump album four, The Power and the Passion, in with the classic trilogy (Dawn, Ocean, Silent Cries and Mighty Echoes). While The Power and the Passion is the same line-up as albums two and three, and Dawn through Silent is a different line-up (though the same for those three albums), the musical style is the same. So I am going by style over the members. I believe that The Power and the Passion was the true birth of their direction, even if I do prefer Inside (album two) and Floating (album three) possibly the better albums. Frank's vision was finally realized.
When possible I will be using vinyl as my choice of listening medium. Sadly, for the first album I will more than likely be using a streaming site of some sort. I do not have the debut album, and an original copy is might expensive. I will eventually be buying the re-release. For now, however, I am using my money to replace CDs I parted with a few years ago (the 90s albums are only available on CD, except for insanely priced promos) and vinyl I never had before.
I will try to add a little bit of factual information to these articles, but this will prove difficult. Eloy never achieved much success over here, nor in many English speaking countries. They never even made it to the US on a tour, and I believe their live shows have always been fairly sporadic. But due to this there amount of information out there on Eloy is pretty light. So, I will do my best and I will revise any articles with new information, if I find or stumble on to anything.
So, until I get the next piece written, ALL HAIL THE MIGHTY ELOY!!!