JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF THE EYE

I'm aware of this band already since a few decades actually but nonetheless it never became one of of my favs. I didn't listen very often to their records and after spinning again through their catalogue (at least up to their IMHO unjustified highly praised "Recycled" album) just now I remember why. Their releases after this debut revealed a style that could be roughly described as straight forward hard rock with slight progressive leanings, a bit later towards pomp prog and arena rock. But in fact things are much different on this one here which is still much in the spirit of late 60's / early 70's psychedelic rock not that far away from early Floyd with some symphonic feel thrown in. Though being not really Prog either, rather (very good) Proto-Prog it's the only album by them I can still support to listen to repeatedly. It's a concept one based on a Sci-Fi story and accordingly many of the tracks reveal a very spacey sound but not without a good measure of hard rocking elements. Apart from the obvious Floydian touch one can hear traces of Deep Purple, The Nice, The Beatles and Moody Blues but especially the use of Mellotron brings at times Crimson's debut into one's mind. I agree to the points of critics of some reviewers that there are many "borrowed" elements from multiple bands and this work's certainly to be called derivative and quite dated for its year of release but in the end it sounds completely different from any of those bands and it's moreover a very enjoyable listen. Due to their residence in Germany their sound had been of course as well influenced by Krautrock and at times they came here close to the band Wallenstein. Overall this was a very good album and a remarkable debut though being due to its lack of originality not really an essential one I would say. But I'd add ½ star extra.