ELOY

ELOY's self-titled debut album is not representative of the band. After winning a musical contest, the germans recorded a single in 1970, before releasing their first opus the next year. Overwhelmed by theirs british hard rock influences, they have not developed their typical fantasy space-rock style yet. Despite the nationality, the compositions cannot be assimilated to Krautrock either, but rather to early hard/heavy rock, with very discrete progressive elements. Furthermore, Erich Schriever's singing tries to sound like Ian Gillian. At this time, Frank Bornemann was only guitarist, and this record does not display his talents yet.

The opener "Today" is an enjoyable hard rock tune resembling DEEP PURPLE's "Hush" cover. The slightly progressive "Something Yellow" opens with a BLACK SABBATH-ian riff, and features more or less interesting variations. The title track is quite pleasant and clearly confirms the band's british influences. "Song Of A Paranoid Soldier" and "Voice Of Revolution" are also correct early heavy rock tunes, while the organ-driven "Isle Of Sun" is softer. The ending track, "Dillus Roady" is the weakest, rather useless and uninspired.

Arriving a few years too late (which will be a recurrent thing for ELOY), the record does not take many risks and sounds like a second-zone DEEP PURPLE. The progressive incursions are still shy and the musical transitions, abrupt and not very mastered. However, the songs themselves aren't bad. Definitely not the album to start with and lacking personnality, "Eloy" is nonetheless an enjoyable listen for early hard / psychedelic rock fans.