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Eloy's vocals

Printed From: Progarchives.com
Category: Progressive Music Lounges
Forum Name: Prog Bands, Artists and Genres Appreciation
Forum Description: Discuss specific prog bands and their members or a specific sub-genre
URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=55229
Printed Date: February 22 2025 at 13:21
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Topic: Eloy's vocals
Posted By: AdamHearst
Subject: Eloy's vocals
Date Posted: February 02 2009 at 11:16
I've tried many times over the past few years to get into Eloy. I love a lot of their music, especially on Dawn and Ocean, but i find it hard to get past the vocals. I don't mean to bash them,

Eloy fans: how long does it take to get past the vocals? Tongue 
OR, does anyone think their vocals are actually good?

I'm able to get into bands with weak vocalist if the music's good enough... but i'm not sure i'll ever be able to fully appreciate Eloy... which depresses me since i love their songwriting and musicianship... and i believe they'd be one of my favorites if they only had a different singer.

Are there any bands you feel similarly about? Bands that could be amongst your favorites (if only) they had a better singer... or a better rhythm section, guitarist or whatever else...




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I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity...



Replies:
Posted By: JLocke
Date Posted: February 02 2009 at 11:50
Eloy's singer is awful, in my honest opinion. Not only does he have a very tuneless melody direction, but his mispronunciations of the English language are sometimes laughable.


Posted By: Abstrakt
Date Posted: February 02 2009 at 12:13
I don't mind the vocals, but they CAN be almost annoying at times! "Think" sounds like "Sink" for example. Tongue


Posted By: AdamHearst
Date Posted: February 02 2009 at 12:16
Aye... the accent and mispronunciation gets to me too. I wish there were alternate versions of those classic albums with all the vocals in German, i think that would have made it better... even with the 'tuneless' quality of his voice, heh.

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I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity...


Posted By: TheMaz
Date Posted: February 02 2009 at 12:50
Mee too ...  don't really like the vocals.
I had the same feeling for IQ at the beginning, but in this case, it kinda grew on me !
And yes, there are a lot of prog bands with weak vocals.
 


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TheMaz
www.johnnymaz.ca


Posted By: kenethlevine
Date Posted: February 02 2009 at 12:56
I understand what you all are saying and agree with much of it, yet I still like his voice alot.  If it is tuneless, it is more than compensated for by the compositions which tend to be very melodic.


Posted By: Vibrationbaby
Date Posted: February 02 2009 at 12:57
What Frank should have done after they started to go in a more prog direction after the first couple of more psychedelic albums was hire a vocalist. When I listen to an Eloy album Itry to block out the atrocious vocals and focus more on the music.Then what about Jane`s vocals? Or Omega`s English vocals?


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Posted By: LinusW
Date Posted: February 02 2009 at 13:01
I instantly found them cute, in a good way.


Posted By: ian picken
Date Posted: February 02 2009 at 13:17
I find the same vocal problem with The Tangent, love the music but vocals???


Posted By: Fleetway
Date Posted: February 02 2009 at 17:14
They dont really bother me that much. And not at all in the later stuff like Ocean 2.
 
Unifitting vocals is the downfall of many progbands tho.


Posted By: NotAProghead
Date Posted: February 02 2009 at 17:25
I have mixed feelings.
From one hand, strong accent is not a good thing (this is why I prefer German bands like NOVALIS, STERN COMBO MEISSEN, KARAT, PUHDYS etc singing in native language).
From the other hand, Frank's voice is recognizable and his English became better from album to album.

Good band, though IMO their music goes rather from the head than from the heart.


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Who are you and who am I to say we know the reason why... (D. Gilmour)


Posted By: Rocktopus
Date Posted: February 02 2009 at 17:44
For some reason the vocals doesn't annoy me on their second album Inside, which is the only album by them I like.

On any other album Eloy's got the most annoying vocals in prog. Well, except Aqua Fragile + some late 70's early 80's Mexican band I've forgotten the name of... and most progmetalvocals, obviously.   

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Over land and under ashes
In the sunlight, see - it flashes
Find a fly and eat his eye
But don't believe in me
Don't believe in me
Don't believe in me


Posted By: timothy leary
Date Posted: February 02 2009 at 18:03
not my favorite, instrumental is the way for them to go


Posted By: SgtPepper67
Date Posted: February 02 2009 at 18:25
I like Camel but I find the vocals boring most of the time. Some times the same happens to me with Eloy, although not as much.

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In the end the love you take is equal to the love you made...


Posted By: JLocke
Date Posted: February 02 2009 at 18:27
I agree, instrumentals are great in Eloy town.


Posted By: TheCaptain
Date Posted: February 02 2009 at 18:33
Originally posted by ian picken ian picken wrote:

I find the same vocal problem with The Tangent, love the music but vocals???


I figured this would come up eventually so I decided to wait until it did. I tend to like the generally disliked flat vocals of Andy Tillison of The Tangent, Roine Stolt of The Flower Kings, or Andy Latimer of Camel. Despite this I can't get into Eloy's vocals.


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Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal.


Posted By: JLocke
Date Posted: February 02 2009 at 18:40
Some would say Steve Wilson has an unlikely voice for lead vocals, but he's done very well for himself considering his somewhat limited range.
 
I think as long as the singer is passionate about it, I can ultimately learn to appreciate and even love them, but when it comes to Eloy, everything sounds too monotone in the voice for me to even take them seriousely. I don't they really care whether or not the vocals are up to par with the rest of nthe music; they just aren't that kind of band.
 
Then again, many people have claimed that Tool has monotone vocals, which I completely dissagree with. So I guess it's just in the eye (or ear) of the beholder.


Posted By: The Quiet One
Date Posted: February 02 2009 at 18:46
Yeah, I consider Eloy's vocals quite weak, though I don't find their music either great, though they're a good group nonethless.

David Byron, despite being a good vocalist, he annoys me quite a lot of times with Uriah Heep, I'm sure Uriah Heep would still be one of my fave bands if David didn't make annoying yells...

I'm sure I would really enjoy The Doors, but Jim fails to grab me.

some others..


Posted By: JLocke
Date Posted: February 02 2009 at 18:50

Well, I personally have never seen the great appeal when it comes to The Doors. I can respect them for what they did, but nothing they ever did musically really tickled me much.

I guess alot of people feel the same about alot of Proto-Prog bands, though. The Beatles have sworn enemies on this site.


Posted By: AdamHearst
Date Posted: February 02 2009 at 19:06
There are a lot of bands with weaker vocalist that i still love... Asia Minor comes to mind, their vocalist has a weird accent as well, but i can look past it because the music itself resonates so strongly with me. I even learned to love his less-than-perfect delivery after a while.

I'm always surprised when people talk about Camel's bad vocals. To me Camel's vocals are a perfect fit with the music and i wouldn't have them any other way. They are quite plain and maybe a little flat, but it suits the music perfectly i think.


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I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity...


Posted By: AdamHearst
Date Posted: February 02 2009 at 19:15
Are the Doors actually listed in the Prog Archives? Hmm, i can toally see them being considered Proto-Prog with songs like When the Music's Over and The Soft Parade.... anyway, i persoanlly love Morrison's delivery.

I kinda agree with the David Byron mention as well... not always, he kills it on most songs and i'm a huge fan of early Heep. There are certain songs, though, that he goes way overboard and it sounds just plain goofy to me (Bird of Prey comes to mind) and it hurts the song imo.


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I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity...


Posted By: NotAProghead
Date Posted: February 02 2009 at 19:17
Originally posted by cacho cacho wrote:


David Byron, despite being a good vocalist, he annoys me quite a lot of times with Uriah Heep, I'm sure Uriah Heep would still be one of my fave bands if David didn't make annoying yells...

I'm sure I would really enjoy The Doors, but Jim fails to grab me.

Uriah Heep are playing without David's annoying yells more than 30 years. Do you like them more now?

And are The Doors albums without Jim really impressive? Smile 


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Who are you and who am I to say we know the reason why... (D. Gilmour)


Posted By: JLocke
Date Posted: February 02 2009 at 19:33
Originally posted by AdamHearst AdamHearst wrote:

Are the Doors actually listed in the Prog Archives? Hmm, i can toally see them being considered Proto-Prog with songs like When the Music's Over and The Soft Parade.... anyway, i persoanlly love Morrison's delivery.

I kinda agree with the David Byron mention as well... not always, he kills it on most songs and i'm a huge fan of early Heep. There are certain songs, though, that he goes way overboard and it sounds just plain goofy to me (Bird of Prey comes to mind) and it hurts the song imo.
 
Yes they are.


Posted By: valravennz
Date Posted: February 02 2009 at 19:49

I disagree with the comments made on the annoying nature of David Byron's vocals. I think Uriah Heep were at their strongest when he was part of the line-up. Sure - they get incredibly "high" in many songs but so to does Ian Gillan of Deep Purple and not to forget David Surkamp of Pavlov's Dog - all of which has been discussed in previous threads.

Back to Eloy - I found in hard to get into Frank's vocals initially because of mispronunciation and flatness at times. However, I found that the instrumental side of Eloy overwhems the vocals after some listening. Perhaps it is the instrumental Eloy that most of us have come to appreciate rather than the vocals. Eloy are a package that includes Frank and like his vocals or not, he is part of the band that we fans hold in high regard.



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"Music is the Wine that fills the cup of Silence"
- Robert Fripp




Posted By: crimson87
Date Posted: February 03 2009 at 13:33
Originally posted by LinusW LinusW wrote:

I instantly found them cute, in a good way.
 
Those weird german vocals and space rock are a killing combination.Clap


Posted By: The Quiet One
Date Posted: February 03 2009 at 13:38
Originally posted by NotAProghead NotAProghead wrote:

Originally posted by cacho cacho wrote:


David Byron, despite being a good vocalist, he annoys me quite a lot of times with Uriah Heep, I'm sure Uriah Heep would still be one of my fave bands if David didn't make annoying yells...

I'm sure I would really enjoy The Doors, but Jim fails to grab me.

Uriah Heep are playing without David's annoying yells more than 30 years. Do you like them more now?

And are The Doors albums without Jim really impressive? Smile 


Man nobody got my comment on David right!Pinch

I said he's a good vocalist, and I also said if he didn't make annoying YELLS, they would still be one of my favorite bands, which they were some months ago.
No, I prefer their 70's stuff, but that wasn't the point as I explained before.

Your post has no sense. This thread isn't to see how the band was without vocalist, if not if the band in the SAME TIME with that vocalist, had another.


Posted By: The Quiet One
Date Posted: February 03 2009 at 13:41
Originally posted by valravennz valravennz wrote:

I disagree with the comments made on the annoying nature of David Byron's vocals. I think Uriah Heep were at their strongest when he was part of the line-up. Sure - they get incredibly "high" in many songs but so to does Ian Gillan of Deep Purple and not to forget David Surkamp of Pavlov's Dog - all of which has been discussed in previous threads.




Yeah but Gillan yells weren't annoying if I remember well, neither Hughes'.


Posted By: valravennz
Date Posted: February 03 2009 at 15:45
Originally posted by cacho cacho wrote:

Originally posted by valravennz valravennz wrote:

I disagree with the comments made on the annoying nature of David Byron's vocals. I think Uriah Heep were at their strongest when he was part of the line-up. Sure - they get incredibly "high" in many songs but so to does Ian Gillan of Deep Purple and not to forget David Surkamp of Pavlov's Dog - all of which has been discussed in previous threads.




Yeah but Gillan yells weren't annoying if I remember well, neither Hughes'.
 
I guess it is all in the ears of the beholder. Byron's vocals never bothered me Wink
 
Now - Christian Vander of Magma - those vocals are very annoying to my ears...


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"Music is the Wine that fills the cup of Silence"
- Robert Fripp




Posted By: The Quiet One
Date Posted: February 03 2009 at 16:27
^ahh, Christian's "yells" are supreme for meApprove


Posted By: valravennz
Date Posted: February 03 2009 at 16:46
LOL ^ you're a hard man to beat in this war of vocals!

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"Music is the Wine that fills the cup of Silence"
- Robert Fripp




Posted By: The Quiet One
Date Posted: February 03 2009 at 16:52
^ApproveLOLThough I have to admit I'm not that open-minded in vocals, I mean Geddy's vocals were quite difficult to get into, and there are still parts which I don't like at all, as well as James LaBrie's, and some others. 


Posted By: mobby
Date Posted: February 04 2009 at 03:17

i quite like frank's vocals, in a 'i am a fan and got used to his vocals' way..in high pitch it is distinctive and needs some getting used to but once you're there..you'll love it, in low pitch, his voice is quite warm..(for instance in thoughts of home from pnp or impressions from colours..'accent wise, i think frank has improved greatly from mixing the ws with vs in the earlier records to much better pronounciation in  later output..besides as cacho mentioned above, geddy lee's vocals can be quite tiring esp in earlier albums..and also need some getting used to..for eloy, at least they opted to sing in english for a wider audience..(although have no prob personally if they chose any language..)

as  a footnote..i think the worst accent i ever heard and makes frank an eloquent shakesperean in comparison is tale cue..(voice from beyond..) the music is gorgeous, the guitars splendid..the heavily accented vocals a disaster! truly..better if they opted for italian..

 

 



Posted By: Roj
Date Posted: February 04 2009 at 07:51
I concede that Frank's vocals are the most difficult aspect to "getting into" Eloy.  That said, I didn't find it hard.  Perseverance may be the key, and it is well worth it, as musically Eloy are absolutely top notch.


Posted By: memowakeman
Date Posted: February 04 2009 at 10:17
He does not have the best voice that's for sure, but it's not a bad voice either, i like him to be honest

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Posted By: Alberto Muñoz
Date Posted: February 04 2009 at 10:40
i do not mind about his vocals
 
i think that suit his music all the wayWink


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