DESTINATION

After the weak and strongly electronic Ra from 1988, Eloy entered the 90's with a more organic sounding album in Destination. The addition of genuine drums as opposed to electronic ones constitutes a noteworthy improvement over the Ra album, and also the presence of flutes and some acoustic guitars brings more life to the proceedings. The songs are more melodic and focused and the vocals are also not bad. Personally, I think that Destination was a return to form for Eloy and their best album for a decade at the time of its release. I'm often reminded of Barclay James Harvest while listening to this album both in terms of the tone of the vocals and in the melodies. The structure of the band at this point in time was indeed very similar to that of post-Woolly Wolstenholme Barclay James Harvest with only Frank Bornemann and Michael Gerlach constituting the core of Eloy with a larger set of session musicians filling out the band. There are, however, also moments that approach Metal territory, making for a reasonably varied album.

Most of the songs on Destination are around seven minutes in length and while some of them could probably have been developed a bit better, others deserve to be that long. The opening number Call Of The Wild is one of the best songs of the album with its tasteful, mystical keyboards and Jethro Tull-like flute runs. Racing Shadows is another rather good song. Bornemann sounds a bit like Jon Anderson in the chorus! The title track is a rather rambling tune that is too long for its own good. It does however contain a very nice flute solo. The hard rocking Prisoner In Mind is hardly a very inspired tune either and at this point you start to wonder whether the rest of the album is going to be a rather sad affair. But it gets back on track with Silent Revolution that almost approaches Metal territory. This song also features some great guitar breaks and some unexpected twists and turns like a children's choir at the end.

Fire And Ice is a more melodic tune but it features a pretty good guitar solo. It is, however, the two last tracks that truly bring the album back on track. Eclipse Of Mankind is another one of those Barclay James Harvest-like songs, again with a good guitar sound. Jeanne D'Arc closes the album and is also a quite nice song and probably the most ambitious track of the whole album. It alternates between quieter acoustic passages, on the one hand, and bombastic, symphonic passages, on the other.

Destination is hardly Eloy's best album, but it is also far from the worst. There are a couple of rather half-baked tunes, but also some quite solid moments. Nice cover art it has too.

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