Unitron Eloy's a band that has gone through many phases, and I love a lot of their stuff. Their 80's blend of new wave, hard arena rock, and pop of Performance and Metromania have grown to become favorites of mine, but the heavy psych/space metal of Floating will always remain my absolute favorite from the band and one of my top albums of the 70's.

This album showed me how far subtle atmospheric touches can go in creating a journey in album form. Even in a loud album with roaring guitars, swinging organ, and a gargantuan rhythm section, the ways they create atmosphere are keeping with the intensity of the instruments. What sounds like palm-muted riffing is used to create strange spacey sounds with the guitars/bass, the organ is given time to play quiet melodies in the background, vocals sometimes echo, and guitar harmonies can play short otherworldly notes. Castle in the Air, which might be my all time favorite Eloy song, is a perfect example of these touches. During the bridge, the guitar is still aggressive, but quieter with that spacey effect. I haven't heard anything like it in any other album, but damn does it sound perfect.

Aside from the unique sound, both the ear for guitar melodies and the rhythm section makes this album. Castle in the Air's opening riff just instantly hooks with its fantastic melody. Bassist Luitjen Jansen and drummer Fritz Randow are playing with the energy of a thousand men, even with the whole band being incredibly energetic already. The finale of Madhouse (No relation to Anthrax's) gallops and shreds like no other and has one of the craziest drum solos I've ever heard outside of a live context. No wonder Randow would go on to play for Saxon on a couple of their heaviest albums.

Simply a classic in my book.

Unitron Among the many bands that made the transition from the 70's to the 80's, Eloy was one of the best at adapting to the new decade. They perfected their space rock/heavy metal hybrid in the 70's with the trilogy of Inside, Floating, and Power and the Passion, and with Performance they perfect a new sound appropriate for the decade.

Performance, as well as the equally excellent follow up Metromania, are a bit hard to pin down as far as genre goes, but they're so wonderfully 80's in the best ways. It's basically a combination of multiple 80's sounds, from new wave to the new wave of heavy metal, it's made to fit Eloy's own mold. Opener In Disguise is a fantastic piece of 80's new wave-tinged hard rock, and is what should've actually been Top Gun's theme song. Shadow and Light has some great metal riffing, Mirador is an instrumental dominated by bass and synth interplay, Heartbeat and Fools are more fantastic 80's new wave rock, and A Broken Frame closes out the album in a majestic fashion.

The best part about this album is just how electrified and energetic the band sounds. Even a song like Surrender which is just drenched in 80's cheese, turns into a total bop with how much these guys are having fun. It translates to the listener so well, it feels like I'm watching these guys on stage at a big arena.

Is it 70's heavy space rock? No, but it has no reason to be. If you want that, there's the fantastic albums they did in the 70's for that. It still sounds like Eloy, just with a new sound that fits the decade much better.

Modrigue An ELOY soundtrack? Without Frank?

Deceiving... There is not much of ELOY's touch here, not even the space sci-fi rock approach they tried to develop in the mid 80's. One of the reason is that the band broke up after the former album, "Metromania", and three members recorded this soundtrack without Frank Bornemann under ELOY's name. The result is... pretty dated and uninspired. Synth pop rock put in short and mainly instrumental tracks. The (few) songs which save the record are often electronic.

The disc opens with "The Patrol", which first notes makes you wonder if it is truly music from ELOY you are listening to. The tune is poor and quickly boring. Same goes for "Hong Kong Theme I". "Hit And Run" is one the most enjoyable piece of the soundtrack with its futuristic and laser sound. Then comes the only sung moment of the disc, "Queen Of Rock'n'Roll", which is just a basic hair pop-metal song. "Destiny", "Deadlock" and "A Long Goodbye" work ok as ambient and mysterious tunes, whereas "Discovery", "Juke Box", "Cha-Shoen" and "On the Edge" are a bit lazy and repetitive. The end does not get better.

"Codename Wildgeese" is the only ELOY release without its leader Frank Bornemann and easily the worst. Don't expect enchanting melodies, guitar solos, symphonic evolutions or space metal here. The only interests are some electro ambient short pieces. The rest just ressembles a flat action movie soundtrack from the 80's.

Modrigue For their 45th anniversary, ELOY releases its second official live album, "Reincarnation on Stage". The set-list features extracts from the Bornemann and co.'s best records since 1975: "Power and the Passion", "Dawn", "Ocean", "Silent Echoes and Mighty Cries", "Colours", "Planets", "Time to Turn", "Metromania", "The Tides Return Forever" "Ocean 2" and "Visionary". The songs are mostly rather faithful to their original studio versions, a bit rock-ier.

The first disc has a few modifications though. "Namaste" is pleasant ambient opening with spoken words in English. The guitars on "Child Migration" are heavier, however the introduction is absent and the synthesizer, less present. The track thus increases in intensity but loses a piece of its charm. The final "Echoes"-like bass driven part of "The Apocalypse" has also been removed. "Age of Insanity" and "Illuminations" feature nice keyboard solos, while Frank Bornemann demonstrates his guitaristic talents on "Silhouette". "Horizons" has a strange sound which results in an average rendition.

There are much less variations on the second disc. The live versions of the songs simply rocks! The only noticeable change is that "Atlantis' Agony"'s long overture has been cut off. "Thoughts" is a pretty conclusion.

"Reincarnation on Stage" is a great overview of the band's career, as the set-list covers more than 30 years. As on the 1978 "Live" album, there are no big surprises, but the performances are very nice. This double live album should please all fans of Bornemann and co. and is also a good way to discover ELOY.

Modrigue After the success of "Dawn" and especially "Ocean", ELOY is now popular enough to tour in Germany and to release their first live album, simply titled "Live". The track-list consists mainly of tracks of the two aforementioned opuses, with one song from "Inside" and "Power and the Passion". There is no material from their debut, as it is not really ELOY yet, and from "Floating", as its style has always been a bit apart in the Germans' discography. In fact, "Ocean" was initially entirely performed, but, due to technical issues, "Decay Of Logos" had to be removed from the recording.

The live renditions are overall faithful to their studio versions. Some passages have been made more theatrical and features spoken sentences in German. As there were no orchestra, the tracks from "Dawn" are lighter, but nonetheless very nice, even if I'm not a big fan of "The Sun Song" and "Gliding Into Light And Knowledge". "The Dance In Doubt And Fear" is in fact followed by "Lost!? (Introduction)". A powerful moment with a pretty guitar solo in the beginning. As they were not originally played by the "golden" line-up, "Mutiny" and "Inside"'s reinterpretation are quite bombastic. "Atlantis' Agony" has been stretched to 21 minutes. This rather useless and lengthy extension concerns the ambient spacey introduction and does neither really bring something interesting nor enhance the source composition.

For Bornemann and co.'s lovers, there will be no big surprises here, unlike GROBSCHNITT's "Solar Music Live" for example. However, this release is still very good, proving that the band could deliver a robust performance. At this period, during the punk explosion, there were not many live albums from progressive rock bands at this period.

Recommended to ELOY and space rock fans.