Modrigue ELOY's awakening

First album with the classic Bornemann / Matziol / Schimdtchen / (ex-SCORPIONS) Rosenthal line-up, "Dawn" marks the beginning of what many consider as ELOY's golden era. The music is still a mix of space and progressive symphonic rock, but incorporates more and more keyboards and bass, whereas the initial hard rock roots are less present. The band begins to refine its personality. Furthermore, the production is significantly improved compared to their previous opus. As in "Power and the Passion", the record is an alternance of rather short tracks with various ambiances. This time, the symphonic aspect is enhanced by the usage of an orchestra.

The soft "Awakening" is an introduction to "Between The Times", a 70's heavy rock riff with peaceful moments. "The Sun Song" is one of the weakest song, as it is slow and too long. One the contrary, "The Dance In Doubt And Fear" is my favorite track of this record. This was the first ELOY song I heard. The bass line is simply irresistible.

The pleasant "Lost!?" suite also features a galloping bass, this time with more keyboards and a touch of PINK FLOYD. Another remarkable track, "The Midnight Fight / The Victory Of Mental Force" is quite energetic and trippy. Unfortunately, the optimism decreases a little with the ending tracks. "Gliding Into Light And Knowledge" and "Le Réveil Du Soleil / The Dawn" are calm, ambient but a bit too long.

As my least favorite ELOY progressive album from the 70's, I find "Dawn" a bit overrated. While certainly marking an evolution and defining the band's sound, it still has weaker and lengthy passages. Some tracks should have been shortened. Nice space/symphonic rock however, with cool galloping bass lines. For our german space-rockers, the best is coming soon...

Warthur As well as being a competent refinement and consolidation of the sympho-space rock style debuted on The Power and the Passion, Eloy's Dawn also features the band taking that bold step that so many others had before - to wit, incorporating an orchestra into their sound. Whilst many other bands who attempted this in the past mishandled it, the orchestra either stealing the spotlight or not really contributing anything, Eloy is one of the few groups who hit the balance capably, the orchestral flourishes adding texture and a certain sense of the majestic to the music without displacing Eloy, who remain at the centre of proceedings. At this point, Eloy were growing more and more with each album, and Dawn in a decent stopover on the way to the Ocean, though the weakness of the vocals is still something of an issue.