THE VISION, THE SWORD AND THE PYRE - PART I

The new album of Eloy is something new for the band. This time Frank and co. tell a historical tale (of Jeanne d'Arc) through music. They already explored that territory on Destination (1992) and The Tides Return Forever (1994) where they recorded two songs in memory of her legend.

Frank always wanted to write and record a full concept in her honour and here it is. The aim of the music is different than on other albums. Because Eloy is (was) a spacerock band, most concepts were spacey or mythological. This time the concept is historical, so there's more narratives than we are used to. One can compare this album to War of the Worlds or Jesus Christ Superstar.

The music and production are very good and warm. There's more vocals than we are used to, not lengthy guitar- or synthsolos. In that way Eloy is not repeating itself, wich is a good thing. The only thing that Eloy repeats are some themes, borrowed from the aforementioned Jeane d'Arc-songs. But I don't see (or hear) any harm in doing that.

All songs are midtempo but the band is really tight and dynamic, so all songs really flow. Musically it can be compared to some songs on Ocean II and Visionairy. But it's the same band playing, so it makes sense. Of course the bassparts are really good. Klaus Peter Matziol is one of the best bassplayers in rockmusic. Also the drums are really tight, not all over the place like Jurgen Rosenthal (wich worked in the seventies, but not anymore). There are even more odd timesignatures than we are used to.

This is album that needs to grow before one can really see the treasure of it. So I will play it many many times. I have the feeling that this album and I can be really good friends. It's not as good as Ocean II or their old albums, but much better than Visionairy, so a 4* rating is where I start. <3