Progarchives, the progressive rock ultimate discography

CHRONICLES II

Eloy

Psychedelic/Space Rock


From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

Eloy Chronicles II album cover
2.42 | 58 ratings | 6 reviews | 17% 5 stars

Collectors/fans only

Write a review

Buy ELOY Music
from Progarchives.com partners
Boxset/Compilation, released in 1994

Songs / Tracks Listing

1. Escape to the Heights '94 (5:10) (METROMANIA)
2. All Life Is One '94 (6:29) (METROMANIA)
3. Nightriders '94 (4:37) (METROMANIA)
4. Follow the Light '94 (9:47) (METROMANIA)
5. Rainbow (5:16) (RA)
6. Voyager of the Future Race (6:28) (RA)
7. Fire & Ice (5:09) (DESTINATION)
8. Call of the Wild (7:00) (DESTINATION)
9. Prisoner in Mind (4:26) (DESTINATION)
10. Eclipse of Mankind (6:28) (DESTINATION)

Total Time 60:50

Line-up / Musicians

ELOY is still Frank Bornemann & Michael Gerlach.
- Klaus-Peter Matziol / bass
- Hannes Folberth / keyboards
- Hannes Arkona / guitar
- Fritz Randow / drums

Thanks to ProgLucky for the addition
and to projeKct for the last updates
Edit this entry

Buy ELOY Chronicles II Music



ELOY Chronicles II ratings distribution


2.42
(58 ratings)
Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music(17%)
17%
Excellent addition to any prog rock music collection(17%)
17%
Good, but non-essential (41%)
41%
Collectors/fans only (21%)
21%
Poor. Only for completionists (3%)
3%

ELOY Chronicles II reviews


Showing all collaborators reviews and last reviews preview | Show all reviews/ratings

Collaborators/Experts Reviews

Review by The Prognaut
PROG REVIEWER
2 stars Time has been relentless to ELOY, and by the year of 1994 the band reached its 25th anniversary. Despite the constant journey in time, the German band's been one of the few that still remain successful. Unfortunately, the sound of their former productions has become outdated, which obviously isn't as timeless as their music. But down the same stream, changes needed to be made in order to stay competitive and fresh, to maintain the strategic place in history and to improve in specific areas of their instrumentation to give away a more depurated and specific sound that sustained what ELOY's been through the years. All arrangements and artistic value remained untouched to reproduce this musical experience as authentically as possible. It is remarkable to know that even old equipment and instruments were brought into action as far as possible.

And so, to celebrate their anniversary, Frank BORNEMANN and Michael GERLACH (new line-up of ELOY since 1986), decided to invite former band members to the studio to re-record the highlights of their long-standing career. The songs on both albums appear in chronological order, so that "Chronicles I" represents the 1977-1982 era and "Chronicles II" follows up to reveal the band efforts in the new line-up since 1986. The last era represented in this CD, quite surrenders to its antecessor, leaving the parameters of a more commercial music set off. The songs are more lineal and less proposing, the modernization of the band now reduced to a duo, led to produce aimless recordings, where crunchier and more strident guitar executions followed up by untraditional keyboards and more underlined female backing vocals (take "Follow the Light", "Rainbow" and "Voyager of the Future Race" for instance), made of the 80's and part of the 90's ELOY, a "regular" band, like the rest that quoted the German band as inspiration.

Strictly, the sequel to "Chronicles" is indispensable to complete the experience. I suggest not to get both CDs separately, it'd be easier for you to put up with some of the imperfections represented in "Part II" by just getting the "2 Originals of ELOY" pack, released in 2000. All in all, ELOY is still one of the supporting rocks in prog, one of the leading bands and an indisputable icon in the history of art rock music. Enjoy.

Review by Gatot
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Honorary Collaborator
2 stars The Chronicles Two is relatively weaker than Chronicles One in terms of the tracks compiled. It starts with a straight rocker "Escape to the Heights '94" when the textures that usually were available in CD One, are not so obvious with this CD. First track does not represent something attractive, it's just a plain rock song with a very minimum variation. Next track is even weaker and boring "All Life is One '94" (6:29). Nothing I can really enjoy with this track and it's boring. "Nightriders '94" (4:37) sounds similar thing and it does not attract me to enjoy. It's probably "Voyager of the Future Race '94" (6:28) which bring the music into different kind but it still not picking up yet. "Fire & Ice '94" (5:09 ) is quite OK as well but it's still lacking in composition. "Call of the Wild '94" (7:00) brings the improvement of the music as the sound of flute is added and it has better composition compared to previous 7 tracks.

Overall, Chronicles II scores not more than two stars.

Review by ZowieZiggy
PROG REVIEWER
2 stars If "Eloy" is using the same concept than for their very good "Chronicles I", the result is far from being equivalent. The band also re- recorded all the songs featured on this second leg.

The problem being that it is made of tracks coming exclusively out from rather flat albums. Which was not the case in their previous attempt. Absolutely no highlights here : at best two or three average to good songs of which "Follow the Light" is one of the few that can hold the comparison with the ones featured on "Chronicles I". The newer version are also closer to their original counterparts.

The mellowish "Rainbow" breaks the monotony of these electro-beat sounds. Totally uninspired for most of it. The re-work of some songs is quite disputable as well. The original version of "Voyager of the Future Race" from the "Râ" album, started with a long and spacey part. It was the most attractive section of this song. It has been cut out here so that we are immediately plunged into these electronic flavours. Not good I'm afraid.

The best song from this compilation is the excellent "Eclipse Of Mankind". "Call Of The Wild" is also a more classic "Eloy" song. A little spacey in its initial phase and featuring good fluting and guitar.

Let's be honest, this is not a valuable record and I wouldn' t recommend it. Neither to veteran fans, nor to people willing to discover their repertoire through this compilation. In terms of comilation, it is better to stick to "Chronicles I" or to their great "Eloy Live".

Two stars.

Review by kenethlevine
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Prog-Folk Team
1 stars Let's see. A band has one classic period extending from 1976 to 1982 (with some pretty strong material earlier than that) featuring 6 albums brimming with inspiration, and a pretty mediocre period from 1983 to 1992 featuring only 4 more albums. While the production in the earlier phase might come under question, this excuse could not be used for the 1980s sound, which was just generally lacking in songwriting, conviction and execution. So whose idea was it to release one album of rerecorded classics from each period?

A more viable approach would have been to release a double CD that included at most 3 selections from latter day releases. Among these, I could understand perhaps "All Life is One", Voyager of the Future Race", and "Rainbow". But the rest smacks of profiteering from sketchy quality. Even if the material had been better, too little time had lapsed to warrant new versions, and nothing here is really improved upon.

I will therefore make an exception in my Eloy discography. An album of this type is of little use for fans and I sure wouldn't want to introduce neophytes to Eloy via "Chronicles 2". My goodness, 4 songs from "Destination"?! This pretty much defines the one star album.

Review by progaardvark
COLLABORATOR Crossover/Symphonic/RPI Teams
2 stars Unlike the amazing Chronicles I compilation, Chronicles II really pales in comparison. The main reason is because the material is taken from Eloy's most mediocre period in their long history, 1984-1992. The first four songs are the only noteworthy ones worth mentioning. They are all from the Metromania album and have been re-recorded with former Eloy members Klaus-Peter Matziol, Hannes Arkona, Hannes Folberth, and Fritz Randow. Admittedly, Metromania was the end of a slow downhill fall from grace for Eloy, but it was surprisingly better than the continuing fall the band would exhibit as a duo of Bornemann and Gerlach with their mediocre releases of Ra and Destination.

The rest of the album is from those last two albums, not re-recorded, not including the former members, but just remastered. To my ears, I can hardly sense any difference from the originals. What was the point of that? And this was to commemorate Eloy's 25th anniversary? How embarrassing.

Bornemann would have been better advised to have continued his re-recording project by picking more stuff from their 1977-1982 period, or even selecting some earlier stuff. Sure, a lot of people from the 1990s might not have recognized it, but your old-time fans certainly would have appreciated it on an anniversary year.

Clearly seek out Chronicles I as it is a masterpiece. Chroncles II is best suited for completionists and die-hard fans. At best, it's worth two stars.

Review by Easy Livin
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Honorary Collaborator / Retired Admin
3 stars Destination Ra and Metromania

Originally released a year on from volume 1, "Chronicles II" is a slightly different animal compared to its predecessor. While the first set saw former members of the band reconvene to record new versions of old album tracks, this is by and large a conventional compilation. The reason given for the new versions of the tracks on volume 1 was in order to take advantage of the new technologies available. Since this set draws all of its tracks from three then recent albums ("Metromania", "Ra" and "Destination"), it was felt that only those from "Metromania" required refreshing. The tracks from the other two albums are remastered, but otherwise identical to the originals (despite the notation on the cover).

While the 10 tracks included here are enjoyable, they need to be heard in the context of coming from a relative low point in Eloy's history. Frank Bornemann was finally succumbing to the lure of commercial success, and the tracks on these three albums are generally more accessible with leanings towards AOR. "Rainbow" for example is a beautiful piece, but it is some distance from the symphonic prog of "Ocean".

In fairness, the tracks included here probably do represent the best of these three albums, and as such this compilation makes for a good listen. Do not make the mistake though of hearing this album and assuming it represents any sort of "Best of Eloy".

Latest members reviews

No review or rating for the moment | Submit a review

Post a review of ELOY "Chronicles II"

You must be a forum member to post a review, please register here if you are not.

MEMBERS LOGIN ZONE

As a registered member (register here if not), you can post rating/reviews (& edit later), comments reviews and submit new albums.

You are not logged, please complete authentication before continuing (use forum credentials).

Forum user
Forum password

Copyright Prog Archives, All rights reserved. | Legal Notice | Privacy Policy | Advertise | RSS + syndications

Other sites in the MAC network: JazzMusicArchives.com — jazz music reviews and archives | MetalMusicArchives.com — metal music reviews and archives

Donate monthly and keep PA fast-loading and ad-free forever.