SILENT CRIES AND MIGHTY ECHOES

Eloy has always been a band that was heavily indebted to the great UK bands, going from the Jethro Tull and Uriah Heep influences on the early albums, right to the PF salute that this album is often criticized for. Since I consider all of Eloy's albums to be rather unoriginal, I see no reason to hold their influences against them here, at least not more so then on their other albums.

What pleases me is the return to more straightforward space-rocking material. Just as on Floating the band sticks to their chops and create great spacey mid-paced rock. Gone are the symphonic ambitions of previous album. A good evolution as those ambitions reached far outside the band's capabilities and while popular, it never resulted in an artistically satisfying album.

With the catchy space-rock vibe that they struck here, the reduced importance of the vocals makes them far less distracting. There are still some inadequate parts, such as in the opening of the epic Apocalypse, also tracks like Pilot to Paradise and De Labore Solis continue to demonstrate how Bornemann is only capable of that doing that same old talking vocal line on each and every Eloy track.

Excellent music this time but with this vocalist it remains difficult to take this band seriously. Anyway, it's sure my second Eloy favorite after Floating and recommended to fans of early 80's Hawkwind and lush synth space-rock. 3.5 stars (4 for the karaoke version).