SILENT CRIES AND MIGHTY ECHOES

I see many reviews here that criticize this album for allegedly copying off of Pink Floyd for a lot of stuff. However, I do not see where they copied anything. Sure, they may have a large influence, but it's always good to be influenced. Music progresses in style similar to evolution - it is a product of the times, ever-changing and evolving as new artists take the best of the old and mix with new innovative ideas. I think this "evolution" gives Progressive Rock its name.

I dismiss the idea that Eloy copied off of Pink Floyd, saying that while they take lots of influence, they do not copy songs note for note. And also, Pink Floyd is my favourite band - of course I'd appreciate anything that takes influence from it.

However at the same time Eloy definitely has its own sound to it. It's by no means an album that could be mistaken for anything but Eloy. Though not the most talented vocalist, something about Frank Bornemann's voice is unique and unmistakable, and so is their spacey sound.

The bass lines in this album are really good and very noticeable. They're very clear. The keyboards are another strong point in this album. It's a good balance between the spacey keyboard driven sound and hard rock as well. The spoken dialect lines of Dawn and Ocean are absent in this album, but it adds a new female vocalist who provides wonderful vocals in The Apocalypse, which is the big epic suite of the album.

The only real drawbacks to this album are the fact that Frank Bornemann's vocals seem to be almost exclusively in a Recitative style - that is, a singing style that has the rhythms of ordinary speech. There isn't much of a dynamic range in his voice in this album. Another thing is that I find the song "De Labore Solis" a bit boring. I find it a bit repetitive and slow. However, it's still very spacey... a good song in its own right. I'd probably say it's my least favourite on the album though.

Lyrics wise, I see a subtle Christian theme throughout this album. It's not very obvious, but some things I noticed - in the Title on the album, the "and" in "Silent Cries and Mighty Echoes" is replaced with a + sign, which could mean a cross. More importantly though, are the lyrics. Master of Sensation seems to be about the worship of God and His nature. The Apocalypse is definitely from the book of Revelation, especially the 2nd movement, "The Vision - Burning". Pilot to Paradise seems to be about salvation into heaven, De Labore Solis seems to describe Jesus's Sacrifice, and Mighty Echoes speaks of Love as the mission of our life. Also something I noticed in the lyrics booklet... random words are in full CAPS... I think it must have some reason why these words are in caps, but it's most likely left up to interpretation. This is just my view of it.

In either case, this album is really good. 4 Stars out of 5, an excellent addition to any prog rock music collection. It builds on the spacey sound they began to develop on Dawn and through Ocean, continuing through this album. It's definitely worth it.