POWER AND THE PASSION

I can't say that this is the best Eloy's album, but it's the one that conquered me to their music. If it wasn't for the strong Gernan accent of Frank Bornemann, one of the few singers that can be compared to Bryan Josh (and both excellent guitarists), this album would be close to be a masterpiece.

First of all it's a concept album about time-travel. The old Uriah Heep flavour is finally gone. The first two short songs are original and a good introduction to the concept, but it's "Love Over Six Centuries" that makes the difference. It's very floydian but without being a clone. If the musical theme can be compared to the Pink Floyd, the sounds are totally different. The clean guitar, the weird organ and the bass sound more Krautrock. There's a little remind to UH in the organ solo, then the slow organ and bass part with the voice of Mary Davis-Smith is Floydian in the sense of Careful With That Axe. Instead of Waters' cry there's a high- pitched scream of Bornemann. The closure performed by a guitar riff is not as psychedelic as the Floyd's track. Eloy have always been more interested in heavy prog than in psychedelia.

The story proceeds with "Mutiny" that starts slowly on the same chords of the previous track so to give it continuity, then evolves to rock thanks to organ and bass.

After the two longest tracks of the album there's a sequence of six short songs with a bit of folky elements. They can be seen as parts of a single suite even if there's gap between them. Just listen to how "Daylight" follows "Imprisonment". "Thoughts of Home" breaks the continuity, but "The Zany Magician" with that hard rock guitar and organ follows it smoothly. This is the hardest moment of the album, closer to Black Sabbath than to Uriah Heep, even remaining a piece of heavy prog.

"Back Into the Present" anticipates the end of the story. It has an unusual rhythm and I think is quite similar to Boris the Spider (The Who) even with no growl. Very nice song anyway.

"the Bells of Notre Dame" is the closeure track. After some bells the organ opens a slow and dark song, on which Bornemann's voice doesn't sound too bad. The ascending sequence of chords is one of the most used in prog music, but it's always good. It flows slowly to the album's end.

After Floating this album represents another step forward and as its predecessor I think it deserves 4 stars.