INSIDE

ELOY's first 2 albums would rank IMHO as some of the most compelling German Krautrock of all time. "Inside" was ELOY's second release and very much continued from their debut albums 70's classic prog rock sound. "Inside" is full of swirling Hammond organ with shifting bass, guitar and drum interplay. This album carries more of a PINK FLOYD ("Meddle" - "Echoes" era) than their first album and really gets into the outer-worldly vast depths of space... especially is so on the 17 min opener "Land Of No Body" which also may be my personal favourite track of theirs. The rest of the album is nothing to sneeze at as well and really showcases the development and workings of early ELOY. Without a question on the track "Future City" one can definitely hear the JETHRO TULL (aka "Aqualung") influence as this track could have been directly lifted from this album. Overall this is a grand album and comes from thismusic lover highly recommended.

This is THE album for electric organ sounds treatment!

We are talking about German progressive rock. Surprisingly, the only keyboard used is: ORGAN! But watch out: the textures involved are rarely seen before! The organ is sometimes floating, sometimes rythmic, sometimes melodic, with or without distortion and full of miscellaneous effects. It is omnipresent here and never sounds the same!! The electric guitar is rather hard rock, but can be distortion free too. There are many acoustic guitar parts. There are some rare minimalist flute parts. The bass can be absolutely fast, present and complex. The drums are loud and not monotonous. The first track last 17 minutes and is very progressive, full of rythm changes. The songs definitely sound like JETHRO TULL's "Thick as a Brick" and early FOCUS, all without the sophisticated flutes.

A sumptuous album, very dense both musically and technically. Globally this german band sounds more like an english prog group... All the tracks are mesmerizing. Psychedelic space music with a great dose of powerful heavy rock and particulary achieved melodic songs "Inside", "Up and Down"...This album develops a strange and mysterious mood sometimes turns to really dark compositions "Land of Nobody". Contrary to others Eloy albums I like each song and not only the instrumental part of their music. One of The best record I've heard from them...a key album in 70s prog rock.

This is the first truly progressive album ELOY recorded. Frank Bornemann certainly wasn't too happy with the political direction the band was heading on their first album. Of course original member Erich Schriever was mostly responsible for that, but of course, Frank Bornemann didn't think music and politics should mix. So Schriever was given the boot, and original drummer Helmuth Draht left too. So Fritz Randow came in for drums, Manfred Wieczorke switched to organ and Frank Bornemann now started to sing as well as play guitar. Bassist Wolfgang Stöcker lasted long enough to appear on this album.

So of course, all the left-wing political statements are now gone, in place of sci-fi oriented lyrics, with a spacier sound, more in the PINK FLOYD realm. The album consists of four extended cuts, beginning with the side-length "Land of No Body". Lots of PINK FLOYD references here, but parts of it also remind me of CAMEL. I just love that experimental spacy organ in the middle, it really trips me out. "Future City" sounds a whole lot like JETHRO TULL, but without the flute. Apparently certain FM stations in America were flattered by that, and so they played it ( Inside did receive an American release, on the Janus label - the German version was on Harvest, which is their first album for the label), of course, if "Future City" was ever played on American radio, it was on "progressive free form" FM stations (the FM format that existed before the rise of AOR in the mid 1970s). The album closes with the mellow "Up and Down". It wasn't sung by Frank Bornemann, but by Manfred Wieczorke, which comes to prove that he shouldn't sing (and he never did afterwards). Plus there's some narration that sounds like a German Bob DYLAN. And while the vocals are the weak part of the song, the spacy organ and atmosphere more than makes up for it. Great stuff, especially if you like that underground early '70s guitar/organ-driven prog.

Though historically speaking this is Eloy's second effort, the fact is that most Eloy fans, as well as the band's legendary frontman Frank Bornemann, regard "Inside" as Eloy's real first album from the artistic point of view. So this is where it all got started: extended jamming, Meddle-era Pink Floyd and early Nektar influences, lush organ orchestrations, clever interplays between guitar and organ, tight rhythm section, an occasional touch of R'n'B- oriented exotic drive. All these factors that I've just mentioned take place here in a very fluid manner. In many ways their style bears a connection to the family tree of fellow country bands such as Novalis and Grobschnitt, although generally speaking, Eloy is usually less eerie than the former and clearly less extravagant than the latter. Somehow Eloy has a distinct sound of their own which comes to the fore beyond any obvious foreign influences and contemporary coincidences; and this is where the whole thing got properly started. The opening track is the sidelong suite 'Land of No Body', which pretty much serves as a perfect example of Eloy's musical essence for their 73-75 era. Additionally, this suite incarnates a clear hint to the stylistic evolution toward an increasingly polished symphonic prog that the band would assume from the 'Dawn' album onward until the early 80s. The title track is another classic in the band's historic repertoire, and is pretty much linked to the musical line that had already been drawn by 'Land of No Body'. My fave track in this album is the closure 'Up and Down', since it manages to convey that special Eloy magic perfectly. Between the two lies the up-tempo 'Future City', built upon a catchy R'n'B pattern with a funky twist - something like Nektar meets Blood Sweat & Tears. I won't say that this is nothing special indeed, since it serves as a ray of light among the album's dense, reflective ambience, and also allows the listener to know how far the band can go at exploiting the most intense facet of their own prog sound: but it's also clear that 'Future City' doesn't live up to the artistic heights realized in the other three numbers. The two bonus tracks in the 2000 CD item are 'Daybreak' and 'In the Road': originally edited as both sides of a 1973 single, they extend the amusing lightness of track 3. General balance - a very good record, which shows a band in full artistic development, a development that would prove particularly fruitful during the second half of the 70s.

What a excellent album! Eloy in it's best performance! "Land of Nobody" is a great piece of a prog-rock suite! That 's the same level as "Meddle", "Flight" or "Grendel"...German musicians are doing their best, and that's it- one of the best German prog-rock LP's! We are jealous in Poland, that we didn't have such great prog-band...

WOW! What a great album from a great band!This second release by ELOY features a sound more in line with German Prog than Krautrock.Has some of the best Hammond organ work of any of the German groups.The sound is a bit less refined than later ELOY lp's,but still manages to have that distictive ELOY sound.This is one of my favorites of theirs, even though all of their releases are excellent!Standout cuts include side long opener LAND OF NO BODY and FUTURE CITY.Recommended.

From the hard-rock of their eponymous debut, Eloy quickly moved towards a more progressive space-rock form in a revised line-up led by founding guitarist Frank Bornemann for their second album. Recorded in September 1972 and sounding like a cross between Hawkwind and Pink Floyd, Inside was at the time merely a moderate success commercially, yet in retrospect can be seen as an important achievement which deserved better support.

At its heart, Inside is constructed from a winning combination of melodic, semi-Symphonic Prog songs and lengthy jams. The core songs are not as complex as eg Yes, yet they display memorable melodies, typically inventive arrangements and meaningful lyrics. This side of Eloy's playing would be developed further on later albums, but here the jams impress more. Essentially these comprise mesmeric repetitive riffs played out by bass and drums while guitar and organ alternate improvised leads and rhythm support.

Bornemann's guitar playing is fluent and fluid, equally at home providing gutsy support or ripping into a solo, yet it is keyboard player Wieczorke who steals the show. With a classy performance, Wieczorke rings the neck of his trusty Hammond, sometimes angry and gritty, at others light and ethereal, pushing it to the limit in a way familiar to fans of Keith Emerson to provide most of the instrumental highs, even when chugging along as ostensible support to Bornemann. The rhythm section of Stöcker and Randow do an excellent job in support, especially Stöcker's bass driving the jam sections forcefully yet rhythmically.

Inside was the first album on which Bornemann performed the duties of lead singer - and it shows. He would improve with age, and would learn studio techniques to assist, but here his vocals are unadorned and unsophisticated. I feel too that his decision to sing in English was perhaps unfortunate as his phrasing and diction are often way off the mark. I personally would have preferred him to sing in his native German, especially as the lyrics are typically enigmatic and open to interpretation, but I guess after more than 30 years these little quirks have become part of the fabric of this music.

The original album had just four tracks, beginning with dark and menacing astral travelling of 17 minute 'epic' Land Of No Body, primarily a vehicle for Wieczorke to take centre stage with his flamboyant improvisation and experimentation, taking in some riff-tastic themes and head-down grooves along the way. Brilliant title track Inside has a lovely tick tock feel, with a gripping sinister riff-theme before heading off into the stratosphere. Future City has a nice loping percussive beat and a guitar-led instrumental jam but is overshadowed by impending final track Up And Down, a classic Eloy combination of languid haunting spaciness, a seering workout dominated by fat overdriven organ chords, and a sublime laid-back slow-smoking bluesy-jazzy number.

Aside from odd bits of percussion and flute, the musical palette is restricted to a classic rock combination of guitar/organ/bass/drums. If you dislike the sound of a draw-bar organ put through its paces then you would be advised to be wary of this album. Otherwise, it must be considered an almost-masterpiece, only losing a point for its uninspiring vocals. Compared to later albums, Inside is rough round the edges and musically naive in places, but that is admirably countered by an endearing freshness and infectious energy.

Incidentally, the two bonus tracks on EMI's nicely packaged Y2K remastered edition are from a single recorded in August 1973. As with all the Eloy re-issues, the generic packaging design is fine, but sadly (for an English-only speaker) comprehensive liner notes are in German, though in this case an English translation can be obtained from the band's website.

This is one of the best albums from my all-time favourite german group. "Inside" starts with the 17 minute epic "Land Of No Body". This is not for symphonic fans, it's a long dark journey through psychedelic sound-landscapes. Absolutely brilliant! The following songs just fly by, but they are still great. The most outstanding song is "Future City", with it's great use of percussion. I would recomend you this album if you like long, intense jams with Distorted organ and electric guitars. Also, this album is the best place to start if you want to explore Eloy's earlier works. 5/5 from me!

Very psychedelic sounding album. This one is my favourite of Eloy, I prefer it over the others I know (including Planets, Ocean and Dawn).

This is no real "krautrock" album if you ask me, even though these are Germans. The only thing that doesn't make this a possible English release are the vocals with the funny accent (which I don't mind by the way).

This organ / distorted guitar driven prog album is recommended to all Psychedelic / Space rock listeners.

Eloy has been most probably of all German progressive bands the most successful one, at least in an international frame. Many times they have been entitled as "German Pink Floyd". Okay, this might be slightly exaggerated but though I couldn't say that they've been the best German band (something which is hard to say anyway) they certainly can be considered one of the best ones. During their band's career they've shown a quite interesting development from progressive heavy bluesrock on their debut over psychedelic space rock ala Floyd into more symphonic type of Prog on their later releases like Dawn, Ocean and Planets.

So "Inside" had been their first "real Prog" album and as the best proof for that it opens with the side-long track "Land of no body" which must be one of the best tracks they've done in their early phase. Starting rather quietly with a somber sound it develops soon into quite typical early 70's Prog highly dominated by organ play. Right in the middle of the track there is an impressive psychedelic organ solo before it starts sounding heavier with excellent guitar-organ interplay and some screams by vocalist/guitarist and main songwriter Frank Bornemann. Side two continues in a similar vein with the title track but the remaining two tracks are sounding significantly different. "Future City" in particular sounds quite non-typical for Eloy, mainly acoustic with lots of percussion, no organ here at all and brings early Tull into one's mind. Last track of the original vinyl edition "Up And Down" is dominated again by Hammond sound and a rather slowly paced and bluesy one with sluggish, but nicely fitting vocals by keyboarder Manfred Wieczorke who used to be the second one besides Bornemann contributing to the compositions.

As a summary I think this record should be considered a worthy purchase for any Prog fan, the remastered CD re-issue from 2000 contains the two more radio-friendly tracks from the single they've released soon after as bonus which are a nice extra but of course not on par with the tracks on this album.

Eloy´s second album is such a departure from their first that it´s hard to believe it was released by the same band in such a short time. Well, not really the same band, since Frank Bonnemann was now in charge, and he was the new singer too. Manfred Wieczorke also moved form guitar to organ, and - wow! - does he play that Hammond Organ! The man does a great job in the whole album, his textures are incredible and some of them are really stunning.

Bornemann still had to find his own voice, but he did a quite good work if you consider it was his first experience in that field. He sounded a little too much like Ian Anderson, but he was a much better singer than Wieczorke (who sings on Up and Down, the weakest track, and you can´t really believe his strong german accent, barely acceptable). Anyway, there are lots of great guitar and organ interplay, excellent songwriting, and the rhythm section is very strong.

Highlights are the title track and Future City, a very Jethro Tull kind of song, with some great percussion arrangements that, unfortunatly, were not further exploited. The epic Land Of Nobody also delivers what most bands at the time tried and did not achieve: a convincing side long tune. Very good.

Highly recommended.

Eloy, as i see it, is (in all it's numerous incarnations) one of the most pretentious bands on the site.

They just try so hard to make their music something so big. But sometimes, just pure will is not enough. "Inside", the second album by the band led by Frank Bornemann is a rather spacey and jammy effort, with one song lasting over 17 minutes, effectively falling into the definition of an "epic", both to size and structure.

There is no doubt that Inside, like most other music by Eloy, is very enjoyable, but it is by no means a masterpiece. First of all, i feel that the songwriting is somewhat uninspired, and eloy didn't really have it in them to write epics of this length yet, as some parts do drag. Second, there is not much originality in the music, if you are somewhat familiar of the genre, you might feel a slight sense of deja vu. Lastly, the lyrics are, as always, absolotely dreadful, and Frank's delivereance of them even more so. If you are at all well versed in the english language, it is very hard to sit through a whole Eloy-album and not smile at the seriousness with which Bornemann gives us such lines as "there's a lot of happiness and the conflicts going smash" in his very revealing german accent.

Still, there is a definite charm to this particular element of Eloy's music, and one i would not want to be without, and at least the music does not lack the energy. I would maybe compare it to Rush's Caress of steel iin terms of maturity, it is a very charming and fun listen, but not nearly as refined as what they would achieve on, for example "Ocean".

It is also very hard to take very much with you emotionally from an Eloy record, but the band's goal obviously wasn't to break your heart, but rather to make a spacey, but spirited, ambitious piece of music. Recommended for Those who have tired of their pink floyd-records and want to try something more... german.

A far cry from both their faceless debut and the subsequent symphonic efforts for which Eloy would become known, "Inside" is actually one of their best, featuring blistering guitar leads, crunching organs, and freaked out Ian Anderson-styled vocals.

The sound is very early 1970s for sure, but, for Bornemann's first disk as band leader, it shows a good deal of maturity. The album just oozes with ominousness, and the melodies are surprisingly strong and haunting, especially on the incredible title track, which, in addition to Bornemann's "in shock" vocalizations, features horror movie style organ, a lead guitar duet, and primitively deft stereophonic effects as well as a perfectly executed tempo change. This song would be quite sufficient to recommend the album, but the rest is also very good. "Land of No Body" is something between epic , suite and extended jam, and somehow works through the variety and the support of all players. "Future City" further shows off the versatility of the band and features verses over strummed acoustic guitar until the whole band cuts loose, with Wolfgang Stöcker's bass being particularly buoyant. The final cut, "Up and Down", actually features Manfred Wieczorke on vocals and is the most, er, gentle, although that isn't the right word really. Even the spoken part works pretty well. We can certainly hear where Ramses got some of their early influence.

I find it hard to provide a point of reference for this album, since it is a unique synthesis of sounds common around that time. Names like Jethro Tull(early), Black Sabbath and Iron Butterfly come to mind, but Inside is proggier and spacier than any of those by virtue of its well calculated shifts and generally Gothic atmosphere. "Meddle" era Floyd is another point of reference. I highly recommend you explore this great album inside out.

First trully progressive album by this famous band, because is so diffrent from the first album. This is consider a krautrock album, and only from Passion, Eloy diversificates his music in such manner to become space rock. Anyway Inside is a great album with great voice, great drums, in fact has all the ingredients for a very good album. The tracks are surprisingly strong, just listen to title track and the opener, just super. You coud listen the album only for the epic Land of no body, but for sure the rest of the pieces are among the best Eloy ever done. Sometimes i have the impression i listen Ian Anderson's voice from Stand Up or Benefit era, but this is not a bad thing, this kind of voice is working on such music, not only on folk, like we use to hear on Jethro Tull. All in all, Inside is constructed from a winning combination of melodic, semi-Symphonic Prog songs and lengthy jams, and who don't have this one i recommended because is one of the early '70 music that worth every second, a classic. 4 stars for sure and one of the best Eloy albums.

After an hesitant debut, "Eloy" found their way and produced a very good psyche-hard-rock- oriented album.

When you listen to the epic song "Land Of Nobody", the "Floyd" sound of the late sixties (especially during their live sets) is fully dominant. This is a great track. Very much organ-oriented with at times a really wild beat. Almost hard-rocking for most of it ("Purple" and "Heep" are the influences here but it was already the case on their debut work in a few songs). Definitely psyche as well. It sounds more as a asong from the late mid-sixties than a 1973 one. The keyboard work is phenomenal. But the whole band is extremelly mighty.

The melodious aspects are not forgotten either. Even if it lasts for over seventeen minutes, there are no boring seconds in here. Extremely melodic as well. In one word : excellent.

"Inside" is also a great track. Similar in structure but more hard-rocking for most of it. The same orgy of organ surged all the way through. Pay attention, this is wiiiiild music. But the whole of the album is of the same mould. Even if "Future City" starts again in a more psychedelic mood, it will evolve as a great hard-rock song.

"Up & down" brings us back more on the "Floyd" side ("ASOS"). Hypnotic riff and soft keyboards are the mix. Vocals are not really good on this one but I like very much the hectic finale and its fade out effect.

This was the album as originally released. Since then, it has been remastered and expanded with two tracks. "Daybreak" and "On the Road". Pleasant, not more.

Four stars.

First of all, let's me say that I am happy that I was able to pick up this LP for a song. Second, I will say that the seeds of Eloy's sounds are all present here. Third, I will ask why no one else at PA has picked up on some of the early Nektar albums for comparisons. Now onto my brief review - AS many have noted, the music here is jammy, still somewhat psych influenced. I hear some organ riffs nicked from Uriah Heep, I hear some spacey sniffs of Meddle era Floyd. But I don't hear anything that made me want to keep the album. True, it does point the way for what Eloy played afterwards. I was going to do a more "song by song" overview, but then I feel that the above brief reflects my thoughts. TO summarize - if you love Eloy's later albums, you'll like this one. If you found Nektar & Meddle Pink Floyd to your liking, then this album will also likely appeal to you. But the PA rating, to my ears, is a bit much for an average album. And this is after 4 good listens in the past week. And each time, not much stuck in my head. At best, if I can get $2-3 back in cash or trade, I'll be happy. THere are still one or two later Eloy LPs still there (I picked up Ocean & Dawn, they're next in line for listening time).

Eloy is a German band that started out in the late 60's, and was one of few German bands to attain international recognition in their chosen musical style - progressive rock. Most people consider Inside, their second release from 1973, as the bands real debut.

Musically much has been said about Eloy; for many years the prog scene seemed to have a consensus in the fact that Eloy weren't original musically. Which could be the case, personally I'm not that familiar with 70's rock in general or 70's prog in detail.

What I find on this release, is a musical blend that seems rather unique. Much of the music here is hard, at times aggressive, and often with a good drive. All of it with the organ as a central instrument. Although different in mood and atmosphere, there are som touches of Deep Purple to the music here. The structure of the songs here, as well as some bluesy solo guitars and primitive guitar riffs, for me indicates an influence from the earlier German krautrock scene to the music here. Some mellow and ambient moods may or may not have been influenced by Genesis and Pink Floyd; and there's a couple of segments here that reminds a bit of Jethro Tull - especially a 30 second long theme in "Future City" that sounds uncanny like a section from Tull's Aqualung.

Although more or less obvious influences can be spotted relatively easily here, the overall soundscape does have a feel of it's own here. This is dark, brooding and intense progressive hard rock; with the organ being the central instrument.

The songs are good as well, high on atmosphere, with good drive and intensity captivating the listener. A prerequisite for anyone considering buying this album is that you'll have to love the organ. It's everpresent in the songs here. A high tolerance level for German accent is needful as well; as it is impossible to not notice the heavily accented vocals here.

actually we should called this is the first Eloy album becouse Frank Bornemann became band leader. Inside is the one mighty fine rock album from the early 70's. many listener make is in comparing Eloy to bands like Pink Floyd, Focus, Jethro Tull or Hawkwind, and to my experience; I am in a position to confirm: Eloy's sound does not resemble any band!! i can easly say this band is unique Album starts with land of no body hard jamming, throughout its 17 minute breatless, different rhythm section, switching moods perfectly. I was completely floating with the melody,transported into another world by the spacey atmosphere, and enthralled by the excellent musicianship from the guitars of Frank Bornemann to the powerful and complex drumming of Fritz Randow (he is very talented drummer bytheway) the very melancolic Up and down was the first eloy song I've ever heard than i became huge fan of'em. I love this song, what a pity the sound is with simple chords? album is the intricate change of mood and tempo, each song going from calm and atmospheric, to jumbled aggression within the lengthy songs about ambiguous mysticism. Inside (including nice guitar solo by Frank Bornemann(Gibson ofcourse)) and Future City are also very good songs.

Inside does do a good job of displaying Eloy's masterful abilities, many years later I will be still listen to Eloy and still to this day get the same enjoyment, the same feeling of musical satisfaction and fulfillment. We just leave the earths ground On the way to see the new star We forget the past time Released from our imperfection

This ia real gem.

It's one of those albums than can only be made in the early seventies. 4 long songs in different styles but with lots of emphasis on the organ and guitarsolo. Inside is always paired with Floating, because they both have the same approach and sound.

Here Bornemann has a different vocal approach than on later albums, almost similar to Ian Anderson. But that comparison has been made a million times.

The album starts of with one of the true hammond-epics ever made. Lots and lots of organ in this one. Real psychedelic rock and not yet space- or symphonic rock, where Eloy got known for in later years.

Side two has shorter songs where the titletrack is a hardrocking song with nothing really special, but a great guitarsolo.

Future City is psychedelic and has realy Tull-influences. The middle-section with all the percussion is a real suprise and kind of catchy.

Up and Down is the real spacerock-song on this album. Real slow and meandering, it's a great trip with great guitar and organ.

Other bands that do this kind of thing are: Hoelderlin, Jane, Nektar and Grobschnitt. I love it!

I just can't find many faults with this album. It suits my tastes almost perfectly really. This is dark, psychedelic music with killer guitar leads and powerful organ runs. The organ really does steal the show here, and Frank's vocals really do bring Ian Anderson to mind.

"Land Of No Body" is a great title. They're talking about the land of spirits after you die as the title and lyrics convey. This is the over 17 minute side long epic. It opens ominously bringing SABBATH to mind.The mood changes slightly 1 1/2 minutes in when the organ comes in and the vocals come to life. Then the tempo picks up 3 minutes in followed by heavy riffs as the drums pound with powerful organ runs in tow. Back to the slower, darker sound from earlier with reserved vocals. Love the organ melody before 6 minutes. It's building. Amazing section. Things calm right down 7 minutes in and end up getting a little experimental and psychedelic. It kicks back in after 11 minutes as the drums come in and build. The guitar lights it up a minute later. Nice. The guitar and organ seem to simply jam. Vocals are back before 14 1/2 minutes. The organ is prominant the rest of the way.

"Inside" opens with sparse sounds that build with vocals joining in around a minute. A full sound 1 1/2 minutes in with some incredible organ work. The guitar 2 1/2 minutes in is so moving to me. The tempo picks up. Amazing ! Ripping organ as the guitar attacks with venom. It settles before 5 minutes but not for long. Yeah this is good. Haha. "Future City" has this catchy rhythm and the vocals really remind me of Ian Anderson here. The tempo picks up with nice bass and drumming. The guitar comes in playing over top of the main melody 2 1/2 minutes in. Great section. It's trippy again 4 1/2 minutes in. "Up And Down" opens with spacey organ sounds as light drums then reserved vocals join in. It starts to come to life 3 minutes in with some nice bass. Spoken words 5 minutes in as it settles. The sound then goes up and down constantly to the end as the title conveys. "Daybreak" has an uptempo melody of percussion, drums, organ and guitar.The guitar becomes Iommi-like briefly. Some vocal melodies come in. Great tune. "On The Road" features this pulsating organ as the drums beat away. The guitar comes in setting the soundscape on fire. Great tune.

Great album too. Very close to 5 stars for me. Make it 4.5 stars.

3.5 stars really!!

Don't be fooled by my fellow reviewers' quick dismissal of the Eloy's debut album and saying that this is their first real album. Inside is indeed their proud second album and I don't care what Dictator Bornemann has to say about it, but this second album is the logical successor to their first album, and to make matters best, it was released on the German branch of harvest. Sure, Bornemann is already busy bullying his mate, kicking the singer out, taking advantage of the turmoil to do the same to the drummer and the bassist barely surviving this album, forcing the last remaining to change instrument, from the . Sounds like a different group, right?

Actually not that much, because musically there is plenty to relmind us of the Hammond-driven hard prog of their debut but evolving into a proggier and spacier sound. We've still got plenty of influences Uriah Heep, to which you can add Deep Purple, early post-Barrett Floyd and even some great Golden Earring intonations (like the opening track, especially once the singing gets started) and would you believe even Tull in Future City.

The highlight of the album is of course the sidelong Land Of No Body, where the bands shows us their cosmic-psych chops filled with histrionics and everything alse to make it a classic. The flipside's three songs are no less enthralling, even if Up & Down has the guitarist singing.

Like all of the remasters of 99, Inside received its re-touched booklet, including German-only sleevenotes, extra-piccies, two short bonus tracks from a 73 non-album single and printed English-only lyrics, but the artwork got tampered with as the late 70's logo replaced the band's name somewhere else.

This is a good Eloy album. After their first album (nothing really related to progressive rock in that album, or even space rock, its more of a political album, which was soon taken out because of a lineup changes) they changed alot. They stopped singing about socialism and capitalism, and they started to make longer pieces that they really didn't attempt on their first album. This is also the first album to feature Frank on the vocals, he was on the first album, and he is the only consistant member of the band, and he does get better, but he lacks emotion in his vocals on this album. It just sounds kind of flat when you listen to the whole album, but the music is excellent for the whole album really.

"Land of Nobody" screams space when you listen. It sounds alot like Pink Floyd (which I don't care for, though they are not terrible) but you can tell it's Eloy because of the vocals. It is also the largest song in their Discography, clocking in at a little over 17 minutes, and sounds more like a large jam of the instruments than an organized epic of prog, but its very good. This is the first sign of evolution in Eloy, and it gives some signs of what with heppen in future album, and what it will sound like. The hammond organs are amazingly played on this song, and definatly the highlight of the album, particularly this song. "Inside" is good, starts with a cowbell or triangle (correct me if I am wrong) and when it gets into the song, the keyboards start to play. Frank is playing an acoustic for this track. The bass guitar is excellent for this track, definatly got the tone right for this song. Frank sings with passion on this song. "Future City" is definatly my least favorite of the album. It starts with acoustic country-ditty, and it just goes downhill from here. It's too long for my to enjoy fully and its just too boring for me. "Up and Down" starts fairly slow and is an okay song. Its pretty space rock-ish, and much closer to their other future albums than any of the other short tracks, but the vocals bring it down a little bit, even though you can tell that Frank is definatly trying his best, its not enough to make me enjoy the vocals.

This is a good album, though not good enough to get a four star or even a five star rating because Frank's vocals for this album are definatly subpar. Its a very good start to a Space Rock/Kaurtrock/Progressive Rock career, which they will achieve in the short future.

Eloy - Inside (1973)

I first tried Oceans, which turned out to be a dissapointing record for it's reputation. I rated it three stars. Maybe we got off the wrong way, the early seventies approach is more like my cup of tea. So here we have a vinyl copy in perfect condition of Eloy's second record. Listening to it for some time now, I wonder, could there have been some sort of conspiracy:

"Don't tell anyone of Eloy we use mellotrons and senthesizors these days!".

No.. Eloy only uses organs for there first attempt at making space rock. Ironicly, this is the KEYelement (in two ways) of this record which makes it adorable and even cult-like. Influences seem to be Uriah Heep and Deep Purple instead of Pink Floyd, which wouldn't have been a wild guess for a space rock outfit.

On side one Eloy enter's the world of side long epics with Land of No Body. A variety of themes pass by, most of them are influenced by the hard rock scene of early seventies with the vibe of Eloy giving it the space feel we came for in the first place. Most of the time relaxing, but also hard'n heavy at times as the distorted organs riffs appear and the drums are rockin'. Vocals have never been the reason to listen to Eloy, but on this record I must say they sound pretty OK. On the background, but somehow mysterious. The musicianship is good, but not excellent. No solo is great and non of the riffs and melodies are very sophisticated. No, atmosphere of a young space rock/hard rock group playing is the main reason to listen to this record. On side two the songs are shorter and the PF - Echoes influences do show up with the high pulses on Up and Down (if I remembered it well). The bizarre percussions on Future City are a strange passage, but likable once accepted as experimental.

Conclusion. One record, one special vibe. Like a sort of feel of motivation, searching for that unearthly feeling and succeeding partly. I will give this three stars, for I don't think it's excellent for everyone, but it works for me. Listen to this at the end of the evening or in the depths of the night with candles on, it shure helps you to understand it! As Eloy is searching on this record, this is precisely what Eloy did till the end of their career IMHO. They just never hit the Jackpot with their relative non-sophisticated space rock. Three stars.

''Inside'' is the 2nd full-length album by the German progers, released in 1973. ELOY appeared in the 70's Prog scene with an album, that was not promissing anything familiar to their great oncoming career.

With ''Inside'''s release, the group introduces its music, that is full of influences, especially FLOYDians. The keys seem to be the band's main expression, as they appear to have a leading role. Parts that remind the FLOYD's Echoes as well as psychedelic paths, recover beautifully the whole concept. Manfred's Wieczorke work is awesome, here. The main band's composer, Frank Bornemann guides the band's style with his simple, but so meanfull guitar playing. Fritz Randow & Wolfgang Stöcker rhythm duo completes this excellent effort, presenting some flute parts, too. The vocals do not seem to be perfect due to accent's problems, but they represent a well-worthy effort.

ELOY enters the Prog Scene with an excellent album, forerunner of the band's great career. The production is typical of the 70's, full and mature. ELOY's style is about to be developed. Great musicians proving that Germany has much to say.

4 stars, really. Something big is about to be born!

I start my review making a safeguard that is based upon the original version (whitout the bonus tracks). In your secound studio albun ELOY-"Inside" the band shows a strong influence of bands like PINK FLOYD, NEKTAR, DEEP PURPLE in their first period (like in "The Book of Talyesin" or "The Shades of Deep Purple"and JETHRO TULL. Having in mind this considerations, you can imagine a song very heavy in many moments intercaleted with a flowing sound ( like in passages on the first track"Land of Nobody" where the hammond organ is the mainly instrument in the "light" passages and the eletric guitar commands the "heavier" riffs). This tendency continues on the second track ( in my opinion the best track in the disk "Inside". In the third track the initial part reminds me JETHRO TULL, wich disembogue in a "nervous" theme" almost latin music with a guitar solo in the vein of SANTANA..The last track "Up and Down" is a beautiful psych-ballad, wich have a middle section very similar to a "Thick as Brick" passage. Besides of I think this is a very good disk, I appreciate much more the sound of ELOY in albuns just as "Floating" and mainly "Silent Cries and Mighty Echoes", where the music of this band seems more mature to me !!! my rate is 3 stars.

The first songs starts with a post-psychedelic intro and continues with a powerful repetitive and heavy part which is somehow specific to Krautrock bands. The middle part is organ driven and it easily flows through the last part where the rhythmic section is entering the stage again. For sure not a band song but I found the middle section with the organ solo bit too long.

The second one, Inside, is a very inspired song and probably one of the best moments here with some killer fast sections.

Future city has a tull-esque atmosphere and it is a bit too repetitive and uninspired(it remind me of Jethro Tull - Fat man and Aqualong). Even the guitar sounds in the Martin Barre style.

Up and down with more than 8 minutes is a smooth and relaxing song in the first 3 minutes, it continues in the same easy way but with an harder touch until Manfred Wieczorke starts to play a beautiful and long distance organ/guitar driven part accompanied by an accute spoken message .

Daybreak is almost instrumental(without word) but only with some atmospheric voice sounds. It is an interesting song because it is combining some hard rock parts with classical influences.

The last song "On the road" is the shortest one and is indicating the band status at that time, being on the road most of the time for playing in different places. This is the reason why Wolfgang Stöcker, the bass player from the first Eloy album, left the band. It seems that he preferred a standard way of living instead of being a musician.

It is a very good thing that Eloy continued because they've created some very memorable moments in the years to come. Especially because, as Frank Bornemann mentioned, doing music business was not easy for the german bands at that time. 3.5 stars for this one and that kind of album for which it's hard to decide on this scale. Probably 0-10 scale would be more appropriate.

A good first Harvest

"Inside" was only Eloy's second release, but already the line up changes had started. Drummer Helmut Draht had to leave due to injuries incurred in a car accident, while lead singer Erich Schriever simply decided that this was not the life for him (did he fall or was he pushed?). Draht was replaced by Fritz Randow, but Schriever was not substituted at all, his vocal duties being assumed by band leader Frank Bornemann. At the same time, Eloy moved to the Harvest label, a British subsidiary of EMI dedicated to progressive bands and artists.

The result of these changes was a migration from the direction searching of the band's eponymous début, to the focused statement that is "Inside". For many, especially in these parts, this is where Eloy arrived, the sophisticated prog which would serve the band well in coming decades being presented for the first time here.

In a clear statement of intent, the album opens with a 17+ minute piece entitled "Land of no body". There's no doubt that these days the track sounds rather clichéd and dated, with more than a little of the Spinal Taps. It must be remembered though that this album dates from 1973, when the organ driven rock and mystical vocals would still have been refreshingly new and innovative. The blending of lead guitar riffs, Hammond organ and a strong powerhouse remind us of bands such as Uriah Heep, Atomic Rooster, Argent, Nektar and Titanic from the same era. The track also boasts some good old phasing along the way, a technique lost on engineers of the digital age.

The album consists of just four tracks, the remaining three making up the second side of the LP. The title track sets out as a slower number, similar in passing with Uriah Heep's "Shadows of grief" from "Look at yourself". The vocals here are adequate but tentative. The opportunity is taken though to incorporate a fine lead guitar solo, which burst through with impressive pace and dexterity. "Future city" is the shortest track on the album at 5½ minutes. There is a Jethro Tull like feel to the song in the quivering vocals and distinctive bass line. Once again, some fine lead guitar completes the track.

The album closes with "Up and down", an 8½ minute piece with similarities in structure to "Land of no body". The similarities with the music of Uriah Heep, especially that band's earliest days, are strong here. Vocally though, while his voice is fine, Bornemann is no David Byron.

In all, an excellent early album from Eloy which captures their ambitions and talents well. There is a more dated feel now to the music here than on albums by some of the band's peers, but this remains classic prog.

Around the time of the album's release, a non-album single called "Daybreak" appeared. Both sides of that single are included on the expanded remaster of this album. "Daybreak" sounds similar to Titanic's hit single "Sultana", the strong rhythm and instrumental lead clearly being designed to capture the same success as that release (but failing to do so). The track also features some rare orchestration. The B-side, "On the road" is a pacey pop based number with rhythmic organ and driving guitar.

Inside presents a complete Eloy-makeover. Vocalist Schriever left the band and with him went much of the bluesy influences. Guitarist Frank Bornemann took over the main vocal duties and while he does that quite adequately here, I think his limited range and flat delivery have condemned Eloy to play in the second-league of Prog, missing the inspiring front-man presence to measure up to the great UK examples.

Inside is largely instrumental organ-heavy psychedelic rock with notable British influences from Jethro Tull and Uriah Heep. Compared to the debut, the songwriting is more accomplished and adventurous. On the 17 minute Land of No Body, I feel the band stretched their ambitions a bit too far maybe, with a song that lacks truly memorable moments. But there are enough nicely flowing instrumental sections to enjoy. Inside is a rather average song balancing slow seeping sections balancing against harder rocking parts, Future City appeals more to me and would have fitted nicely on Jethro Tull's Benefit and Up And Down sounds like Uriah Heep in a psych mood.

Inside is a nice step upwards from the debut and generally an accomplished piece of prog. Recommended for fans of rocking prog albums such The Yes Album, Foxtrot, Benefit or even Salisbury. 3.5 stars for sure

One would think that with all of the prog rock album collecting I did in the seventies, that I would have more than this one album by Eloy. Well, the fact is, this was the only one I ever found, and since I started purchasing CDs from the Internet, they just haven't been a priority. Maybe they should be.

This album always reminded be of Jethro Tull, both in the musical style and Frank Bornemann's voice. No matter, this is still an exciting album of seventies symphonic prog. Land Of No Body is the epic piece, clocking in at over seventeen minutes. It ranges from the ominous, sort of psychedelic intro, to the rocking (sounds like The Turtles' Happy Together outro. But still very nice.

Inside is the hardest rocking song on the album, almost like the metal songs of 1975. Future City again calls up vintage Tull, with very Ian Anderson-like vocals over acoustic guitar, alternating with harder segments. The only not quite up to par song is Up And Down, almost pure psychedelic, with an overdramatic spoken segment over Pink Floyd- like keys and drums.

If more of their early album are like this, I might go find them.

The second album of Germans Eloy comes a couple of years after the debut. Even if they try to sound more spacey, they are still sticking on some hard rock standards, so even if their first attempt to make a side long suite wants to be spacey, like they are trying to get inspiration from Pink Floyd and Krautrock, the influence of URIAH HEEP is very heavy. There's also a part in the second half of the suite "Land Of No Body" that seems taken from Deep Purple's Child in Time (that was taken from "Bombay Calling" of the band "It's a Beautiful Day"). The middle part, the spacey one with the organ in foreground is not bad, but is quite far from reaching its objective.

The B-Side is opened by "Inside". The influence of Uriah Heep appears huge also on this track. Frank Bornemann is not a bad vocalist, but his strong German accent doesn't sound very well when singing in English. I have always thought that they should have been used their home language, instead. The guitar solo on the "accelerated" part is almost standardised. Not a bad song, but it doesn't contain anything particularily interesting.

Surprise...."Future City" seems a JETHRO TULL song. Also the voice is mimic of Ian Anderson. It's not a bad song, but this is the defect of this band. They are skilled musicians but they hardly make anything original. The song seems taken from Aqualung, but the instrumental part in the middle is not so "Inspired by".

"Up And Down" is the most Floydian song of the album. This is the way that the Eloy will follow in the next albums.

This album is not bad, but as I have written there's nothing original, so it's not the album that I would suggest to who wants to approach this band. It's a little below the debut even if promising of further goods (easy to say retrospectively).

2 stars - good for fans

This was the first album I heard and bought from Eloy, mainly because it contains their longest song to date at 17 minutes. Also, I really liked the artwork on this album. The album has a very symphonic feel to it, but also brings to mind Jethro Tull.

-Land Of No Body- Utter brilliance. Aside from a 4-minute ambient section in the middle, the rest of this song rocks extremely hard. Lots of mood changes and amazing riffs. The lyrics are great as well. There isn't an uninteresting moment on the track. Definitely worth having the album for!

-Inside- This song starts off slowly but gets into the swing of things about 90 seconds in. The melody is very memorable, and the instrumental is stunning, getting faster as it goes on. Before the end of the song there is another extremely fast instrumental, closing a fantastic track.

-Future City- A bit of comic relief. Probably most recognisable for the fun instrumental, this is quite a funky song. The vocal parts are also very good, and this becomes another incredibly enjoyable song.

-Up And Down- So you're thinking, 'OK three pretty good tracks, there has to be a downside right?'. Listening to the first 2 minutes, you might be a bit bored by this track, but then at about 3 minutes there is a fantastic instrumental. In fact this instrumental, followed by the vocals at about 5 minutes into the song really make this song worthwhile. The last 2 minutes are basically a very long repeat to fade. However the entire song is still very enjoyable.

So there you have it. All of the tracks on Inside are tracks that I love to listen to again and again, so I have no choice but to give it the 5 stars it deserves. The remastered CD includes two bonus tracks from a single that was released in that period; Daybreak is quite good but On The Road is really awesome, and its just a shame its so short at under 3 mins.

Eloy's second album finds the band significantly matured after their patchy debut, with its sub- Black Sabbath riffing consigned mainly to the past. Here, the band try their hand at comparatively heavy space rock, with Pink Floyd and Nektar being the major influences at work - though the playing is generally looser and more prone to slightly aimless jamming than either band was at this particular point in time (both Floyd and Nektar having significantly tightened up their compositional approach at this point). On the whole, there's a bit more direction this time around, and that helps a lot, but Eloy still clearly had some way to go before they hit the bit leagues at this point of their development.

On their second album, Eloy finds their feet with a sound which traverse krautrock, symph prog and psychedelic/space rock. It is the latter PA category they have been put in. But this album is a mix of three genres plus some heavy prog too.

The vocals is an aqcuired taste, but they give Eloy a lot of character in my book/estimation. The superb interplay between the Hammond organ and electric guitars really gives this album and Eloy it's very own identity. The sound is not the best, but it fits the musich here like a hand in a (good) glove.

The opening seventeen minutes long Land Of No body is really good with a good symph prog structure. Eloy sets out their stall here. But they really display their goods with the title track. A track like Future City is also a nod towards both Jethro Tull and the burgeoning kraut scene. The rest of the album follows the same path.

The best song here is the title track. A truly superb track. But this album never gets boring and it is one of the signature albums of the German prog scene. A truly great album it is.

4 stars

Although Eloy's mid-period albums such as 'Dawn' and 'Ocean' seem to get all the praise, this second album from 1973 is the one the finds the German group balancing their hard rock inclinations and symphonic flourishes with expertly-crafted instrumental precision. A dark, brooding affair that blends the ambitious scope of Floyd with the raw and muted aggression of early Deep Purple and a dash of post-psychedelic spirit, 'Inside' proves a much more rugged album than the slick, synthesized prog of later efforts, taking the (admittedly rather few) best bits from their underwhelming self-titled debut and adding both a strong dose of British-style art-rock and a dash of krautrock-style cosmic mystery. Opening track 'Land Of No Body' is probably the best example of the album's foreboding soundscapery, stretching the metallic riffs, neon-lit keyboards and edgy vocals into a darkly-wrought seventeen-minute epic full of stylish sonic detours, whilst the shorter pieces add pacey rock into the mixture. Finally, the closing gambit 'Up & Down' treads a more ethereal path, edging stylistically closer to the spicier sounds found on the group's excellent 'Floating' album. Whiles there's no denying the expansive symphonic flavour of Eloy's mid-seventies output, 'Inside' seems much more focused and much less ponderous, relying more on actual melodies than atmosphere. Strangely overlooked, 'Inside' surely deserves to re-evaluated in both the eyes of Eloy aficianado's and progressuve rock fans in general, showcasing the group's powerful and primal early sound. Just as relevant as 'Floating', 'Dawn' and 'Ocean', this is an excellent example of European progressive rock.

STEFAN TURNER, STOKE NEWINGTON, 2012

Eloy's "Inside" captures the invigorating psychedelic sound of the 70s and it is the band at their most mind blowing in terms of lengthy jamming and trippy musicianship. The opening epic that runs out to 17:20 is a mind tripping psych prog blaster that features some mesmirising musical interludes. There is a lengthy instrumental break that is a freak out of shimmering Hammond, spacey lead guitar and frenetic drumming with a ton of time sig shifts. It is wonderful music to immerse your ears in.

This is followed by a more subdued but very good track 'Inside' that features some of the bright Hammond again with Bornemann's vocals lighting up the soundscape.

'Future City' is one of my favourite tracks with Ian Anderson style vocals and a hypnotic bass and guitar rhythmic groove. The freak out instrumental is a fast tempo outbreak of upbeat jazzy psych prog. It returns to the main theme to end making this a well structured track.

'Up and Down' has a slow paced cadence and measured vocal delivery. It feels relaxed and psychedelic with reverb on multi tracked vocals and wah wah guitar embellishments . The wandering bassline is well executed and I like the simple high hat work. It switches to a new time sig with glorious organ phrases. The lead break is superb, and as it shifts to a new time sig, staccato organ and bass are joined with sporadic drumming patterns. It pauses for a while until the slower signature returns and some spoken preaching sounding weird against the backdrop of Hammond, bass and drums. The scratchy organ that jumps in is delightful, forced and wonderfully trimmed with that raw 70s edge. The music swells up and down in volume and intensity with a genuine feeling of tension and release.

'Daybreak' is a shorter track that is dominated with a hard rock guitar and organ riff. It locks into the heavy tempo and there are orchestrated violin strings. A heavy fuzz distorted guitar crunches in and the groove constantly drives headlong as a lead guitar solo augments the atmosphere. There are vocal intonations and some wild percussion breaks.

'On The Road' is a fast rocking blaster with tons of hammering Hammond and a full on lead guitar freakout. The vocals are reverbed and strangely distant. The organ phrases are terrific and I absolutely love the psychedelia of explosive organ and guitar, making this one of the heaviest Eloy songs ever.

Overall, "Inside" is a fascinating nostalgic trip back to the psychedelic sound of early prog. Eloy are inventive and progressive throughout this earlier album. It may not be as good as the followup "Floating", but this is an improvement on the debut, and is full of some of the trippiest and heaviest music to ever emerge from the Eloy catalogue.

Eloy is starting to be Eloy. The initial 1970-1971 'psychedelic' line-up just partially changed, but the band's creative driving force changed in essence and forever - since Inside and until now, it's Frank Bornemann. The album sounds quite heavy, dark, sometimes aggressive and overall more or less raw, but very promising. Perhaps Land Of No Body lacks some integrity and internal unity, but it's so complex, diverse and expressive that the listener (me at least...) pays no attention to its microscopic faults. Future City is amazing in any aspect, and what a pity that this song still remains one-of-a-kind in the band's track record.

9.25/15P. A home match for me: Hannover is just 300km away from my home. Nonetheless, I cannot really find a home in this music. But, of course, it ain't no German music, which could be the reason ...

Well, this could have become a classic album of vintage German rock music. From the very first seconds of the album you hear how much potential this fairly young German band had in this line-up. This album benefits a lot from a warm production, a really tight bass player, a Hammond organist with a lot of feeling and a really decent composer. But unfortunately the band sometimes manoeuvres itself into quite some embarassing moments which totally destroy the atmosphere.

Land of No Body begins very interestingly with delayed bass and Hammond organ notes out of which Frank Bornemann's vocal melody arises. In my opinion Bornemann has never been a good vocalist, perhaps in one league with Lee Jackson of The Nice regarding that he was able to convey a message and a unique timbre despite the basic sense of tonality. On this album, however, his voice is often enough pretty enjoyable, especially in the moments when the band gets completely absorbed with the songs they perform. The topic of this song, a future journey to a new planet, is utterly pretentious, but the esoteric and slightly naive fantasy concept is something which defines Eloy, and if you don't get involved with that spirit at least a bit, you really miss something when listening to this music.

###... what I don't like ...###

But admittedly there are these strange moments on this album, for instance like Up And Down in which I cannot help shaking my head about how much the sense of self of the band differed from what they sound like. In the middle of a plainly gorgeous song, including spacy organs and a really soothing groove, the drummer of the band delivers a political speech in terrible English (we oppose 'sese matter of facts, but sometahms we couldn't do againsdad) which firstly doesn't make sense in some places due to the lack of some words, and which secondly copies some words from fellow German band Birth Control's (more meaningful) anti-Vietnam-war speech in the beginning of Gamma Ray. Of course, Eloy come from Germany and learnt their English at school. But if you read the booklets of the Eloy reissues you'll know very soon that humility isn't Frank Bornemann's prime trait. It's not that he really talks down other bands, but he does regard the Eloy lyrics as moments of profound spirituality and philosophy, and - as far as I remember - laments at some place that today's audiences don't have enough appreciation of these cosmic thoughts today. The problem is that I think that the lyrics are very superficial. There are these clumsy rhetorical questions in Future City (''guess how you feel when smog is catching your breathing?'') which somehow describe how the world could look like in some years in a very black-and-white way. Even Land Of No Body (which generally is a lot more endurable lyricwise) contains hollow phrases like ''we want freedom for the world, power to the people''. Moments like these simply make me angry because they aren't authentic. I'm convinced that bands from every country are theoretically able to make authentic music, and it's perfectly okay to be inspired by some bands, but as soon as Eloy start emulating their British idols things turn out really awkward.

And this is why so many moments on this record turn out to be incredibly ridiculous. Listen to the trademark Pink-Floyd-'Echoes' sonar ping note in the middle of Land of No Body and imagine keyboarder Manfred Wieczorke's huge smile on his face, thinking 'oh yeah, I know how to make that sound with my Hammond organ'.

Listen as well to Future City which copies the chromatic riff of Jethro Tull's Beggar's Farm. Of course there are always melodic similarities in blues music which cannot be avoided. But Bornemann also tries to copy Ian Anderson's vocal style and clumsily attempts to modify the Beggar's Farm melody to make it his own somehow. But somewhere during the composition process Bornemann lost the moody dominant minor chord and subdominant major chords which definitely defined Jethro Tull's song; hence, Bornemann stays on the same chord and repeats the 'guess how you feel' line many many times instead. I wouldn't call the piece a plagiarism, and it's actually a bit moody as well, but it really is inferior to Beggar's Farm and I do miss the authenticity again.

A third example is Bornemann's self-assured screaming in Land Of No Body. It's not that he screams particularly badly, but in combination with the bolero rhythm and the fat Hammond organ this part sounds so much like 'oh yeah, we have invented a German equivalent to Child Of Time' that I cannot take it seriously.

###... what I like ...###

The clarification to those who probably ask themselves why I rate this album with three stars although there are such a lot of aspects which I criticize is that there are indeed parts in which Eloy don't copy the style of Uriah Heep, Jethro Tull or Pink Floyd. Perhaps it's a sign of neglectfulness, perhaps it's due to excessive demands or due to a lack of time to absorb all the new albums which came out in those days - or maybe, to be complaisant, as a result of true artistic inspiration.

Howsoever - the title track Inside may really be regarded as a classic piece of German hard rock balladry. The fragile and ticking intro with the entangled organ/acoustic guitar work is quite beautiful, the lyrics are introspective and the vocals really manage to touch me emotionally. It's a bit disappointing that the band crash into some thick hard rock riffs after less than two minutes, but even then Frank Bornemann gets it all wrapped up with a terrific dual guitar solo. This kind of music, possessing this rough and somewhat chunky approach which is rightly associated with the name 'Krautrock', is indeed different to the sound of the equivalent British bands and makes a worthwhile listen. The Latin-flavored instrumental part of Future City with all of those rattling percussion instruments and acoustic guitars provides an entertaining contrast to the bluesy vocal part, thus allowing me to reconcile a bit with the uninteresting vocal parts. I've already mentioned that Up And Down is a really decent piece of organ-dominated psychedelia; so if you're able to ignore the political speech you'll be likely to enjoy it a lot, especially because the chord changes in the lengthy ending part sound quite sublime and lordly.

In fact, Land Of No Body emerges as a thoroughly palatable main dish, too - particularly when Eloy simply jam around aimlessly. The aforementioned organ solo is six or seven minutes long in total, and before Wieczorke ends up doing this strange pseudo-avantgarde stuff he plays some beautiful organ lines which are truly balm for the soul, especially on top of this steady and hypnotic beat. Many German rock bands called themselves 'psychedelic', but few of them succeeded in creating truly atmospheric instrumental parts. Eloy - despite all criticism - had the chops and the sense for these kind of atmospheres. It just seems that by the time of Inside the wish to sound like all of their idols at the same time was bigger than the wish to establish a sound of their own.

Overall, listening to this Eloy album sometimes is quite an satisfying thing to do, but it might feel a bit ambivalent and uncomfortable at times. At least in my case listening to Eloy frequently puts my musical assessment in questions, provoking questions about what 'inspired music' actually is, the question if there's any innovation in progressive rock music at all, the question why so many German rock bands appear more boring to me than their British counterparts. It's definitely not an essential album, but I enjoy it as much as Ocean and Silent Cries And Mighty Echoes and gladly refer to the occasional moments on this album which surpass the 3-stars level.

Eloy-Inside

'Inside' is the second studio album by hard rock/space rock band Eloy. After original lead vocalist Erich Schriever left the band after Eloy's debut, Frank Bornemann decided he wanted to add something more into his band's sound. What he added was a futuristic tone and spacey lyrics to their sound, hence 'Inside' being a heavy space rock album.

While this album does maintain the Deep Purple-esque heavy metal/hard rock of the debut, the newly added space rock elements really makes the album stand out a bit more then the debut. The album opens up with the nearly 18-minute long epic 'Land of No Body', which starts out with some great bluesy bass. When Bornemann's vocals come in, they fit very well with the menacing bass grooves. Soon organ signals crashing guitar, before driving riffs enter. After the organ plays over the crashing guitar four minutes through, the menacing bass comes back with atmospheric space sounds giving the song a much darker tone. Towards the end, thumping bass and guitar drives under a great guitar solo leading up to Bornemann's screams over heavy guitar. Kind of reminds me of Rush's '2112' in this sense. The song ends with pounding organ and drums.

While the opener is certainly the main highlight of the album, there are other standout songs on here. The menacing title track is great, with the haunting chamber-esque organ playing over pounding drums. 'Future City' begins with acoustic guitars and winding sounds. Great cymbal work and driving bass soon signal in heavy guitar. Before the guitar solo begins is where Eloy's unique drum work shows with tribal drums combined with the winding noises. If you get the remaster, the driving Deep Purple-esque 'On the Road' is a gem.

I've noticed many people have an issue with Frank Bornemann's voice, mainly due to his thick accent. However, I happen to love his voice. Probably one of my favorite vocalists to be honest. It's very unique, and I think it fits perfectly with the music. Lyrically, I love how in songs like 'Land of Nobody' space themes are mixed in with subtle political commentary. Lyrics like 'We just leave the earths ground, On the way to see the new star.' are combined with 'We want freedom, We want freedom for the world, Power to the people, And the righteous in the land.' I find these kinds of metaphorical lyrics really cool.

Overall, I highly recommend this album to any fans of proto-metal, hard rock, and space rock. It shows the beginning of Eloy's masterful combination of heavy metal/hard rock and atmospheric space rock. 4.5 rounded up to 5.

(Originally written for www.metalmusicarchives.com)

ELOY's first progressive album

After their self-titled debut hard-rock oriented opus, "Inside" definitely marks the entrance of ELOY into the progressive sphere. Important modifications have been made. First, the line-up has been renewed, Frank Bornemann is now the band's leader and singer. Second, ELOY also changes musical label, going to progressive music reference Harvest. Third, the compositions becomes longer and spacier. However, this first progressive attempt is not as complex as YES or GENESIS, as it still shows strong early 70's hard-rock influences.

The album opens with the 20 minutes long "Land Of No Body". A convincing epic with rythmic changes and various ambiances. The overall style sound very DEEP PURPLE-ish, especially due to the organ. The main interest of the record. The title track continues in the same vein, more melacholic. It alternates soft and loud passages, and contains a nice guitar solo. The most original short track is "Future City", as it features different kinds of percussions and surprising variations. "Up And Down" finishes softly the album with its predominant organ.

"Inside" shows that ELOY has not completely emancipated itself from its initial british hard-rock influences yet. The style can be compared to what DEEP PURPLE would have done if they've turned more progressive. Nonetheless, it's still a good album, with no real weak track. Recommended to space-rock and early 70's hard-rock fans.

ELOY's sophomore effort "Inside" is a giant leap forward from their debut. The sound is still steeped in a largely blues-based heavy rock psychedelia of their British contemporaries (from DEEP PURPLE and PINK FLOYD to JETHRO TULL), but the ideas here begin to expand offering more adventurous listening. Especially prominent is the use of keyboards (largely Hammond organ), as well as interplay between hard and soft/fast and slow portions. As suggested by the cover artwork, the album's sound is more space-rock oriented with lots of dark and ominous passages, particularly within the A side-long epic "The Land of No Body". There are some terrific parts here, but overall it cannot compete with more elaborate and adventurous works of say GENESIS, YES or FLOYD of the era. B side shorter songs (but still around 6-7 minuts on average) are much more effective in my opinion, and this is particulalry true of phenomenal and chilling title track and "Future City". With this album ELOY started building their trademark sound and exploring topics that would come to characterise the space-rock cannon of the progressive genre, but their highlights were still a few years away.

1973's Inside sees Eloy finding their feet, this first real phase of the band being a space rock, symphonic rock, psychedelic rock amalgam. As reference points, think Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, a hint of Hawkwind, and a dollop of Yes. The overall feel is pretty moody, with extended instrumental passages, and sparse vocals. The shorter Future City is a strangely quirkier number, otherwise tracks like Land of Nobody and Inside are an exercise in slow burning atmosphere. All very well done, but its not an album I go back to very often, as I much prefer Eloy's output from the late 70s onwards, full of synthesisers, Frank Bornemann's wonderfully high-minded lyrics, and a more bombastic and direct approach. Fans of classic 70s prog will be best served starting with Ocean, Dawn, or Power and the Passion. Those of more a 80s neo-prog bent will adore the criminally overlooked and underrated Metromania (which I rate as one of the top 20 albums of all- time by any band).

Inside remains one for Eloy fans and those who prefer space-rock styling, but it would be going too far to label it as Krautrock - even here Eloy are far more mainstream prog, perhaps art rock. If you haven't given Eloy a listen, you are missing out on a great band, and make sure you check out the different eras as their sound has definitely evolved over the years.

Review #202

What a drastic change in the musical style of Eloy this album was, this is where the Eloy I know and love started. "Inside" was the first attempt of Eloy to enter the fields of Progressive Rock (I say attempt assuming it was completely intentional), the mainly hard bluesy rock they played in the first album evolved to a much more spacey one with excellent keyboards, precise drums and not filled with very speed and overwhelming guitar. The opening track is the 17-minute epic "Land of no body", which has excellent instrumental sections through which Eloy explored the fields of progressive rhythm changes, the main plate on this piece is Manfred Wieczorke's keyboard, sometimes very in a Richard Wright way and sometimes even in a Keith Emerson way.

The short tracks on the B-side are also in the vein of the opening track, the Pink Floyd influence is undeniable but that is what I love about music: no matter how much influence you take from another band, it's not a copy when the ideas bring so much of original content. The rhythmic patterns in "Inside" are exquisite, the guitar solos are very energic while "Future city" is a much slower piece with the presence of acoustic guitar (occasionally) and even a little dark atmosphere. The closing track "Up and down" has a very slow and relaxed rhythm, very hypnotic in some moments with the nice touch of the choral voices, marching music, and the end with the moving sound that goes from one side of the music speaker to the other.

SONG RATING: Land of no body, 5 Inside, 4 Future city, 3 Up and down, 5

AVERAGE: 4.25

PERCENTAGE: 85

ALBUM RATING: 4 stars