ELOY

After one minute of spacey sounds the first track of the first Eloy album starts with guitar and voice like a song of the Who, but soon the rock vein emerges and if I have to compare this debut (the whole album) to another band this is Uriah Heep.

There's much of the early 70s British rock in this album. The intro of "Something Yellow" is very similar to the one of "Gipsy" and also Schriever would sound like Byron if it wasn't for his strong German accent. With Uriah Heep they share on this song the use of silence pauses. Not that's a bad track. I don't think Eloy can be considered an original band in any of their early works, this doesn't mean that this is not good music. By the way, silence pauses are a thing that in general I don't like in rock.

"Eloy" has a Black Sabbath's mood. Imagine Schriever singing one octave higher and he will sound like Ozzy. I have to say that this song reminds me of Sabotage that the Sabbath released 4 years after this album. The hippy bongos solo is unneeded but it's in line with the rock "policies" of the period.

To enforce the link to Black Sabbath, the next track is "Song of a Paranoid". We can hear Uriah Heep or Sabbath influences here. I think they are generically influenced by the early 70s hard rock scene, not by a particular band. In this sense they can be forgiven for being not original.

Things don't change with "Voice Of Revolution". Another song in the Heep's style. The lyrics are meant to be political.

Listening to "Isle Of Sun" after long time I'm surprised. I remembered it as a Uriah Heep song. Nothing bad. This is a song on which Schriever sounds like Byron, of course without the high pitched screams for which Byron was famous. A sort of "Come Away Melinda".

The last track, too, is a regular hard rock song to which the organ give the touch of Uriah Heep.

In the end, this is a non-essential album. Unless you want to know this side of Eloy, I suggest looking at the originals (Uriah Heep), but this is a good album. The songs are good and well played. Schriever is not a bad singer even if he can't compete with Byron, so I think 3 stars are exactly what this debut deserves.