Eloy - Inside (2023) [Hi-Res]

Eloy was only on their second album when they introduced their first major change of direction in sound. With the departure of founding member Erich Schriever, Frank Bornemann found himself able to take the group on a more resolutely progressive rock road. Still strongly hard-rocking, though, the music is dominated in turns by Bornemann's guitar solos and Manfred Wieczorke's Deep Purple-esque overdriven Hammond organ. The 17-minute "Land of No Body" tries too hard to emulate the clichés of the prog rock epic. A space-related theme ties together a string of riffs and extended solos. It lacks meat around the bone, and in the end sounds a lot like Benefit-era Jethro Tull. The shorter tracks are more satisfying. "Inside" and "Future City" rock hard and efficiently, the former pushing Wieczorke up front, the latter featuring Bornemann's best vocal impression of Ian Anderson. The closer, "Up and Down," remains, for the most part, a dazed piece filtered by Led Zeppelin and Procol Harum. Compared to the following year's Floating, Inside represents a transition from Eloy's first incarnation and a first exhibition of their leader's main influences -- influences that he still needed to digest. The 2001 remastered edition from EMI adds the two tracks from the 1973 single "Daybreak"/"On the Road."

Review by François Couture