ELOY - "THE VISION, THE SWORD AND THE PYRE - PART ONE" (2017)

ELOY - "THE VISION, THE SWORD AND THE PYRE - PART ONE"
(Running time: 62:23 minutes; 13 songs)
("Artist Station" & "Soulfood"; 2017; CD):

Hey folks, yes, it's me again, your eyes aren't playing tricks on you, again the next dose is coming for you. Hm, and now something very different and anyhow unique and maybe also especially for this very blog here something pretty to very new I have in store for you, surely, because here and now comes my record review on the current new 2017 full length album of/by the german Progressive (and maybe also Classic) Rock legends ELOY coming from the city of Hanover, the capital of Lower Saxony, the german federal state I live in and this sort of just a hour or a-hour-and-a-half away from Hanover, (en)titled "THE VISION, THE SWORD AND THE PYRE - PART ONE" and it was released at the 25th of August this very year of 2017 via "ARTIST STATION" and "SOULFOOD", and yes, I will (once again) try my best to do somehow justice to this album... and this will anyhow anyway be an incredible damn hard job, a very damn hard try to do so, that I can already tell you by now. But, yes and anyhow, let's go one more time again: I never knew of ELOY, why the bloody hell ever, before I finally saw this album at my local record store... despite the fact that they are more or less 'constantly-existingly-around' since 1969 and despite the fact that they released quite a few albums since then and also despite the fact that they come from sort of 'around the corner' from where I live... but anyhow, yes, because now in 2017 this finally changed. The artwork, yes, the album, yes, the complete package appealed to me and spoke to me and I was curious what this might be right from the beginning. When I first saw it I didn't took it with me because I was in a hurry and had no time to do a little listening-session with it in the store. The second time I finally had the time and did so promptly and... it was pretty much right from the get-go very clear to me that this is an album and that this is music that demands time and effort of/from you and that this is nothing to discover properly not even a single bit while or when listening to it over shitty headphones in your local record store with far too many people running around you, definitely not, and so it was also right from the get-go very clear to me that I would definitely desperately need to take this little shining silver disc home with me, for sure, and so I did. This was sort of a week after ELOY's "THE VISION, THE SWORD AND THE PYRE - PART ONE" was released some few months ago still pretty recently this year of 2017, hm, and since then it is for all the right and justified reasons on heavy rotation here on'n'in my stereo, yes, and since then I also ask myself how the hell do I a review on it that does justice to this breathtaking and phenomenal rich'n'diverse and and just fascinating and totally larger than life masterpiece of an Album that it definitely is... and still I have not a single clou, nah, at least not a proper one... but with that review being now long, long overdue and with 2017 aiming more and more straight and direct towards its end I finally decided to not longer shy away from it, yes, and so now here comes my honest attempt and my honest try to a anyhow proper review on ELOY's "THE VISION, THE SWORD AND THE PYRE - PART ONE", yes, and so where do I now finally find the starting point to do so... ah, okay... maybe here: This is incredible skilled and varying, diverse and demanding (and this in all positive senses and meanings of this word or term) Progressive Rock strongly dominated by organs and keyboards and this without any annoying 'cheesy and corny kitsch' and massively enriched with medieval folklore instrumentation and parts and also offering surprising elements like- for example- a (children's) choir that add a lot of 'qualitatively weight' to the music of ELOY here on "THE VISION, THE SWORD AND THE PYRE - PART ONE". It's all very high skilled and diverse, varying done, yes, Progressive Rock with a very special and unique character and that also adds quite a bit of Classic Rock heavyness and marks to it all and this especially in the guitar departement. Also very, hm, yes, outstanding and pretty unique (maybe especially in the Progressive Rock context) and maybe even more convincingly are the widescreen and massive arrangements and the interleaved rhytmic structures of the songs that heavily (and I mean really heavily) mark the music on/of ELOY's "THE VISION, THE SWORD AND THE PYRE - PART ONE" and they even outshine the (anyhow also fascinating and exciting, grapping) solo work that's also a very prominent and outstanding ingredient and this of the highest quality here on this very album. Also the female lead singing voice of Alice Merton (you may know her the Mainstream charts storming hit "ROOTS" from this year or so) is an incredible superb enrichment and adds so stunningly massive lot to the songs, yes, it's just a complete and total "Wow!!!"-factor cultivating it all even more. This is absolutely unique music, incredible soul- and playful, coming from the heart, speaking out of the soul, with a clear and conscious skilled mind, and absolutely timeless like we're not so often able to experience it still today, for sure, and it is also extremly esthetic (and this in all positive sense), yes, this is surely 'true art'. And also, of course, expect tons of just breathtaking guitars, absolutely amazing vocals, and a fascinating work of the high skilled rhythm section, beside all the other outstanding great elements and ingredients of ELOY's "THE VISION, THE SWORD AND THE PYRE - PART ONE" that I already mentioned above before (at least I tried to do so). And that this guys are phenomenal musicians I also mention here but only for the record, yes, because this should be clear anyhow anyway. I think (or at least I do hope so) that to the phenomenal arranged and composed, highly diverse and much varying, 'proggy'n'complicated' and yet still absolutely amazing flowing and all the time comprehensible songwriting I also said quite a bit to quite a lot above and what the pretty unique focus of it all is and what dominates and shines perhaps the most and all this, yes, so please read above so that I don't have to repeat myself here and now so that this anyhow 'large monster' of a review grows not anyhow too big after all... okay, let us for a moment here and now act so like this wouldn't be the case already, yes... Because to repeat myself would maybe also prevent me from also praising the lyrical and in general the artistic approach and concept of ELOY's "THE VISION, THE SWORD AND THE PYRE - PART ONE", and this would suck, yes, definitely, because this album is the first of a two albums (and also a book) spanning storytelling of the lifestory and the timeline of the events of the historical as well as mystical and anyhow inspirational and sort of 'enlightening' figure and person that is or maybe better that was Jean D'Arc, the Virgin of Orleans. And this is done absolutely amazing and also 'outstandingly-awesome' with a lot of fantastic done elements that reminiscent a lot of audiobooks and the stylistic devices that are used there for the storytelling and here on "THE VISION, THE SWORD AND THE PYRE - PART ONE" ELOY really succesful and in a massively impressive way manage to work this all beautifully flowing into their music, oh yes, and this is absolutely magnificent and enchanting on a larger than life level and scale. The gorgeous artwork is a perfect match to this all, as well as the warm and natural, organic and yet clear production sound. After this is a concept album I definitely won't name you my favorites and this simply because it wouldn't make any sense after all, yes, because do yourself the favour and listen to ELOY's "THE VISION, THE SWORD AND THE PYRE - PART ONE" in its whole shining and beautiful, nearly magical glory and this repeatedly, yes, make sure to do so and this best again and again, for sure, period. Okay, so far I think... ah, I could go on and on talking about and praising ELOY's "THE VISION, THE SWORD AND THE PYRE - PART ONE"... damn it... but, okay, I think I anyhow sort of definitely need to have to come finally to a close of/with this very review here and now, hm, and so just let me say that I won't name you no anyhow comparable bands and albums because there are absoultely none that come to my mind that strong and especially unique is this album, point and fact, maybe just a very, very, very little bit the intense and atmospheric 'soundscapes' that ELOY create again and again here on "THE VISION, THE SWORD AND THE PYRE - PART ONE" are very, very slightly here and there reminiscent of or somehow comparable to PINK FLOYD, hm, maybe, but I'm not so sure about it after all. Anyhow, my last words here and now are that this very one here is one of the biggest or hugest surprises that I discovered this very year of 2017 and I can only massively, strongly, and highly recommend this to any of you open minded Rock lovers out there, yes, one of the definite very best and also most unique albums of this year of 2017, without a doubt, so just go and get it if you still shouldn't have it, why-ever, and this best instantly, period; and I'm looking enthusiastically forward to ELOY releasing "THE VISION, THE SWORD, AND THE PYRE - PART TWO" finally soon in 2018.

(10 of 10 points)

http://eloy-legacy.com/eloy2.php (-the link to the homepage of the band)

Official 2017 album teaser: ELOY - "THE SWORD, THE VISION AND THE PYRE - PART ONE" (2017)