Review by Brian McGowan

A reissue of the 1994 release, remastered and bearing a bonus in the form of a remix of the title track.

As probably one of the most accessible Eloy releases, it’s worthy of reconsideration some 17 years later.Thanks to the persistence of some minor labels and a huge coterie of fans worldwide, Melodic Rock has enjoyed a progressive resurgence through the last decade.

Eloy’s singular Progrock sound may never have indulged in close bodily contact with the Melodic Rock genre, but with ‘The Tides Return Forever’, the music leans to within whispering distance. And that’s reason enough for a re-release today. Yet, if anything, the spatial keyboards and pealing Floydian guitars, combined with the other worldly, Yes like harmonies of opener ‘The Day of Crimson Skies’ confirm we’re listening to classic Eloy.

That’s further emphasised by the lengthy, symphonic groove of ‘Fatal Illusions’. This is a cracking track hung on a sturdy melodic rock framework, built on solid progrock ground, where a spectral, Borneman vocal incantation unfolds slowly over the ebb and flow of an ocean of keyboards and a primal rhythmic beat.

It’s just beaten to the line as the album’s standout by the title track, if only because of a bizarre (but successful) marriage of arthouse rock to sweet soul music. The decision to inject Jocelyn B. Smith’s stylish, passionate soulful vocals some four and a half minutes in was inspired.

A similar trick is used on ‘Company Of Angels’, using guest vocalist, Miriam Stockley and a huge choir. Their inclusion succeeds in giving a distinctly teutonic progressive rock song a universal dimension and in general, gives the band’s sound a fresh dynamic.

Talking of which, Bornemann’s remastering of the title track reveals a richness of sound not immediately obvious on the original version, and astutely avoids sacrificing the track’s dynamics on the altar of loudness.

Throughout the album his lyrics remain oblique but seem preoccupied with dying and dystopian futures. Only the Gilmour-esque tribute to his mother, ‘Childhood Memories’, full of poetic observations, suggests anything close to a positive state of mind.