ADONIS

An excelent work from the late 70´s from this german band, with very clear influences mainly from Camel and Genesis (it seems to me that for any fan of these two bands would be impossible not also to love Anyone´s Daughter), and still very original. All the band members are very skilled at their instruments and the vocals from Harald Bareth are simply brilliant, very emotional and strong. The suite Adonis, that takes the whole A side, is generally considered the pick of the album, consisting of 4 parts. It is for me very clear the influence of Tangerine Dream (" Cyclone") on part 3, "Adonis", on the keyboards at the instrumental middle section, a detail that i´ve never heard anyone mentioning. The last part of the suite, "Epitah" has a quite complex harmonic structure that, unlike the other tracks, requires several listennings till one aprehends the whole lenght of the melody. It ends with probably the most emotional guitar solo i´ve ever heard. Side two starts with an amazing melody played solo on the mini-moog which develops to some wonderful and very melancholic variations on the lead guitar, returning then to the first theme with the complete band. "Sally" is a quite decent track, but doesn´t really fit in the quality and style of the other ones, it seems like a break in the album, and is the main reason for me not to give 5 stars. The album ends with a Killer, a 9:00 self-titled song with radical changes in moods, from very sad and melancholic in the beginning to an explosion of virtuality and extreme good taste, mainly on the guitar and hammond. Excelent and very emotional prog, highly recommended!