ADONIS

ANYONE'S DAUGHTER were a legendary German band from the late 70's who managed to survive the pop/punk/dico wave that attacked prog rock by that period of time and released at least 5 decent workd ranging from recommended to trully essential grades of rating...1979 was really a bad year for progressive music.However in this year some bands gave the world a few reallt interesting releases.ANYONE'S DAUGHTER's ''Adonis'' was one of them.

Firstly I'd like to hail the excellent cover of this release.Adonis was a the most beautiful young man in the Greek Mythology.He was grown and educated by the goddesses Aphrodite and Persephone.He was also a very good hunter and liked to go hunting every now and then.One day he hunted a wild pig in the woods but the heavily wounded animal attacked Adonid and managed to kill him.The cover of the album is influenced by his myth and I really find very ''progressive'' the presence of the electric guitar nearby Adonis.

The album is of course dominated by the outstanding 24-min sidelong eponymous epic track.The influence of early- and mid-period GENESIS and YES is obvious in this work.The track opens with vocal and Hackett-ish riffs and conitinues for about 5 min. with ELOY space/symphonic music.Closing to the middle of the track the GENESIS instrumental passages along with the vocals return.Nice emotional keyboards and melodic solos follow resembling to IQ or MARILLION,a sound very close to the new wave of British prog rock that appeared a few years later.Heading to the 20 min. the bands show their skills with amazing flashy keyboard/guitar interplay,superb!The thrilling ending theme,aparting from smooth piano,emotional vocals and neo-proggish guitar soling,is the best closing for such a great track.

Side two consist of three also very nice tracks.''Blue house'' is a dramatic instrumental,first half of the track consists of almost mourning keyboard and piano work,becoming more romantic after the middle with the addition of the Hackett-influenced electric guitar.''Sally'' is a pleasant break to the some kind of depressive atmosphere of the album.This is a rocking ballad track that comes like a cross between THE BEATLES happiest moments and late 70's SUPERTRAMP.The album closes with the track that brings as a title the name of the band.Again we have to deal with a depressive keyboard/guitar solo opening that fastly transforms to a more accesible fusion style of instrumental work.By the middle of the track vocals are added so the tracks gets a more pleasant atmosphere.After the middle grows an excellent fusion/symphonic instrumental section very close to FOCUS or the italian bands of the 70's.The track closes with vocals again and an outstanding fast guitar solo.Well done!

As you have also assumed,this is a great work of prog rock of late 70's.If I had to give a negative point,it would go to the vocals of Harald Bareth ,which are just average.Fortunately this album contains a lot of amazing instrumental music,that is enough for you to overcome the weak vocal section...

In my opinion this is one of the best late 70's prog rock works and it would be a pitty if you don't add it to your collection.Thus I recommend ANYONE'S DAUGHTER'S debut to all.This isn't exactly a masterpiece but it gets over 4 stars by me in PA scale of rating...Enjoy music at its best form!