EXODUS

This particular album is a delight, with three bonus tracks to boot. I was skeptical of their symphonic prog claims after hearing the opening "Ci wybrani" which sounds a bit more like discordant avant-garde music influenced by the likes of Zappa and maybe Vanilla Fudge. Good music, but not what I was expecting for sure.

Things change dramatically with the opening strands of "Stary Noe", and the rest of the album shows a band quite skilled and comfortable with making the most of their collective skills. The delicate 12-string guitar and brassy percussion blend beautifully with the ranging alto vocals of Pawel Birula and keyboard sounds of Wladyslaw Komendarek. I've no idea what the Polish lyrics are all about but it really doesn't matter as the band delivers a solid composition with more than a little folk influence.

The nest two tracks "Zloty promien slonca" and "Widok Z góry najwyzszej" are more energetic with plenty of electric guitar and at times a pair of synthesizers, while Birula continues to strum along on acoustic guitar and provide lead vocals (though there are at least two other vocalists on both songs).

The original vinyl release closed with the nearly twenty-minute long "Ten najpiekniejszy dzien", a driving epic with enough tempo shifts to make your head spin while delivering complex electric guitar riffs, lush keyboard forays and plenty of heavy organ passages. This one is truly a classic symphonic rock composition and is worthy of inclusion in just about any collection that represents mid- to late seventies symphonic prog rock.

As far as the bonus CD tracks go, "Ponury Pejzaz" and "W Kalendarzu mojego Zycia" are heavier than most of the rest of the album and sound a bit Krautrock-influenced, while "Uspokojenie" qualifies as a rock ballad with just a bit of electric guitar bite to keep things interesting.

I wish I knew more about these guys and will definitely seek out some of their other recordings. As for this one I recommend it highly to both classic symphonic rock fans as well as students of Soviet-era Polish music. Four stars out of five for sure.

peace

"Ci Wybrani" opens with lots of keyboards then we get a guitar solo before a minute followed by vocals. Not a fan at all of the vocals on this tune. More guitar 3 1/2 minutes in.Thunder and rain end it. "Stary Noe" is much better with the gentle guitar and reserved vocals. Vocal melodies come and go. "Zloty Promien Slonca" is brighter and more uptempo. Synths come to the fore 1 1/2 minutes in. Guitar before 3 minutes.

"Widok Z Gory Najwyzszej" opens with what sounds like theremin or else very spacey synths. Gentle guitar joins in around a minute then vocals. Those spacey synths come and go throughout on this mellow track. "Ten Najpiekniejszy Dzien" is the over 19 minute side long closing suite. It opens with guitar and synths. It's building as drums join in. Vocals after 2 1/2 minutes. It settles with synths before 6 1/2 minutes. Vocals are back before 9 minutes. It picks up with guitar around 14 minutes. Spacey synths a minute later as it settles again. Reserved vocals after 16 minutes. Vocal melodies before 18 1/2 minutes.

I really like the second track through to the fourth song but the opening tune and to some extent the closing track aren't quite up to par. Still a good album that is close to four stars. 3.5 stars for now.

In 1980 they released the first album "The Most Beautiful Day" where they placed a few shorter lyrical tracks and 20-minute great title suite. So, Exodus came out into picture around the same time with Marillion, IQ, Pallas and pendragon. At that time no one claimed a music like neo-progressive even though this album reminds me so (with more symphonic prog, actually).

The main attraction of this album is its Polish language being used as lyrics. It makes the music much joyful compared with if the music is in English. The first track "Ci wybrani" (4:42) serves like a hard rock music with raw drumming sounds. But the next track changes to a bit like "I Believe in Father Christmas" of ELP, especially on the way acoustic guitar is used nicely here. "Zloty promien slonca" (5:15)with its long sustain multi-layered keyboards makes a nice symphonic prog music. "Widok Z góry najwyzszej" (5:45) explores Hackettian guitar with keyboard solo. The music flows mellow with keyboard and nice melody while guitar fills dominate the rhythm section. The attention is probably on the epic "Ten najpiekniejszy dzien" which consumes 19:20 minutes of duration. This epic makes this album truly an excellent one with its energy, dynamics and multi-structure of the composition. You might find the music in a similar vein with Steve Hackett's early works like "Please Don't Touch" or "Voyage of The Acolyte" with some flavors of Genesis. Even though influences from other bands are unavoidable, but the composition is really excellent. There are many music breaks in symphonic style using long sustain keyboard work.

Overall, I conclude that this is an excellent addition to any prog music collection. Polish rules! Keep on proggin' .brothers!!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW (i-Rock! Music Community)

For fiveteen track only two are good - Intro and A to planeta. It contains remains of old prog-symphonic style showed for example at The Most Beautiful Day. And rest... Is simply weak, or for fans of synth pop. Well, I'm not, so I didn't like it at all. Only Anioł stróż was over the rest.

Lyris are pretty good on Hazard, but music is awful (exept two first track). Well, maybe good that band splited two years afrter recording Hazard in 1983. They didn't have opportunity to get more worst... 1,5 stars.

It is a good album, in my opinion. The best are two first tracks - little suites Nadzieje, niepokoje and Oda do nadziei. Then comes the middle of album, which is a little weaker. Pieśń na drogę, Wspinaczka and Powiedz mi Różo are quite good songs, yet not as good as the rest of album. Buta at the end we got growth in form of instrumental track Gonitwa myśli and it's live version.

All in all Nadzieje, niepokoje is a good piece of progressive music. Too bad it wasn't released in 1977, it could be one of those better albums of socialist Europe.

Good album, importante for its history and has nice stuff in it. However, I´ll recommend you get their first record if you want to hear their symphonic side. 2.5 stars.

A very fine obscure pearl, that progheads should check out.

Excellent Progressive Rock with huge symphonic tendencies is the style on this album, not really representative of the country's sound, but definitely this effort belongs among the best Symphonic Rock releases around the time.The first side of the LP contains four mid-length tracks with evident GENESIS influences, mostly on the acoustic and synth parts.The arrangements are somewhere between a dreamy and a spacey atmosphere with strong use of keyboards, excellent and warm Polish vocals, dicreet use of guitars and lovely acoustic textures, while the sound has a beautiful, symphonic nature.The second side contains the sidelong 19-min. eponymous opus, divided in four movements.This is another example of great Symphonic Rock with some great interplays on the instrumental parts, nice breaks between pleasant and darker soundscapes and tremendous keyboard parts by Komendarek, this time including a few amazing organ and harsichord moves.The GENESIS influence is still apparent, even the guitar work of Andrzej Puczyński has a welcome HACKETT-ish touch, while the last movement offers a fantastic, grandiose atmosphere full of intricate melodies and bombastic keyboards.

The CD reissue of Metal Mind offers four bonus tracks, recorded in February 1980 at Polskie Radio Warszawa.They follow a similar style with the original album, dramatic, slightly spacey Symphonic Rock with acoustic guitars and synths in the forefront.

One of the most overlooked pearls of Symphonic Rock, recorded in a hard period for Progressive Rock.The album is full of delicate, elaborate arrangements and deserves certainly a wider fame among Prog fans.Highly recommended.

The only reason why didn't gave maximum stars to "The Most Beautiful Day" is that this album isn't any musical discovery. Exodus used in a perfect way the best influences from Western Europe bands.

It's hard to select the best track from this album become all of them present very high level. After the first listening the most memrable one is "Złoty Promień Słońca" ("Golden Ray of Sunshine") with strong Władysław Komendarek's synthesizer part and great singing of Paweł Biruła (named as Jon Anderson of Eastern Europe...). It's fantastic and very melodic song which could become real smash-hit if only somebody help this song with good promotion.

Władysław Komendarek didn't afraid to use synthesizer in a big scale. Almost all tracks even that more acoustical ones like "Stary Noe" ("The Old Noah") or "Widok z góry najwyższej" ("The View From The Highest Mountain") are filled with his JM Jarre (of "Oxygene"/"Equinoxe" era) soundlike keyboards.

After the listening of all "The Most Beautiful Day" tracks you will ask yourself a question: a little bit of other bands influences (like Genesis' in title suite) but how they made this music so original ?

Enjoy your listening.