THE MOST BEAUTIFUL DAY

Between 1977 and 1979 Exodus entered a very prolific period, full of live dates, while the group participated in different music events, scanning the whole Polish land.Towards the end of the decade they even wrote music for ballet shows.In March 1980 Exodus entered the studios of Polskie Nagrania and record what was to become the band's first official full-length release, the highly acclaimed ''The Most Beautiful Day''.

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.