This record is a potentially satanic release before Heavy Metal did that sort of thing with the likes of bands such as Slayer. This album is a unique turning point in the history of music. Yes, it is based on the chapter of Revelations in the Bible, and yes, it does have music evocative of the era itself, but it is much more than that. Pioneering after the spirit of famous films of the time, and The Beatles Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) and The Who’s Tommy (1969) and is a double-disc concept album in the vein of both Psychedelic Rock and Progressive Rock, and the album is also known as The Apocalypse Of John 13/18. Notably, it features the legendary keyboardist and instrumentalist Vangelis as well. It is based on a strange concept of the final chapter of the Bible, and deliberately intends to begin as a Hippie circus sideshow based on the Revelation chapter, whilst the real apocalypse goes down and the two events merge into one. A weird idea for many at the time, but this album is now widely revered as a Classic Album. This was the group’s last album; however and after its mixed reception, they fell apart. Recorded at Studio Europa Sonar in Paris during 1970 and 1971, it was eventually released in June 1972. Aphrodite’s Child consisted of: Evangelos “Vangelis” Odysseas Papathanassiou (keyboards, electronics and vocals); Artemios Ventouris Roussos (vocals, bass guitar, guitars and trumpet); Loukas Sideras (drums and vocals) and Anargyros “Silver” Koulouris (guitars and percussion). Let’s have a listen to this album, and we shall judge if it is indeed a satanic product.

1. The System begins with a bunch of profane chanting and launches into a dramatic set of music. It quickly segues into the next track, only being 23 seconds long.

2. Babylon launches into it, with some upbeat guitar and crowd cheering. It launches into a dramatic song section that sounds interesting and glorious throughout. An awesome tune, it has some sweet horn sections and a generally awesome music vibe throughout. The music here is really fantastic to listen to, with a stream of consciousness lyrical singing and performance throughout. Absolutely awesome music to hear, this is influenced heavily by the mammoth concept albums of the late 1960s and early 1970s. It has a sweet and interesting instrumental section at the end, with some amazing electric guitar playing and crashing drums. Top. It ends with a loud crowd cheering.

3. Loud, Loud, Loud begins with some monumental and pretty piano playing, which sounds awesome. Some female vocals sing on this tune, and are followed by some gorgeous harmony vocals that sound really great. This is a different-sounding song, which is a modern attempt at updating the final section of the Bible to the early 1970s. This does sound musically fantastic, all the same. A great symphonic tune that needs to be heard more often by people who need to hear some music history. Great. A simple, pretty listen, and whispered vocals and piano finish this off sweetly. Some jangling chimes segue this track into the next one ahead.

4. The Four Horsemen continues with the jangling chimes and launches into a fantastic and pleasant tune that progresses the concept and story of the album. It sounds deep, mystical and magical to listen to. A really stunning tune that is beautiful, amazing and underrated. Soon enough, drums enter, and this tune gets going very nicely. For anyone familiar with Christian theory, this will be a great listen for you. The sounds and structure rival Jimi Hendrix’s efforts on his Electric Ladyland (1968) album release. This sounds smooth, lovely and wonderful throughout. If this album deserves an award, it is for the most underrated double concept album ever. Soon enough, this progresses nicely into loud drums and fantastic singing, which tells the tale of the Four Horsemen and the colours that they represent. In the middle of the track is a fantastic guitar solo that is an absolute winner to hear, along with excellent harmonies. Wah-wah is applied to the guitar solos as well. A fantastic and gorgeously evocative listening experience from start to finish. This continues on nicely into the second half, and sounds melodic, Psychedelic and very enjoyable overall. A winner of a tune. This is a superb Classic Rock tune that reveals that, yes indeed, there were some musically historical moments decades ago, not just at the present. A solid and totally enjoyable listen from start to finish. It ends after nearly six minutes in length with a nice fade-out.

5. The Lamb fades in with acoustic guitars, basslines, drums and a bit of a strange Indian vibe to it all. Again, this sounds extremely fantastic to listen to. This is very much reflecting the Hippie spirit of sound and music as such. The melodies point to the East, and it sounds like something deeply inspired by George Harrison’s experimental Indian flavoured tracks during the latter period of The Beatles. This is a fantastic instrumental that showcases a glorious and unique musical quality. The harmonies sound brilliant, too. The use of organ sounds is also very, very good to hear. A very magical listen, and the guitars, organ and bass guitar sound amazing throughout. An absolute treasure of a listening experience. A very adventurous and fantastic listening experience. This is truly a great piece of music from a timeless album. The guitars and keyboards sound perfect on this tune. A truly great instrumental, it ends with some guitar arpeggios and interesting keyboard sounds to match. The final guitar strums are sweet.

6. The Seventh Seal is not Van Halen’s opening song from their own Balance (1995) album. Instead, it is a sweet mixture of eastern instrumentation, piano, and some glorious wind instrument sounds. This is very much gorgeously unique, and has some spoken word dialogue, taken directly from the Bible itself. A very awesome listen, and it is like Oasis, Biblical. An awesome tune.

7. Aegian Sea begins with twinkling instrumentation, guitars and keyboards in particular that sound symphonic. This has some processed vocal harmonies that eventually enter, and this tune sounds like yet another music masterpiece. Drums enter, and this tune gets going nicely with memorable and fantastic melodies to boot. The melodic harmonies are great, as are the cymbal hits. This sounds deep and meaningful in a musical sense. The drumming returns, and this tune comes nicely alive. A fantastic and monumental listening experience that does work incredibly well. A truly great listen. Very reassuring. Some spoken word dialogue from the Bible with down-pitched vocals over Rock Music follows. Regardless of whether you are for or against Christianity, this is an awesome listen to hear. The guitars throughout are mellow and sweet, too. A captivating listening experience from beginning to end. It wraps up with some additional instrumentation and clean, clear neck pickup Fender Stratocaster-sounding work. Top. It finishes with some sweet electronics.

8. Seven Bowls begins with some unusual electronics and some wind chimes. Soon enough, this launches into a great and interesting tune that sounds dark, devilish and demonic, for music of its sort. It has some strange chanting throughout, and is a freaky listen for this sort of album. Awesome nonetheless. A brilliant but freaky listen. It segues into the next track.

9. The Wakening Beast launches into more distorted wind chimes and sounds very odd indeed. This is another short, intermissionary piece that continues the story of Revelations. A dark and disturbing listen, but it is supposed to be. It ends after a minute with some soft background sounds.

10. Lament continues on from the previous track with more dark and disturbing sounds, with some wordless Indian styled vocal harmonies. This sounds deep and fascinating, and is evocative of the human spirit. Some further wordless harmonies enter, and this tune sounds very humane, yet dark. This continues the impressive and disturbing psychological nature to it all. A fantastic and emotional listen, this album is indeed rather satanic in its own way, if you think about it. The harmony-based singing is a great listen, all the same. Brilliant to listen to. The dark and disturbing instrumentation is ahead of its time.

11. The Marching Beast begins with some interesting music and sleigh bells to match it. It continues into an ascending/descending pseudo-Psychedelic piece, with flute sections added to it all. This has some upbeat piano and dark sentiment to it all. This is brave, bold and (for the time) new music territory that creates a sense of music to end times, if you believe in God or anything the Bible says. Nonetheless, the piano here is extremely good, as is the atonal saxophone. A very wonderful effort to listen to. It builds up nicely at the end, with the piano finishing it off and seguing into the next track.

12. The Battle Of The Locusts launches quickly into a Jimi Hendrix-inspired wah-wah guitar tune with some awesome shredding and an excellent rhythm section to compete with it. A short and sweet listen that continues the concept of this album and its story. Top stuff. It segues into the next track.

13. Do It is a wonderful jam section of music that continues the progression and flow of this album. It sounds amazing and fantastic throughout, and is very reflective of the sort of music that, again, Jimi Hendrix would have made if he had survived beyond 1970. A really glorious sounding tune that has a vocal simply stating, “Do it!” followed by some amazing music to match that. This is a truly inspiring listen. Sweet.

14. Tribulation is a short and different saxophone music piece. A really fantastic tune to listen to. It has a gorgeous sound, though and is only just over 30 seconds long.

15. The Beast is a bombastic tune that sounds amusing and quirky. A wicked tune that progresses the nature and the story of the Bible. It has some wonderful guitar work and piano to match it all, alongside some intricate drum work as well. Cool, calm and clever. This is the Rock Opera equivalent of the Bible, complete with drama and maximum impact for the listener. Quirky and excellent listening, this is more of an instrumental than a song in itself. A really cool tune to listen to, this has some interesting music to match it all. Very cool, the guitar playing in particular is worth noting. It leads into the next tune.

16. Ofis is the final track of side one. It has some mock spoken word dialogue of a Church preacher and finishes after only 14 seconds.

DISC TWO:

1. Seven Trumpets begins with a vocal introduction to this side of the album with a circus-style presenter voice. It sounds amazing and is a glorious start to the second half of the album.

2. Altamont launches into a thunderous piece of wonderful Classic Rock. It has organs galore, and rolls on into a sweet and interesting piece of Rock Music. Some nice vocal harmonies enter, and this song sounds like a decent piece of music, even if there are no actual words at this point. It continues to march on with some great band work, especially with the drums and percussion. An absolutely awesome tune to listen to. This sounds like a very enjoyable listen. It breaks down into a saxophone-led, King Crimson-style song section with glorious and multitracked instrumentation. It is really fantastic to listen to. Perhaps Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails was taking some notes from this album? In any case, it really does sound awesome and fantastic to listen to. The saxophone soloing is absolutely fantastic. Some sampled spoken words follow, from the Bible itself. A winner of a song. This is a great tune to hear. This tune is a great and inspired listen for those of you who want a different take on Christianity. Great effort, and it quickly leads into the next track.

3. The Wedding Of The Lamb has some keyboards galore, rolling drums and sounds very much like a film set to music. This instrumental is a great exercise in the newer technologies and recording processes of the time, further adding to this Classic Album status. A really awesome and awe-inspiring listen throughout. The drumming in particular is interesting. This shifts the story and music along very nicely indeed. Soon enough, the pounding drums resume, and this piece continues on its enjoyable instrumental journey. The saxophone and vocal harmonies are also a nice touch. A real music treat, if you are up for it all. Sensationally good, even today. The keyboard washes throughout are very good. It has an extended keyboard solo section that has multiple sections towards the end, before gradually concluding with drumming and spoken word vocals of the song title. Awesome. It finishes up leading into the next track.

4. The Capture Of The Beast begins with a vocal, followed by awesome sleigh bells, keyboards and exciting drumming that is very much like The Beatles song The End from their Abbey Road (1969) album. It sounds really suspenseful, exciting and interesting as such. A fantastic listening experience with layers of keyboards and electronics to match it. This is not 100% satanic. Instead, this is a superb rendition of the story of the Bible, although Christian listeners will not dig this interpretation of it. All the same, the music and musicianship are in top form, with some interesting sounds that The Chemical Brothers would be jealous of. It wraps up with hi-hats, bongo drums and a soft finish.

5. 00 – Infinity Symbol features Irene Papas and begins with some interesting percussion and some spoken word dialogue with some strange vocal recitations that sound like the demonic equivalent of sexual activity. This leads gradually into a buildup and increasing urgency of sexually based tone in the vocals. A really cool listen that continues that sounds very unusual, to be fair. A weird listening experience, but it is part of the story at hand. Unusual music with some weird motives behind it all. This leads into a piece of silence with just the vocals at hand. It centres around the vocals at this point, and sounds very unusual. This is a very dark-sounding tune. Eventually, this leads to a set of pounding drums, and this becomes prominent towards the end, before the vocals return. Very, very weird to hear. It sounds like some demonic sex chanting. It eventually launches into a furious conclusion of sexual energy and wraps up with pounding drums and chanting. Weird.

6. Hic And Nunc has some interesting keyboards and roaring applause. This leads into a dramatic sounding Rock Music tune with some great singing, saxophone, piano and Rock Music backing. “Here and now!” is chanted by the audience as well. A really great listen with some sweet and tuneful singing throughout. A glorious piece of songcraft, with some neat piano throughout. Some loud chanting then emerges, alongside the music at hand. This has a really adventurous and awesome music spirit that sounds really cool. A fantastically awesome piece of music to listen to. This has some neat guitar playing towards the end that sounds descriptively great to listen to. It fades out nicely at the end.

7. All The Seats Were Occupied runs for over 19 minutes in length. It begins with a fade-in of an organ, and sounds great. This softly evolves with some neat electric guitar and organ work throughout. It sounds very deep and suspenseful throughout, continuing the wonderful nature of this album. This sounds very pleasant from a Classic Rock listener’s perspective. This continues on the overall music feel and concept, with some drum parts and more clanking percussion sounds. This is exactly the sort of album that one who digs Classic Rock from the Psychedelic/Progressive listening experience needs to hear. Eventually, this gets into a sturdy instrumental that sounds absolutely excellent to listen to. This continues with a great and variable jam throughout. It follows the awesome and explorative story throughout this double-disc concept album. The bass guitar sounds distorted and heavy throughout as well. A genuinely fantastic listen from start to finish. This sounds totally awesome and divine. A saxophone is thrown into the mix as well. Some samples of sound emerge throughout from earlier on in the album, as a stream of consciousness of listening. This builds up sensationally into a glorious anti-climax, before this instrumental adds bongo drums and other sections of sounds. Provided you have the patience for this sort of music, you are easily rewarded as a listener. Some excellent Fender Stratocaster work is present on this tune, and it evolves to a higher state of mind. Soon enough, this breaks down into a symphony of sound and vocal samples with sleigh bells and other collections of sound. There is no doubt that this album is heavily influenced by Psychedelic Rock as well. Towards the middle, we launch into a superb and timeless jam section that sounds really brilliant to hear. Some really great Fender Stratocaster-style sounds are present. Some more samples from prior to this song from this album emerge, and this tune sounds very beautiful with its keyboards and vocal harmonies. A really awesome listen throughout. This certainly has a motion picture feel of art to it all. The midsection has some strange sounds throughout, which indeed sound dark and warped. Like a bad LSD trip, one can hear recollections of sound and warped vision throughout. Despite that description, this music is absolutely brilliant to listen to. It gradually builds up into a sweet second half with guitar riffing galore and nice drumming to match. A powerful and moving piece of music that sounds extremely cool to listen to. This summarises everything that came before it all, and it sounds like an epic recollection of amazing music. After a while, the music becomes a mish-mash of sounds and recollective samples throughout. This is a very interesting listen. Soon enough, bongos, drums and bass guitar lead into a Fender Stratocaster-based section that sounds really cool and brilliant to listen to. A very great music statement. This continues to progress and evolve nicely in a storytelling fashion. This is the sort of music that should appeal to many Rock Music fans out there. It launches into a keyboard-led groove that sounds fantastic and monumental throughout. There is nothing quite like this in the history of music. An absolutely enjoyable tune, the fragments from earlier in the album return, becoming a visionary piece that is heard rather than seen. If you have musical synaesthesia, this will work wonders for you. It builds up to a bongo rush frenzy, as the band continues to play on nicely. As we gradually progress on, the main tune at hand returns to be heard. A truly stunning listening experience to behold. Eventually, a fluttering saxophone and other instrumentation are heard, and it sounds amazing. This is intellectual Rock Music for those of you who truly enjoy taking this form of music to a higher state of mind. All in all, a very amazing piece of conclusive music from this album. As this approaches the end, mixes and samples of the album fade in and out throughout it all. This leads back into the extended music piece at hand. As we gradually draw to a close, drums and percussion lead the way, and this sounds fantastic. This leads into a drum solo section with flourishes of trippy keyboards. Very, very awesome to listen to. This piece gradually concludes with some trippy fragments of sound to match metallic-sounding bongos. Way ahead of its time. The song title is then quoted, and this launches into a dramatic and noisy conclusion throughout. Absolutely awesome. It finishes with a surge of sounds and is really brilliant throughout. Solidly good work.

8. Break is the final track on this double album. It begins with a reversed piano and a forward piano meshed together. It is a sweet song that concludes this monumental album nicely. It is a good conclusion to finish off the madness that has preceded it. A joyous and uplifting tune with some powerfully beautiful singing. This is the human conclusion to the nature of Revelations itself. A great musical interpretation of what is to come, be it that you believe in Jesus, matched to some more Jimi Hendrix-style wah-wah guitar. A really golden moment to conclude an equally golden album. It concludes with the band bidding the listener farewell. A sweet tune to listen to. A solid gold music piece to listen to throughout. Enjoyable. It concludes with “Do it!” being stated.

This is a classic album, without a doubt. It showcases an effortless and brilliant masterpiece that isn’t as satanic as one may think. Instead, it is an awesome and fine storytelling of the last chapter of the Bible in a realistic and lovable way. The mixture of music, concept, art and storytelling makes this an underrated and underappreciated album that must be heard by more out there. Should you listen to this album? If you are not strictly Christian or satanic, this is definitely worth listening to for a great snapshot of the best music from the early 1970s. Fans of Punk bands such as the Ramones will likely despise this album, however.

High art for humanity.

9/10

Best tracks: The Four Horsemen, All The Seats Were Occupied