WER WILL

Great to notice that Prog Archives is adding more and more smaller and unknown bands. Anabis is German band that made three albums between 1980 and 1988, this one is my favorite and pressed on red vinyl with a 'fold out cover' (those good old days!).

1 - Alles in eines Hauses Leben (6:15)

This catchy and alternating track features a dynamic rhythm-section (inventive drums, powerful bass sound), strong and expressive German vocals (funny lyrics), great guitar soli (from sensitive to fiery and howling). A very convincing starter!

2 - Ich will (5:33)

The intro features spectacular synthesizer runs, then a propulsive rhythm with strong vocals, this man gives every track an extra dimension! Halfway we hear a sensational synthesizer solo and then enthousiastic interplay between the vocals and a fiery electric guitar.

3 - Die Rosa Brille (4:45)

A mellow, bit dreamy atmosphere with soft vocals and twanging guitars. Slowly the climate becomes more bombastic with a sensitive electric guitar solo. This song has pleasant echoes from mid-GENESIS.

4 - Der Kritiker (4:22)

A mid-tempo featuring dynamic and powerful accellarations with great soli on synthesizer and harder-edged guitar.

5 - Genethiker (4:15)

Another dynamic mid-tempo track with strong vocals (cynical philosophical lyrics), a sensational synthesizer solo and a short but exciting guitar-synthesizer duel.

6 - Das Zünglein an der Waage (17:08)

The intro from this final composition features wonderful mellow synthesizers, a bit spacey with fat and spectacular sounds. Then twanging guitars and a cheerful, catchy rhythm with pleasant synthesizer runs, fiery electric guitar licks and again strong, expressive German vocals. The atmosphere sounds dynamic, due to the great rhythm- section and fine shifting moods, from mellow with twanging guitars to bombastic with strong work on guitar and keyboards. This is the most symphonic (mid-GENESIS inspired) track and in my opinion Anabis at their pinnacle.

IF YOU ARE UP TO GERMAN VOCALS, THIS ALBUM IS AN EXCELLENT ADDITION!!

Anabis - Wer Will (1982)

Here we have an album that is very hard to rate. To put it simply; I don't like it, but I can't find big flaws in the compositions, recording and professional sound of the band. It's just the band's vision that is totally not original.

Anabis tries to give an eighties approach to the early Genesis sound, and that's about it. The vocalist, although singing in German, tries to have the same voice as Gabriel. The compositions are Genesis like, but one can also hear the modern eighties influences: modern synth sound and a modern clean recording. Some of the lyrics seem to be a bit childish in my opinion, but the copycat style of lead vocalist Holger Sann are the main problem. If they had to copy Genesis so badly, why do is less sophisticated and more poppy? Most of their ideas are quite simple, but they make it sound like it's a bombastic idea of greatness. Having that said; the guitars are still nice, the keys are Ok and the rest of band is up to the task. The vision is just not that good, early Genesis would never have sounded very good in the eigthies...

Conclusion. By no means a bad album, some songs are quite nice, but the non-original approach of the band makes me feel like this is very unimportant for most of our progcollections. Two stars.

Some bands produce one album and one would have hoped for more, while others produce many but should have stopped at three or four, but ANABIS is of another ilk. This 80s German symphonic group managed to eke out 3 releases out of which only one ("Wer Will") could be elevated to below average grade at best. At a time when ELOY, ANYONE's DAUGHTER, AMENOPHIS, P'COCK, and NOVALIS were all actually defying gravity, "Anabis" seemed to be going through the motions with beguilingly mundane vocal-oriented synth rock and only sprinklings of inspiration.

"Wer Will" is certainly their best, due in no small measure to the 17 minute "Das Zünglein an der Waage", which combines TANGERINE DREAM and GENESIS sensibilities with a dash of CAMEL-styled guitar. By no means a lost classic, it does demonstrate some natural progressive talent. At the other end of the spectrum is the more concise "Der Kritiker" which also channels Mr Latimer. For the rest, we are cursed with a teutonic SUPERTRAMP and FOREIGNER hybrid, and did I mention the nearly incessantly grating vocalizings of "Holger Sann"? Perhaps the lyrics are interesting but on ANYONE DAUGHTER's "Neu Sterne" the melodies and compositions stood by themselves. Sadly, this is not at all the case on "Wer Will".

It's hard to imagine anyone but a German symphonic completist needing "Wer Will". But actually, that would be me, and I have little use for it. Comparisons to ELOY and GENESIS amount to a disservice to those groups and their fans. Still, if after all that, you feel you must acquire one of ANABIS's ultra tepid efforts, this is arguably the best.