FROM GENESIS TO REVELATION

This is certainly one of my own favorite underdog records! Some of the songs here are very good, though there are also evidently non-essential tracks included. Some of the duller ones may also have nice parts, but I'll focus on my favorite tunes.

"In The Beginning" has a nice aggressive feeling in it, with straightforward acoustic guitars, and Peter is doing preachy vocals about the creation of man: "It has begun, you're in the hands of destinyyyYYYY!". The song begins with strange organ sounds, and is a quite good one really. "The Serpent" continues with the biblical genesis-themed lyrics. There's a very funny chorus going from one single note behind the singing at the verse, which I found as really pleasant detail. There are also no orchestrations and only little of keyboards used on the song. "In The Wilderness" is also a great performance, Peter gets to do some powerful singing, and the composition is nice, leading to interesting spheres of moods. "The Conqueror" has gospel-oriented feelings, achieved with acoustic piano and guitar driving the song towards, and Peter is again singing about "The day of justice". I don't find it surprising this LP was first sold in sixties at slots of religious record instead of pop, as I think it is such to a very high degree from lyrical and emotional aspects. As counterpart for this, I also have the satanic albums of Black Widow on my record shelf, so they can counterbalance each other, and do some physical fighting when people are not witnessing it. "Window" has also very peculiar feeling of The Genesis sound in its beginning, though it's a quite dull song otherwise. "Silent Sun" was some sort of hit I believe, and it sounds like it, slightly boring tune.

I have this as DCC re-release, so I have heard some of the bonus tracks. There's a small funny detail at least in my copy, "Silent Sun" is named as "Silent Gun" in the track listing. I'm not sure why it's also here as a bonus track. Maybe the re-releasers thought these are two different songs 'cause of this error, or there might be some unnoticeable tiny differences in the mix? It could be also a B-side of a single, named just differently. "A Winter's Tale" is great song with dual layered vocals, which in some parts have different lyrics, just like in the song "Fountain of Salmacis" to be recorded few years later.

I wouldn't recommend this as the first Genesis album except to those who like only 1960's music. But when one is familiar with the band's music, it's nice to find elements of their style yet in their birth process. These songs have very often some short piece of playing not related to the actual song in them, and there are also some fade-outs and various post-production stuff detected, which are probably producers ideas. Well, there are also some more songs from this era on the "Archive - vol.1" CD-box, if you want to check them out.