666

 

    Continuing my yearly tradition of reviewing Aphrodite's Child on Christmas Eve is their third and final album 666. This is their most well known and critically acclaimed album, and uh, yeah it deserves it. The album is a massive improvement over their last showing with It's Five O'Clock, returning with as much bombastic energy, slow sorrow, and experimental weirdness that was present in End of the World, but now tenfold to deliver an even better product. Every compliment that I paid to their first album is the same here. 666 is a pseudo-concept album, as it tells the story of the Book of Revelations; I'm not religious and haven't read the Book of Revelations, but the 'story' that this album tells is perfectly suited to the band's weird and psychedelic sound, with how cryptic and trippy some of the material can be. In addition, the band has majorly improved their sound that they've established, increasing their quality and complexity, while also incorporating elements from numerous other genres that perfectly mix with what they were already doing. The entire album comes out as a big mish-mash of combined, shuffled, and twisted instruments, styles, rhythms, etc. and it all works flawlessly. The over an hour long runtime of the album (and even the 19 minute instrumental near the end) pass by in no time at all because of how captivating and amazing the music is. I already liked what this band had to offer, and this being their final work is an amazing way to end off.

    Highlights: Babylon, The Four Horsemen, The Lamb, Aegian Sea, The Battle of the Locusts, Do It, All The Seats Were Occupied, Break.

Rating: 6/6