A Band Coming of Age

As others have noted, this album is a true departure from their first, "From Genesis To Revelation" and ushers in that beautifully haunting Grimm's fairy tale sound that is all their own. The recording features arguably two of Genesis' best songs,'The Knife'and 'Stagnation' as well as other gems like 'Looking For someone' which starkly launches the album with Peter Gabriel's Otis Redding influenced vocals.

This record is especially noteworthy in retrospect considering Anthony Phillips as the bands lead architect as both a guitarist and song writer. It took the group an Album or so the find their stride after he left during the beginning phases of "Nursery Cryme" a year later. The guitar and Keyboard interplay with Tony Banks is brilliant on the album and in particular on 'Stagnation'which features great musical conflict and resolution and wonderful melodic work from Tony Banks. Another nice touch on "Trespass" is the pure tone vocal harmony which is a nod the early British invasion groups that so shaped their sound. The majestic 'Visions of Angels' bears this influence and it really makes 'Dusk' function so well as a more traditional sounding song that does not vary from the aura of the work as a whole. It is a shame the band did not develop this further in subsequent albums but instead enlisted newcomer Phil Collins to contribute the ocasional brief single vocal harmony line. Check out "Odessey And Oracle" by the Zombies for their vocal harmonies as a more fleshed out example of of what could have been.

'Dusk' leads into the hard edged 'The Knife' which closes the album with a violent relentless musical onslaught. The piece is so powerful and yet takes on even new significance in light of September 11th 2001. Envision Bin Laden as the protagonist in the song.

This recording is thirty two years old and in spite of somewhat compressed sonic engineering, it still is original sounding and is a great musical companion to anything artistic.

An Excellent Piece of Music

I know I might get beat up on this, but I think this is one of Genesis (PG era) best recordings.. but I don't meant to take away from SEBTP or NC or LLDOB but this one holds wieght very well.



The way I look at it, if this was the only Genesis PG record ever made, and we had nothing to compare it to ... would it be good? I think it would be VERY GOOD. I like every song. 'Looking for Someone' 'White Mountain' all are great. A lot of people say KNIFE is the stand out, and it is very good, but I think the other songs are just as good.



Buy this CD and enjoy yourself.

Genesis came of age with its second album

Genesis' 1970 second album "Trespass" was a huge jump forward from "From Genesis to Revelation". The group went from being a collection of songwriters to a band. The album's sound quality isn't great, and lead guitarist Anthony Phillips and (especially) drummer John Mayhew aren't in the same league with Steve Hackett and Phil Collins, who joined for the next album. But you can hear all the pieces in place here for the band Genesis was to be over the next decade. This isn't the first Peter Gabriel-era Genesis album you should buy, but if you like early Genesis, you'll definitely want to pick this up eventually.

The album's closer, and show-stopper, is "The Knife", the hardest rocker on the album, which tells the story of a rebel leader willing to line his path to glory with the bodies of his supporters. "Some of you are going to die, martyrs of course for the freedom I shall provide." When I bought the album circa 1980, the song made me think of Iran's Khomeini; today it may remind you of Osama. In the early 80s, Genesis was performing revitalized live versions of their old songs. They did a shortened version of "The Knife" on the "Duke" tour. I'd dearly love to have heard their take on "Visions of Angels", one of the most unsung pieces in the Genesis repetoire. "Stagnation" is an example of the songwriting style that Hackett later called "songs that started out at point 'A' and occasionally ended at around point 'Q'". It goes through many changes, including a unique Tony Banks pitch-bending organ solo and a riff that you will recognize from live versions of "I Know What I Like". The album has more overdubs than most Genesis albums.

(1=poor 2=mediocre 3=pretty good 4=very good 5=phenomenal)

I'VE GOT THIS ALBUM NOW!

I heard that this wasn't as good as 'Selling England by the Pound' and then I heard the Amazon.com samples and thought "That sounds magnificent", so when I had an opportunity to buy this album, I GRASPED IT WITH BOTH HANDS. And my verdict? I don't like some of the lyrics. But the music is EXCELLENT. Just as good as Selling England By The Pound.



If you are wondering what the album sounds like, it perfectly straddles a middle line between folk and baroque, though the famous 'knife' is a fusion of 'baroque' and 'hard roque' ;-).



I think few people realise this is a concept album about the negative influences of Religion on society. I think the concept is taken a bit too far with many potshots taken at God but at least the concept makes the album interesting. The music is jsut terrific, and I think the song 'White mountain' has the potential to have been a pop hit, due to it's infectious chorus where Gabriel sings and there's a really infectious mellotron solo to complement him. The imagery conveyed in the instruments is very creative.



Visions of Angels has an amazing gospel chorus that sings a wonderful melody at the end, the finale to Stagnation is dramatic and infectious and the instrumentation near the start of the song, just after Gabriel has sung the first verse, is brilliant. The knife sounds like an ancient battle cry and does have some parrallels to the 'Doors' musically, the bluesy opener, 'Finding someone' has some terrific soloing too, as well as passionate vocals. Dusk is a gorgeous song which really captures the feeling of an approaching dusk with it's endearing guitar riff and the vocal choir of the whole band. All the songs are musically first class.

This one is not mentionned enough

This album has 2 of my favorite songs from Genesis. The frist being "White mountain", the music is beautiful, there is a lot of emotions in the lyrics and I am amused by the tongue gymnastic of the lyrics. My second is "The knife", the hard side of Genesis.



I do not agree with other reviewers when they qualify this album as not an easy listening album. Hate does already done pretentious prog phrases. I never needed time to get used to this album, it's melodious and mostly mellow.

What they were to become is all there to see and hear

Even though it was only their second album, Trespass is many miles ahead of From Genesis To Revelation. The songs on this are the fruits of their labors during the summer period when the five members all were living in the McPhail's cottage and practicing literally all day long. Phillips and Mayhew departed after this one - the former by his own choice (he developed bad stage fright, for one) and the latter by suggestion from the rest of the band. (He's not a bad drummer, but he really didn't provide much creative input.)

Some don't like Trespass because they think it's too simplistic, but in reality it's actually quite involved and shows a quantum leap in writing ability for five public school boys barely out of their teens. The delicate balance created through layered 12-string guitars, organ, flute, mellotron, and distant harmony vocals produced an innovative blend that oozes with pastoral atmospheres and melancholia and in places almost seems to stop time. The lyrics are also very involved, occasionally pretensious, sometimes cryptic, but often thought-provoking. Gabriel's personality is already coming into its own here - lots of color and emotion are on display.

MCA still owns the rights to this album in America, and they as yet haven't gotten around to remastering it, so if you care about quality, get the imported version.

Believe it when I say this is an excellent Genesis album from start to finish. I listen to this one perhaps more than some of the other Gabriel-era output because it has a unique and decidedly melancholy atmosphere about it that I love. Highly recommended.