Aphrodite's Child - 666 (1972, Polydor)

Aphrodite's Child was a Greek progressive rock band formed in 1967, by Vangelis Papathanassiou (keyboards), Demis Roussos (bass guitar and vocals), Loukas Sideras (drums and vocals), and Anargyros "Silver" Koulouris (guitar). Their band's name was derived from the title of a track from another Mercury act, Dick Campbell, from his Sings Where It's At album.

Papathanassiou and Roussos, both cousins, had already been successful in Greece (playing in the bands Formynx and Idols respectively) while they got together with Sideras and Koulouris to form a new band. Their first recording as a band was for George Romanos' album In Concert and in Studio where they played on four songs and were credited as 'Vangelis and his Orchestra'. In the same year they recorded a two song demo and submitted it to Philips Records.

The band began to record their next outpouring late in 1970: a musical adaptation of the biblical Book of Revelation, entitled 666. Koulouris, having finished his Greek army duty rejoined the band. However, relations between all the band members were not good at the time, and continued to worsen during the album's creation.

Essentially, 666 was Vangelis' concept, created with an outside lyricist, Costas Ferris. The music that Vangelis was creating for 666 was much more psychedelic and progressive rock oriented than anything the band had done before. This did not sit well with the other band members, who wished to continue in the pop direction that had brought them success. Furthermore, Roussos was being groomed for a solo career, and recorded his first solo single We Shall Dance (with Sideras on drums), and his first solo album On the Greek Side of My Mind, whereas Vangelis recorded the score for L'Apocalypse des animaux and worked on a single with his girlfriend Vilma Ladopoulou, performing with Koulouris using the pseudonym 'Alpha Beta'.

By the time the double album 666 finally was released in June 1972, and having sold over 20 million albums, the band had already split. Both Vangelis and Roussos pursued successful solo careers, Roussos as a pop singer and Vangelis first in electronic music, then in movie soundtracks, which made him a successful film score composer of the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s (decade), having penned such titles as 1982's Ridley Scott's Blade Runner and 2004's Oliver Stone's Alexander among many others. Koulouris worked with both on occasion. Sideras pursued a less successful solo career, releasing an album and the single Rising Sun after the break-up then disappearing into obscurity.

(C) Wikipedia.

I want to add that Michael Cretu quoted several bits from this album into his Enigma project first album "MCMXC a.D.". Those bits were extracted from signed tracks with a *.

Side One:

1. The System
2. Babylon
3. Loud, Loud, Loud
4. The Four Horsemen
5. The Lamb
6. The Seventh Seal (*)

Side Two:

1. Aegian Sea
2. Seven Bowls (*)
3. The Wakening Beast
4. Lament
5. The Marching Beast
6. The Battle of the Locusts
7. Do It
8. Tribulation
9. The Beast
10. Ofis

Side Three:

1. Seven Trumpets
2. Altamont
3. The Wedding of the Lamb
4. The Capture of the Beast
5. Hic et Nunc

Side Four:

1. All The Seats Were Occupied
2. Break

According to Rate Your Music, this is the list of complete releases of "666" album:

[GF] - Gatefold
[AC] - Alternate cover
[CD SAR] - CD Sized Album Replica
[LE] - Limited Edition
[RM] - Remastered
[RI] - Re-issue

1972 - 666 [33 rpm], [AC], [GF] - Vinyl LP - UK - Vertigo - 6641 581
1972 - 666 [33 rpm], [GF] - Vinyl LP - UK - Vertigo - 6333 500 / 501
1972 - 666 [33 rpm], [GF] - Vinyl LP - France / Germany - Vertigo - 6673001
1972 - 666 [GF] - Vinyl LP - USA - Vertigo - VEL 2-500
1972 - Break [AC] - Vinyl LP - Brazil - Vertigo - 6333 502
1974 - 666 [33 rpm], [GF] - Vinyl LP - Greece - Vertigo - 6673001
1976 - 666 [GF] - Vinyl LP - Japan - Vertigo - SFX-10014-5
1983 - 666 [33 rpm], [GF] - Vinyl LP - Japan - Vertigo - 15PP-29~30
1989 - 666 - CD - Japan - Vertigo - PPD-3039~40
1989 - 666 - CD - Europe - Vertigo - 838 430-2
1996 - 666 - CD - One Way - OW 31375
1996 - 666 - CD - Japan - Phonogram - PHCR-16105~6
2004 - 666 [CD SAR], [GF], [LE], [RI], [RM] - CD - Japan - Universal Japan - UICY-9373/4
2??? - 666 - Vinyl LP - Japan - Vertigo - RJ 5038/9

Available on Amazon, iTunes, Rhapsody, 7-Digital and major online mp3 stores at the net. Also available for direct listening via legal streaming services as Deezer and Spotify.