The concept of the afterlife has fascinated not only the theologians, but also the artistic. Each person in history, using nearly the forms of artistic expression, has voiced the afterlife. A famous example which comes to mind is Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy, which portrays a journey thorugh hell (Inferno), purgatory (Purgatorio) and heaven (Paradiso). I'm not sure if Vangelis wanted this album to be representation of heaven and hell, but it turned out to be that way. It is a significant album because this was the first album made in Vangelis' Nemo Studios in London and the first Vangelis album released under the RCA label

[1] HEAVEN AND HELL PART ONE
It starts with the "Bacchanale" movement. A bacchanale is a type of dance where two "dance teams" "fight" with each other by outdoing each other. It involves a choir, synthesizers and percussion. Then, it changes to the "Symphony of the Powers" where a bunch of synthesizers and a choir is instantly transformed into a kind of celestial orchestra. There are bits of it that remind me of Shostakovich's Festive Overture and Camille Saint-Saëns' "The Pianists" from Carnival of the Animals. Then the next movement, commonly called "Movement 3," is the famous Cosmos theme where all the heaven shine and shows off its splendor.

[2] SO LONG AGO, SO CLEAR
This is the first song that Vangelis wrote with Jon Anderson (at the time was singing with 'yes'). This song is about looking at the past and how wonderful is all was. It is a song that can lift up your spirit and makes you soar. It seems to be a favorite of Vangelis (or his record labels) because it seems to make its way into compliation albums.

[3] HEAVEN AND HELL PART TWO
After feeling good with listening to this previous song, he starts you with feeling bad and uneasy with a bat-like sound and mood. You feel like you are inside a dark, unexplored cave (it makes my stomach turn while writing this!). Then, the mood is broken by a kind of dancing tune which could illustrate an assembly line (which the CTW show Sesame Street did do). Then, afterwards a mixture of choatic music and tribal sounds come to play (possibly illustrating a nuclear disaster). Then, the ray of hope (done nicely by Vana Veroutis) is displayed and everybody is ascending into heaven with their own Beatrice (from Dante's La Divine Commedia). Then, the cheery music comes along entitled "Aries" and then fades away.