ARENA

"Immortal?"

(Verglas England 55:20, 2000)

Arena has known how to maintain a style and a sound that it identifies it completely although it has suffered several changes of integral along its history. In the case of this album we meet with many of the traditional ingredients in Arena but cocktails with another pleasure and refinement. The tone of the new singer's voice, Rob Sowden, previous much of both is not distanced, but has a range of tones in their much wider registration.

The theme of opening of the disk "Chosen" takes the distinctive mark of Arena. It is a good opening like saying "this is Arena today", with strong guitars interpreted by John Hitchell and the whole band sounding to full. Toward the means of the theme a cut and a climate change that it lowers the intensity appears and we keep an acoustic guitar and the voice start up until finishing with the intensity of the principle again.

The second theme is "Waiting for the Flood" that is a theme of acoustic court with a delicate work in keyboards that he reminds us to Tony Banks with boxes of voices and strings. "The Butterfly Man" is a new vision of the Marillion with uppercase of the time of "Jigsaw" or "Incubus", the alone of guitar is spectacular, without stridencies, but with a remarkable force. The fourth topic calls himself "Ghost in the Farewell" and it begins with effects of keyboards, a very marked base and the distorted voice of Sowden, with a climate something zeppelian. Here it is noticed that Clive Nolan looked for a new concept in keyboards for this album changing the sound registrations that it habitually uses.

The fifth theme is a good diffusion court: "Climbing the Net" with a pleasant rhythm that he reminds us to the Tony Banks of "And then there were Three".

"Moviendrome", the sixth theme, is without place to doubts, the star of the album with a duration of 19 minutes. It begins with a celestial keyboard that breaks, and the trip begins; effects, distorted voices, acoustic guitars combined with electric, very marked bass interpreted by the exquisite Ian Salmón, Mick Pointer combines sounds of boxes with acoustic patches. It is as if each member played his until to the twelve minutes the band unites in an understood ascent toward the sky. In the letters there is well a combat between the wrong and the until achieving the redemption.

The album closes with "Friday`s Dream" in acoustic guitar to achieve a serene one final.

In definitive Arena has found a harder sound, without changing identity for force, simply putting each climate in their place. Without doubts, this new Arena is in its best artistic moment.

Sergio Vilar