CONTAGION

This was the first ARENA record I bought, after hearing the brilliant The hanging Tree from one of their other albums and I must admit, this is a great album. 'Great' might even be an understatement.

This record really grows on to you; I did not expect it to be quite as heavy as it appeared to be (knowing Mick Pointer only by his drumming on MARILLION's "Script for a Jester's Tear").

The way Witch Hunt opens really gives me goose bumps when listening to this record through my headphones, the whispering voices in the background make the music feel so much louder when the guitar's start to play and when Rob Sowden's vocals come in, you immediately feel the magic of this song.

Maybe a nice thing to say is that this is an concept album, that also explains a bit why most songs (a lot at least) run together, which results into the listener not noticing that the songs are not quite that long :)

The next song that is worth mentioning is Spectre at the Feast; it is a really nice composition especially Sowden's vocals and John Mitchell's guitars are nice in this song.

The guitar intro of On the Box (one of the in total 3 (!) instrumentals) sounds really nice; the guitar riff is repeated very quickly over a great sonic background. And the way the Morse code kicks in at the end of the song gives it a very abrupt ending, but it is superb! Surely this is one of the best songs on the album.

The final track Ascension is also a mention worthy, but that is actually only because of the great vocals, the composition itself is not quite that original and innovative.

Because I only mentioned these 4 four tracks (out of 16) does not mean that the rest of the songs are not any good, but you really have to listen to them before knowing what is so good about them instead of somebody telling you all the great aspects.

Just buy this record, you will not be disappointed!

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