XX

Paul Manzi is the best vocalist Arena has ever had.

I've been sick in bed for a week, so the fact that the new Arena DVD arrived in the mail today was a cause for celebration in a pretty crappy week. Being, as mentioned, sick at home, I put it in for a spin almost immediately, and I wasn't sorry. You see, I didn't get the last DVD because I was so disappointed with the Smoke & Mirrors one and I'd basically decided to only get the studio albums anymore. But when I saw that this one was going to have Moviedrome (one of my favorite songs ever) I preordered it immediately and here we are.

Enough of that; let's talk about the DVD. Understandably, the budget for the filming (once again in Poland) doesn't seem to have been very high. The lighting's pretty crappy and so is the resolution. The camera work is ok, but has the tendency to not show the musicians playing their solos, which can get frustrating. The thing is, from reading John Mitchell's Facebook posts, the tour doesn't seem to have been either very lucrative or particularly enjoyable for those involved (I'd pay good money to find out which Gentle Storm member apparently tried to kick them out of the shared dressing room...). From what I gleaned from John's posts, shows weren't very well attended and spirits were low, and you can kind of see this in the DVD ( (I personally couldn't make it here in Germany because the show was way too far away for me). The only ones that seem to be actually enjoying the experience are newcomers Manzi and Kylan Amos on bass.

That said, and having gotten the "negative" stuff out of the way, the performances on this DVD are generally top-class. Manzi shines both on his songs and on the classics. His voice is less whiny than Paul Wrightson's and more powerful than Rob Sowden's, with the power and drama of both combined. He barely misses a note here, and his rasp is also welcome. As mentioned, he adds some much needed energy and humor to the show, as the core of Clive, Mick and John smile maybe twice during the whole show between the lot of them.

The setlist is excellent. It took me a while to get into The Unquiet Sky, but the tracks from that album really shine here with Manzi. I'm actually sorry I didn't get the version with the CD, because now I want to listen to this concert on the stereo. Well, tough luck. After two very well played Visitor songs, we get to the long-awaited moment: Moviedrome on a live DVD. Up to now, the only live version was on the Breakfast at Biarritz album, and I always wished I could actually see it being performed. The one time I met Clive Nolan in Chile at a terribly attended Caamora show (seriously, it was pretty much me, my dad, and a few stoners), I asked him if he was ever going to play this live again, and he wasn't too optimistic. Luckily, as Clive explains during the concert, I wasn't the only one requesting it and finally they decided to record it for a DVD. Man, this apocalyptic masterpiece of a song has everything (including possibly Clive Nolan's best lyrics ever), and they pull it off admirably, even though you can tell they weren't as "at ease" with it as with the rest of the material.

At this point I have to say that the one guy who definitely isn't on top of his game here is Clive Nolan. John and Mick miss a beat every once in a while and John hits a few wrong notes, but mainly they're prett solid. Clive, on the other hand, doesn't really do a lot of his solos justice (Salamander?) and seems to have a lot of timing problems. I can't know what was going on while he was playing (bad monitor?) and anybody can have a bad night, but I get the impression that the maestro was kind of distracted. My two cents: The man has written so much great music, but unfortunately most of it is underrated and I can imagine it's not easy making a living playing progressive rock if you're not Dream Theater or Rush. But I digress and it's pretty ridiculous to try and psychoanalyse a guy based on his live show.

Back to the music: Manzi is excellent on the melancholic How Did it Come to This?, and the version of Bedlam Fayre is the best one I've ever heard (despite John's mistakes). It's weird for a song other than The Hanging Tree to follow Serenity, but The Unquiet Sky is a strong track with memorable vocal melodies and it's also sung flawlessly by Mr. Manzi. I'm really glad the mix on this album is good. You can hear everybody clearly (Clive Nolan was only miming on Smoke & Mirrors amirite?), and the harmony vocals by Nolan and Mitchell are very good and make you wish there were more a capella moments like when they sing "moving deeper into the land" on THT. Of course, John is an excellent lead vocalist in his own right. I have to admit I've been on something of a Lonely Robot/It Bites/Frost binge lately, and I can't help getting the impression he's happier on those projects than here. I mean seriously, the guy looks downright miserable at times here. But again I digress. Luckily he's a pro and his chops don't suffer.

Next, another one of Arena's great classics, The Hanging Tree, is performed beautifully. This song and John Mitchell's solos are so freaking good; I could listen to this all day. Next we get the only 7th-Degree track on the DVD: The Tinder Box. It's generally considered one of Arena's weaker albums, so it's not surprising they focused on other material. The song is really good, though; nice and heavy.

I have to admit that I skipped Solomon. I mean, it's good, but since I'm a "post-Visitor" fan and I only listened to the first two albums later I don't have that nostalgic obsession some Arena fans seem to have with the track. "Don't forget to breathe" (what's with the capitalization?) is a concert favorite for a reason and Manzi dons the customary top hat for the piece.

Of course, there are dozens of songs I could have wished to have seen on this DVD, but with Arena there's definitely a lot to choose from, and I think they put together the setlist very well. If I were rich I'd pay them to drop Solomon and play Opera Fanatica on their next tour (something I'm sure they'd be loathe to do considering the amount of work it would probably take to arrange and rehearse it). The DVD finishes as usual with the catchy "Help Me Heeeeelp Me Whooooaoaoaoa Help Me" (also known by its more boring title Crying for Help VII). This song's a friggin ear worm as the krauts say. It'll stay in your head for days.

All in all this DVD is a must for fans of the band. If you're not one then you probably stopped reading this a long time ago anyways.

Playing the Moviedrome

Filmed in Katowice, Poland in April 2015, XX (20 in Roman numerals) celebrates Arena's 20th anniversary. The line up is essentially the same as that which recorded the excellent "Rapture" DVD in 2011 (released in 2013), with Kylan Amos replacing John Jowitt on bass. Several tracks from the fine new album "The unquiet sky" are included, but the set list spans pretty much the entire career of the band, with "The visitor" and "Immortal" albums featuring strongly.

Indeed the highlight is arguably the wonderful rendition of the 20 minute "Moviedrome" (from "Immortal"). Clive Nolan, who is much more to the fore between the songs than usual, explains that the complexity of the track meant that the band had never intended for it to become part of the live set, but persistent requests from fans persuaded them to do so. The result is a live opus that will surely become a staple of the live set to match epics such as Yes' "And you and I" or Genesis "Firth of fifth". It may be Nolan's recent experiences in presenting his rock musicals that have led to him now introducing some of the songs, but whatever the reasons, his anecdotes and relaxed chat greatly enhance an already spell-binding gig.

The new songs fit is well with the more established ones, with tracks such as "The demon strikes" and "The unquiet sky" bearing all the tenets of classic Arena numbers. Special mention needs to be made of the unique atmosphere created by Clive Nolan's multi-layered keyboards and John Mitchell's mesmerising lead guitar work. For my money, Mitchell is one of the best lead guitarists of his generation.

The accompanying interviews with co-founders Clive Nolan and Mick Pointer are worth a look too. Nolan is particularly candid in his comments, explaining among many other things, the song-writing and recording processes of the band.

It goes without saying that the filming of the gig and the sound quality is everything we would expect from the Metal Mind team, who once again set the standard from DVDs such as this.

My warped sense of humour was tickled by a Spinal Tap" like moment during the gig when Vocalist Paul Manzi proudly announces "here's a track from our new album" to be met with complete silence, although this is enthusiastically rectified by the audience after the rendition!

Overall, a wonderful presentation by a band at the top of their game. Recommend both as an introduction to the band, and equally as a superb addition for the already converted.

This DVD was not recorded in the usual venue from the Metal Productions team. The stage and the venue is a lot smaller. The light show doesn't have that same quality of the previous Arena's DVDS which is a shame, Is the band less popular these days? I heard that this tour was not a success. Maybe they could not fill the usual bigger venue. First thing that strike me watching this is how the red light make everything blurry. You can think that this was filmed with standard definition cameras. Also the camera work is questionable at times being late focusing on solo playing. I will be more positive with the audio and the performance in general. The sound and the playing are good and the inclusion of the epic "Moviedrome" in the set is a welcome addition. The 4 tracks of the new album didn't bring the same positive impression i had listening to the latest cd. The only others real highlights of that show is the other epic "Solomon", the song "Hanging Tree" and the video intro in the Hitchcock style of horror movie Maybe the band wanted to imitate Rush with this old venue that looks like made for a small band with no budget, but the difference is that here, you have to watch this thing for two painful hours and that it's for real. I don't recommend this for those who don't have anything about this band in DVD, buy the previous or only the 2cd audio.

* Review for CD and DVD media formats.

Absolutely Appalling A&R.

To be clear, this is one of the worst recorded live albums I have heard in quite some time, which makes it impossible for me to personally and fully enjoy the music that is being played because the audio recording really is just that bad! For me, It doesn't matter how great the music actually is because when you have shotty, 3rd rate audio production it seems to take over and my love or attachment to whatever I am listening to is completely thrown out the window...a lost cause if you will.

Moreover to be known to all, I love Arena. This is a band that has 'wowed' me in every possible respect musically with in their what is now, a 20-year history. They have been one of those few bands that have remained blemish free with in their entire studio album discography and including live albums as well...until now.

Enter Dos Equis. Yes those hideous, blown up double X's that defecate on what was once a beautiful album cover, slapped right in the middle and below the album's actual cover art. Even from doing a half-fast hatchet job like this for the album's overall presentation, you know this could be the start of something quite poor...that is quality wise. Long story short, my initial feelings on this were right because the heart of the matter, which is the audio itself, is created with no love or care at all like the album cover art, sadly.

To begin with, the overall Dos Equis recording really does sound like it was recorded from up in a tree. I really don't understand the mic tracking placement for this album because the soundstage is so unbelievably squished and It really does sound like I'm listening to a piece of music set up in a horribly compressed lounge chamber. I just can't believe my ears and I'm so disappointed because I love Arena and I think the set list they chose is awesome and it has great flow, but I just can't enjoy it or even remotely tell if Arena is actually delivering an emotionally or memorable live performance, musically. Here's the thing. I understand that this album was recorded at a very small venue in Poland that is primarily a movie theatre, but if you are an A&R guy you should really do your homework with in the subject of Psychoacoustics and understand the steps and measures you need to take in order to record an album properly by treating the room for sound diffusion and establishing risks of echo flutter as well as under going proper microphone placement, which is that of a big one! I mean poor Mick Pointer's drums sound so compressed and lifeless that his cymbal crashes sound like pure and utter distortion. Paul Manzi's vocals are treated terribly. His presence is so far away and hollow like he is shrouded with in a cave, while Kaylin Amos's bass has absolutely no low end shimmer or feeling. It's completely flat and lifeless. Clive Nolan's keyboards have no stage presence or any punch with in the overall mix of the album. I don't hear those interesting, shadowy nuances that usually burst so much character into the flow of what is known as Arena's trademark sound. There is nothing to be found here!

Mainly, we have to look at the culprits. The A&R team for Metal Mind Productions are Michal Kuczera for the recording Engineer position. Prosound software and EQ'ing (PA) Jaroslaw Kaszyński and the mixing was done by Karl Groom, who is the only one who can be excused from the list because it's not his fault. If an album is recorded like a turgid disaster, you can't expect your album mixer to save it or make the album sound any better than how it was originally recorded in the first place. Overall, I cannot recommend anyone to purchase the CD version of this live album. It's a half fast production in just about every way that is conceivable. The album was recorded in April of 2015 and released in February of 2016, so that should give you a pretty good idea of how fast XX was slapped together....I really do mean 'slapped..'

Mainly, Arena have to examine and clean house of their A&R team at Metal Mind as well as maybe drop the label because their last DVD done in 2012 (The Rapture) was not any better. The CD version however, was actually done quite lovely for the Rapture, but to talk further about both DVD versions is mainly upsetting. For both The Rapture and XX the 5.1 mix is so boring and not dynamic at all. I hear hardly anything passing through my left and right surround rear channels. The mix for both DVD's exist mainly at the front left, right channels with very little pouring out of the center channel. Above all, there is just no immersion or dynamic channel separation. Piotr Brzeziński is the main man responsible for the 5.1 codec mix, and I feel once again a little cheated by the quality of what comes out and passes through my home theater system audio wise and of course the video isn't very good either. I mean would it kill Arena and Metal Mind to release a bloody blu-ray for once! Come on! This is 2016 for entertainment's sake! How about celebrating 20-years properly?

Thus, the DVD version of XX Isn't any better nor is it a saving grace somehow. Arena need a new label and should start doing right by themselves by hiring a quality team of video and A&R Specialists to represent what a quality band Arena truly are. There is no doubt in my metal mind, that as far as Neo Prog with a metallic edge goes? Arena are second to none. What a shame that 20-years couldn't be represented in a more professional manner by their record label. This really is upsetting and is exactly why I personally put so much weight and importance into proper audio engineering or the art and science behind sound recording in general cause this live album is a perfect example of how great music can be greatly misrepresented. A&R is a bit of a thankless job in the music business, so this album is yet another perfect example as to why we should appreciate the Alan Parsons, the Andy Jackson's, the Terry Brown's and the mastering capabilities of the Bob Ludwig's with in audio engineering/production world. All I can say to you healthy listeners out there, that if you like how an album sounds to you look at the album credits. Look at the names of the individuals who have brought your music to life! You may see them, like I do, as actual members of the band because of their value.

In conclusion, I can award Dos Equis no points for the CD version and may god have mercy on its soul. However the DVD format is a slightly better experience, but still mediocre at best.

2 X's.