TEN YEARS ON 1995 - 2005

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A Prog-rock compilation album. What's up with that?!

I'm usually now a fan of compilation albums as a "real fan" would always prefer to have all original studio albums rather than just some compilation disc. Usually it also tends to reek after some "cashing in" by the artist as many artist come up with some compilation albums when they are long lost and forgotten.

In this case I think the words written above would be untrue, since ARENA isn't long lost and forgotten, on the contrary! I personally really liked their last studio album Pepper's Ghost and I hope and would assume they will continue to produce records for many years to come. So why would a compilation album be fair? Well, I think there's only two good reasons for it. The 1st would be the commercial motive as already mentioned. The 2nd one would be a way for newcomers to ARENA to explore there music and I think only this reason can be justified.

So how can I review an album that I don't have and have no intention of getting? Well, by the track list of course! And I would say the track list is chosen quite smartly. However: tracks like The Hanging Tree and Crack In The Ice (which happen to be my favourite tracks of The Visitor ) seem to be really misplaced on a compilation album as they were originally part of on of the best concept albums of the nineties, which all songs fading in and out of each other.

Conclusion: Recommended to anyone who doesn't know ARENA yet. Not recommended to anyone who already has a few albums of ARENA. Just save some money to get all their original studio albums, since they are all really worth it!

Rating: For the track list alone probably 4 stars, but I will only give 3 for the effort by the band. (Which was almost non-existent, since all songs had already been made.)

To celebrate Arena's tenth anniversary, Verglas (their record company, owned by Clive and Mick) decided to market this compilation which is a nice journey though their six studio albums. Actually, it is the first of that kind so far.

On this compilation, there is a good (and extended) live version for "Chosen", a new version of "Empire Of Thousand Days" with Rob on vocals (I personally, preferred the original version). Each track is very good of course but some great anthems of the band are forgotten like "Jericho", "Sirens", "Fool's Gold " and more recently "Opera Fanatica" from their sublime last studio release "Pepper & Ghost".

Of course, we can console with "Solomon"...I understand that an Arena compilation is not easy to put together. On their earliest albums, several very long songs were featured, while later on they will release two concept albums which is always difficult to compile. So, I guess, we'll have to live with this one.

I honestly would recommend more their live albums which were real "best of". "Welcome To The Stage" + "Welcome Back !" (representing all the interesting numbers from their first two albums ("Lions Cage" and "Pride") as well as "Breakfast in Biarritz " ("Visitor & Immortal" oriented). "Live & Life" was a double album, which was more a kaleidoscope of their whole discography (disc II) while disc I was fully concentrated on "Contagion".

Three stars but only for Arena's newbies. I would say to the old Arena fans, that the numbers which are different than the originals, do not justify to buy this album.