IMMORTAL?

This certainly exceeded my expectations. Good to see Karl Groom involved as one of the engineers. This would turn out to be the most mellotron laden release of ARENA's catologue with only the last track not using it.

"Chosen" opens with a buzzing noise and percussion of some sort before the riffing and mellotron floods take over. Clive Nolan does such a good job as usual on the keys.This is a fantastic tune and a great way to open the album. "Waiting For The Flood" opens with acoustic guitar and reseved vocals. The chorus features a more upbeat sound with strummed guitar and hopeful lyrics. The mellotron is a nice touch to this beautiful tune."The Butterfly Man" has a good keyboard melody throughout and the vocals are passionate in the chorus. The guitar from Mitchell just soars beautifully and he adds an awesome solo 3 minutes in as well. The song gets heavy with drums and mellotron for a short time before getting back to the main melody.

"Ghost In The Firewall" is an atmospheric tune that reminded me of PINK FLOYD. "Climbing The Net" is an uptempo song that reminded me of the drummer's former band MARILLION. This one doesn't move me like the first three tracks though. "Moviedrome" is almost 20 minutes long and has many twists and turns from the haunting intro to the heavy drums and guitars. There is a good contrast between the mellow and the bombastic passages. And how about Mitchell's guitar playing ! His playing is ear candy ! We also get some good piano melodies from Clive. "Friday's Dream" is a nice ballad with acoustic guitar.

I have to say that Rob Sowden does a tremendous job in his debut with ARENA, his vocals are great and so is "Immortal ?"