CONTAGION

This album is the follow-up to 2000's 'Immortal?' and sees Arena with the same line-up of Clive Nolan (keys/vocals), Rob Sowden (lead vocals), John Mitchell (guitar/vocals), Ian Salmon (bass) and Mick Pointer (drums). It is a concept album concerning a search for salvation through a dark and foreboding vision of the future. Apart from the striking artwork by David Wyatt, the one thing that stands out on this album is the sheer intensity of the work as a whole. Some bands think that everything has to be turned up to the max, but they often miss the dramatic edge which this album has in abundance.

This is a step forward for Arena; they have raised the stakes and dare others within the prog field to follow. They have moved more into the prog metal area while at the same time staying far removed from bands such as Threshold. This is an album that is keyboard-led, as would be expected from one of Clive's bands, but when the guitars are there they are crunching and when they are not there is the anticipation and edge that they will soon be back. It gives the album a sense of drama which is heightened by the way that the music swirls and moves through themes, returning to ideas and moving on in different ways. It takes a strong vocalist to stand out against all that is going on and Rob Sowden knows when he has to take control with strong soaring vocals or when the time is right to be more emotional. He is at home when singing with just a piano or when he is fronting an all out rock band.

When Arena are in full flight they are a sight to be heard and the production by Clive Nolan and John Mitchell gives the sound the quality that it deserves. There are times when this album is multi-tracked acoustic guitars and pure venom from John while at others this is a prog band that have let loose the hounds and are running at full pelt. With 'Contagion' Arena have thrown down the gauntlet and are daring others within this area to follow. Intense, majestic, theatrical, powerful, full of visual imagery, I don't know how to convey the sheer wonder of this album. Visit www.verglas.com for more details.

I will be interviewing Clive in the next issue of Feedback (for the first time for many years), but he has already told me that this album has had the highest pre-sales of any Arena album to date and has been in the national album charts in Germany as well as top 10 in the independent releases chart in Holland. This really is a great album.

Originally appeared in Feedback #72, Feb 03