IMMORTAL?

Arena's fourth studio offering marks the debut of vocalist Rob Sowden, who has a similar voice to his predecessor, maybe sounding a bit less like Fish, and adding a touch of vibrato that fits perfectly with the somber atmosphere of this album. The sound here changes a bit from previous albums, being heavier and darker. The individual performances are almost all excelent, except for Mick Pointer, who has evolved from his old Script days, but not quite enough, especially if we take into acount the great work of Clive Nolan ( A master of melody and harmony), some brilliant solos by John Mitchell and the masterful bass work of Ian Salmon. At least the electronic drums sound better here than in the previous album. Opener Chosen is just an average hard rock song, with a riff that reminds me of Dio's Sacred Heart. Then we have Waiting for the flood, which at the beginning strongly reminds me of Spandau Ballet's Through the barricades, but then in the middle has a section that resembles Queensryche's Silent lucidity. Nothing special so far, but then we head into which is in my opinion the best Arena song ever (alongside The Hanging tree), The butterfly man. I must admit that I have no idea of who this human lepidoptera might be, but he seems to be someone quite evil, and Sowden sings it in a really convincing way. Maybe he's even worse that the slenderman, who knows!. But returning to the song, has parts in 6/8, 7/8 and 4/4, and all of them are great. And the lead guitar hooks are beatiful. Next comes Ghost in the firewall, with its opressive mood, starting with a delayed synth bass that gives it a Pink Floyd flavour. A very good one, indeed. sadly from there we are taken into Climbing the net, which sounds like a takeout from Script for a Jester's tears, even with a title that's in a way reminiscent of The web. Moviedrome with its almost 20 minutes is supposed to be the masterpiece here, but I must admit that the song never really takes off and it could do with a few minutes less. It has some interesting parts, anyway. And in the end we are left with Friday's dream, a beautiful ballad that closes the album in a very pleasant way. A really interesting album, the best among the ones I heard from Arena.