THE UNQUIET SKY

Arena was formed in 1994 by Mick Pointer, the former drummer of Marillion, and Clive Nolan, the former keyboardist of Pendragon. With nearly as many line up changes, Arena was one of the dominant neo-prog groups of the 90's. Arena is a supergroup of sorts and has featured all over the years former members of Marillion, Pendragon, IQ, and Shadowland.

Their debut album 'Songs From The Lions Cage' was a strong neo-prog debut with aggressive playing that brought comparisons to Fish-era Marillion and contained lengthy tracks with long guitar and synth solos. It was followed by 'Pride', which built upon the sound the band had begun on their first album. Their third album 'The Visitor' is a concept album that found the band shortening their songs. Their fourth and fifth albums, 'Immortal?' and 'Contagion', were a move into a darker and heavier direction for Arena. Their sixth album 'Pepper's Ghost' is a dark and beautiful album with seven strange stories. Their seventh and eighth albums, 'The Seventh Degree Of Separation' and 'The Unquiet Sky', show a new change in Arena with more short tracks and is closer to prog metal, mainly due to the vocals.

'The Unquiet Sky' is based on a fantastic short story by M.R. James whose story takes place in 1911. The line up on 'The Unquiet Sky' is Paul Manzi (vocals), John Mitchell (backing vocals and guitars), Clive Nolan (backing vocals and keyboards), Kylan Amos (bass) and Mick Pointer (drums).

The first track 'The Demon Strikes' is a classical very recognisable Arena's opening. It has the classic rhythm of the band with great guitars, nice keyboards and dramatic vocals, creating the atmosphere that will follow throughout the album. The second track 'How Did It Come To This?' is an intense powerful ballad. It has great vocals, one of the rare guitar solos in the middle and a beautiful background piano and arrangements. This is one of the most emotional songs on the album. The third track 'The Bishop Of Lufford' is one of the highlights on the album. It's atmospheric with many breaks and harder passages. It features a bombastic intro, followed by some breath taking guitar solos and excellent orchestral passages. The forth track 'Oblivious To The Night' is a short track mastered by typewriter strums and piano, plus tender vocals by Manzi. This is almost a quiet interlude between the previous and the following track. The fifth track 'No Chance Encounter' is a dark bombastic number with a good, melodic guitar solo and various sound samples with the darkness and the hardest sounds mixed in different rhythms. It also shows that Arena has harmonious choruses. The sixth track 'Markings On A Parchment' is an instrumental mainly produced by acoustic guitar sounds. It's a kind of a short essay where a little more pace is taken out, before you put a little more steam into the flowing title track. The seventh track is the title track 'The Unquiet Sky'. It begins slowly and calmly and builds up melodically in a typical Arena's style. It's a great theme with leisurely pace, perfect vocal performance, a great chorus and nice guitar work that appears facing the masterful keyboard work of Nolan. The eighth track 'What Happened Before', the piano is the common thread of the work, which is really great, but that disappears in the last part, in which the instruments burst in unison. It's a cinematic reminiscent of the epic instrumental finale. The ninth track 'Time Runs Out' is the rocker of the album. Here, Nolan can presents his repertoire more clearly with synths at the beginning and Mellotron sounding in between. Sometimes the vocals sound dramatically distorted. The tenth track 'Returning The Curse' remains in the style of the previous songs, but it's also here where Nolan's musical skills shine the most, since it incorporates a fantastic keyboard work in the best typical neo-prog style. The eleventh track 'Unexpected Dawn' is a strong ballad with a cheerful warm Hammond organ work and a relaxing acoustic guitar work too. It offers a more optimistic tone, as can be seen in the title itself or in the lyrics. The twelfth track 'Traveller Beware' is the lengthiest track on the album with staccato rhythms, marching sounds, quite straight prog sections and breaks that work towards the bombastic finale. It shows the aspects that makes of Arena such a special band, theatrics, changes of pace and powerful melodies.

Conclusion: With 'The Unquiet Sky', Arena rediscovers the path of a progressive accessible to the greatest number carried by the melodies, demonstrating with class that it's possible to produce titles with short durations without sinking into monotony. It's true that we will not find here a big originality, but the hearing happiness can also be satisfied with melodies and harmonies which catch the ear. In short, it brings us many things that are good in Arena's sound. It took some time to me to discover how rich it is, musically speaking. 'The Unquiet Sky' shows that the band is still on the rise and their creation still becomes better over time. For me, this album is a step up in comparison to its predecessor. Not as good as my favourite albums 'The Visitor' and 'Contagion', but a must have for every Arena's fan and other proggers. It's recommended for fans of the British prog rock music in the vein of Marillion, Pendragon and IQ.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

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