THE VISITOR

Well, now we can see the sound of Arena really mature. If we could not avoid to name Marillion each time we talked about the previous albums, this one is going away from that influence, but not loosing quality at all!!! Otherwise, the album is perfect, a concept record, full of darkness and sadness. The Pink Floyd influences are more clear here, in the acoustic moments or the solo guitars, but also I must say Arena begins to create their own style. The sounds are shorter than the previous albums (in fact, there is no an epic long song here) but all of them are joined like part of an unity. "The Hanging Tree" is probably the best song of the album, tragical in each one of their seven minutes. And "State of Grace" sounds like we are hearing to the Evil Himself. All the songs are good, but is important to say is very difficult appreciate them if we hear each one of them like an island. Each song has got sense into the album and that is the way they must be appreciated. John Mitchell appears for first time in the guitar player role, and honestly is the perfect one for Arena. He is not just a guitar player; he helps to build the Arena sound before just build by Pointer and Nolan.