WELCOME TO THE STAGE

This album leans heavily on their debut album "Songs from the lions cage". Except for "the crying for help" sections the complete album is played. The sound quality and production is of good standard (as is expected for this band). With only two songs the "Sirens" album however is not well represented.

Starting with a Rossinni composition (William Tell) is daring the listeners to make the comparison between Arena and Marillion. (Marillion started the "La Gazza Ladra" album with "La Gazza Ladra" by Rossinni).

Of course the epic masterpieces are played, both "Sirens" as "Solomon" are played with great precision and are as good on stage as they sounded on the studio recordings. And the same can be said about the rest of the setlist.

The only thing I missed is from "the cry" the instrumelal passages, so the overall impression of the band "live" is like listening to a progmetal band on occasion.

Overall it is a great album and a great adition to any neo-prog rock collection.