SONGS FROM THE LIONS CAGE

Arena is one of my preferred Neo-prog band. On this album, all songs are composed by Mick Pointer (ex-Marillion) and Clive Nolan (a great songwriter and a keyboard player I like very much). Rothery will even be featured on the guitar on a small piece in this album (but what a solo!). Clive and Mick are ther cement of this very good band (studio or live - I've seen them once in our prog Mecca in Belgium : Spirit Of 66 - thanks Francis). They are still in the line-up as I write this review.

The album structure is a bit strange : some long numbers interrupted by the "Crying For Help" theme.

The opener is a brilliant number. It is a complex song with an extraordinary intro : Floydian background, Crimson hypnotic guitar riff. Very promising, indeed. This is a typical Arena song. Very strong and powerful. Carson sounds at times as Fish when he tries to match his so delicate and subtle voice. This is probably the number during which the Marillion filiation is the more obvious (especially in the wonderful final section).

The first "Crying For Help" is an acoustic guitar interlude that reminds me of "Mood For A Day" (Yes) or "Horizons" (Genesis).

"Valley Of The King" is not as good as the opener, but still features a great Nolan on the keyboards. He is really amazing. The tortured vocals, are rather Gabriel oriented. A good song but a bit of additional "grandeur" would have been welcomed. The number lacks a bit in personality. An orgy of keyboards is not always sufficient to make a great song.

"Crying II" : sounds as a medieval madrigal. One could easily imagine the picturesque scene of the some noble ladies listening to a group of troubadour during the the middle ages. Very light music (like Tull at times).

The start of "Jericho" is extremely melodic. Carson sounding as ... Carson who is pretty good by the way. This is a very nice and quiet song which evolves to a similar sound (around half of it) as in "Eleven Earl Of Mar". The finale is truely bombastic and sounds finally as Arena. They should keep on like that, really.

"Crying III" : sounds 100% like Land's End. Same ocean-like -oriented music. Only perturbated at the end by a telephone ring, then a joke : "This is the problem line, we're not in right now, so please leave a message". Nice break to relax.

It fades into "Midas Vision", which is a catchy and poppier song. On the heavier edge of the band. The guitar break is fully Gilmouresque. This is another good song from this rather encouraging debut.

"Crying IV" : is a very mellowish and melancholic track for most of its part. It truely sounds miserable for about three minutes. And then, we'll have this fantastic guitar solo from Mr. Steve Rothery himself. Really brilliant. Again, David is around the corner.

The best track of the album is : "Solomon". Arena will be used to produced a brilliant closing numbers.

The first guitar break is made of pure Floydian sounds (Gilmour era). Fortunately is sounds as Arena during the vocal sections. It is rather grandiose and bombastic during the long and powerful finale. This will be a trademark of the band for other epics to come. This long piece of music (almost fifteen minutes) is extremely pleasant and varied. By no means boring for a second. Two-third of it are really personal and defines the Arena style.

This first album indicates that they had not yet made a choice about their future sound. They hesitate between Marillion, Floyd and Genesis which is fine with me since those are ones of my most beloved bands. This first album, still is very good; Arena will need some time to develop their genre. They will have a long career (still in progress) which I will be delighted to comment all the way through.

Four stars for these very good debut.