SONGS FROM THE LIONS CAGE

I can understand the impact this album might have had at the prog comunity in the mid 90´s, specially to Marillion fans. While the original Marillion was sinking fast in their alternative/pop new sound, here comes ex Marillion drummer Mick Pointer, when everybody thought he had retired from the music business, with a new project with Pendragon´s keyboards player that sounded a lot like Marillion in the good old times of vocalist Fish. OOHHHHH, how I wish I found out about this CD at the time!!! Ok, it was highly derivative, but also highly wonderful! It was like having ol´ Marillion back into life! Well, almost. In some aspects it was even better than the real thing.

After a few spins it was clear that no matter how much the band sounded like Marillion, it already had some personality and a big potential, specially at the songwriting department. Nolan and Pointer came up with some real classy stuff that are played even today live by the band (the stunning epics Salomon and Jericho). The duo surrounded themselves with other fine musicians, featuring Keith More on guitar, Cliff Orsi on bass and John Carson on vocals. This line up didn´t last long, but the results were great anyway. So much Arena would soon surpass any other of Nolan´s several side projects, including his former solo band Shadowland, in all aspects.

The production is good, while the tracklist is a killer, with no fillers nor weak songs to found anywhere. Even the short Crying For Help series of vignettes linking the main tunes is very interesting and work better than expected. Certainly it is no surprise that Nolan´s trademark majestic, elegant keyboards are all over the place, but More´s fluid, melodic guitar solos (obviously influenced by Pink Floyd´s David Gilmour) is also quite proeminent too. Pointer is another one to show he is a far better musician than I thought. Carson´s voice sounds uncanny like Fish sometimes, but he (Carson) has a wider range. Not very surprisingly Marillion´s guitarrist and leader steve Rothery makes a guest appearance on Crying For Help IV.

Personally, I´d like to give this record a 5 star rating, but since Arena did evolve into something totally of their own around the time of their third album, the magnificent The Visitor, I think it would be fair to say that, as good as it is, Songs From The Lion´s Cage, is a notch or two below their best because of the obvious Marillion overtones here. Still is an exceptional record: the powerful performances and the brilliant songwriting make it close to an essential masterpiece. So I guess 4.5 stars is more fitting for PA. This is a must have for any neo prog fan and is highly recommended to any prog lover in general.